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A GREAT OVERVIEW OF ISLAMISM AND TERRORISM

An article sent to me courtesy of JB at Riting on the Wall. The author David Zeidan does a nice job of surveying the ideological evolution and flavors of these various Islamist groups and I can say I learned about some more obscure figures known mostly to Middle Eastern area specialists and counter-terrorism experts.

On the other hand, to use a Marxist phrase, I’m still of a position that for all the religiousity of their ideological roots that in the ” last analysis ” these Islamists are political totalitarians with operational/structural similarities to the secular movements of the 20th century, especially fascism though in tactical terms resemblences to Communist organizations can be seen as well. The cross-over point between religious and political zeal would seem to my mind to be the point where the Islamist leaves behind the phase of ” separation ” Zeidan discusses to an actively violent political program of Jihad. At this point the secular aspects of Jihad – military, political and terrorist- overshadow all other religious values and Quranic considerations. Power becomes the determining factor, what advances the cause, not what is the Islamic thing to do.

Update: HNN is running an article on the same topic

MEMO LEAK UPDATE

As readers of Calpundit may be aware, the Defense Department put out a news release condemning the recent Feith memo leak to the Weekly Standard.

I’m sorry Kevin, the antiwar battlecry has been ” no relation between al Qaida and Saddam ” and the raw data shows such contacts and cooperation on an irregular basis at a minimum between Iraq and al Qaida. Now Iraq probably also had contacts with Hamas, Hezbollah, the PKK, Ansar al Islam, various PLO factions and groups with no obvious Middle-Eastern connection. Rogue states and terrorist groups engage in all kinds of interactions amongst themselves without being formally allied – case in point IRA members in Colombia teaching FARC to build car bombs. It would be wrong to conclude that contacts between Iraq and al Qaida made Saddam a major player in 9/11 or even a key consideration for Osama bin Laden in setting al Qaida policy. It was to the extent that ties existed, a relationship of convenience between a rogue state and a non-state actor that was unwilling to put itself under Iraqi control the way Abu Nidal Organization once did ( to the ultimate cost of Abu Nidal)

HONEYPOTS FOR TERRORISTS

Link courtesy of Cryptome.

SADDAM AND AL QAIDA HAD DIRECT AND ONGOING TIES FOR A DECADE

Memo leak from the Senate investigation of pre-war intelligence courtesy of the Weekly Standard. This would tend to confirm the reportage in the recent book _Losing Bin Laden_ by Richard Miniter that featured in depth interviews with high ranking former Clinton Administration officials. It also supports the thesis of an anti-American tactical alliance between Saddam’s Baathist regime and al Qaida made by Yossef Bodansky in his earlier book _Bin Laden_.

Should this memo withstand greater public scrutiny – and the Bush administration would be foolish not to shout this from the rooftops if it is as good as it seems to be – one of the major antiwar arguments that Iraq had little or nothing to do with al Qaida has just been blown all to hell.

AL QAIDA AND WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION – A REFERENCE CHART WITH SOURCES AND CITATIONS

Useful for any blogosphere terrorism debate.