A new strategy. From The Observer, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:
Islamic militants have conducted dry runs of a devastating new style of bombing on aircraft flying to Europe, intelligence sources believe. The tactics, which aim to evade aviation security systems by placing only components of explosive devices on passenger jets, allowing militants to assemble them in the air, have been tried out on planes flying between the Middle East, North Africa and Western Europe, security sources say.Concerns that militants might assemble a bomb or another weapon on board were a key factor in the series of recent cancellations of transatlantic flights. Last weekend British Airways stopped flights from London to Washington and Miami for fear of an attack and Air France also cancelled scheduled flights.
Security agencies are now hunting scores of militants who have been trained in the new tactics. The warning, passed to Western agencies by Middle Eastern intelligence services, is based on interrogations of Islamic militants captured in the Arabian Gulf and is corroborated by intercepted communications between terrorist cells and interviews with prisoners held by the US government at Guantanamo Bay.
Officials in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere are believed to have warned that at least 12dry runs may have been completed and to have said that the terrorists are aiming to try out their plans on flights around the Mediterranean and the Middle East before attempting to bomb a transatlantic route, where security precautions are now very tight. Militants know that individual components are far easier to smuggle through airport security than an assembled bomb.
In May 2002 nearly 100 grammes of pentrite, a plastic explosive used by the alleged shoe bomber Richard Reid, was found hidden in the armrest of a Moroccan jet when it landed in Metz, France. At the time, investigators said they thought it had been put there as a warning. Now French officials suspect the explosives were placed on the jet as a trial of the new tactics. Though some investigators fear they may be the victim of deliberate 'disinformation', officials say that they cannot risk ignoring the warnings.
Adela,
The fact that we didn't (destroy Mecca) is what makes the west a less medieval culture. As you know, the Temple is now Al-Aqsa Mosque, Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, the head of Orthodox Christianity, is also a mosque, and countless other holy places have been destroyed and/or converted to islamic monuments.
I don't think bombing Mecca would solve anything, except make a few billion people even more furious at us. However, we have the right to demand and force reform in the Islamic world and not back out until Islam begins to critically examine itself. This means establishing and promoting radical change in Islam, starting with civil and equal rights for women. Sort-of a Kemal Ataturk approach.. :-)
To reform islam,means to erase it completely and start from scratch.
To take out from the Quran the passages about killing the infidels,would mean to renounce the whole book.
Recently ,the governments of Kuwait and Saudi Arabia have stated that they will not move,"not even an inch,from the principles of pure islam,and whoever does not like it ,to leave our country"...what about that?!
How do you plan to change them,when they don`t want to be changed,they reather want to change us or to anyhilate us?!
Wiping out Mecca would make them angry at us?!
They are already angry,they already killing us,no matter what.
No animal will attack a cobra or a scorpion,not even a lion or a tiger...because they know it is a deadly proposition.
Anyone who dares to attack us ,should know it is a deadly situation which could bring about their total anyhilation.
Just like Christianity and Judaism have many variations, however small, so does Islam. Not all Muslims are extremists, not all Muslim women want to wear the veil, and there are millions of Muslims who are completely secular, just like millions of secular Christians and Jews.
I think the main danger in Islam (as in every religion) is absolutism. Saudi Arabia does promote their version of Islam as the absolute truth. This is happening in the U.S. as well, where most mosques are funded by S.A. I think there are many things we can do to put a stop to this. We have hate-speech laws (which we do not enforce), we have incitement-to-murder laws (which could put a few imams in jail for a while), and we could pressure our government to re-examine our relationship with regimes who promote murder and genocide (see Friday sermons in Saudi Arabia).
adela,
then what is your solution? anyhilation?
kinda unamerican when you think about it...
My solution is:distance ourselves from the middle east and its problems.
Let the parties involved do what they have to do to achieve peace or to be extinct in the process.
Stop immigration to the US,none whatsoever from muslim countries,no student visas,tourist visa,nothing.
No mosques on our land,for we are not allowed to build churches in any muslim countries.
No hate preaching immams,nothing of that kind.
For whoever wants to be a devoted muslim,just like the kuwaitis and saudis said,"leave our country".
We should leave them completely alone,and they should leave us.
No war between the two cultures,but no friendship either,for this kind of friendship could kill us by way of back stabbing.
can we ban pat robertson and jerry falwell from going to any other countries because of there hate filled sermons....
but really how can you collectively punish millions for the actions and beliefs of a extremist minority...
Adela must have been reading my mind. I think a very strong warning (with the intent to back it up) to Saudi Arabia and Syria (I leave out Iran for realpolitic reasons) saying that "any attacks on us will bring a response directly on YOU. We hold YOU responsible for the actions of the 'militants', and YOU must rein them in and neutralize them."
People, this IS a battle between Islam and the West (as well as Hindus, Copts, Berbers, etc) that was started by Arab incursions IN THE NAME OF, AND JUSTIFIED BY, ISLAM one thousand years ago. 'Moderate' (be they ignorant, blind or actually pro-change) must speak up. If the 80%-90% (Daniel Pipes estimates) of non-Islamist Muslims took on the Islamists themselves, the world could rest easier. However, from what I can see, the vast majority of Muslims who 'wake up' to the 'true faith' buy into jihad as holy war (not internal struggle!)
I am confused why believers of the Torah, Old Testament, and Quran would support Murder? Isn't the murder of innocents a violation of prophet Moses' 10 Commandments? At the hijj the priest said to "kill the zionishts". Is this truly what the Muslims of all faiths are asked to do?