THE PARCEL BOMB PLOT—AL-QAEDA’S GIFT TO ISRAEL
09. Nov, 2010
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Packages containing the hard-to-detect explosive PETN were hidden in printer ink cartridges (ABC News)
Netanyahu, never one prone to understatement, offered this analysis of the unsuccessful attempt to use desktop printers as terror weapons: “It is growing in the scope and brazen gall of its attacks, in the weapons with which it is arming itself, and in the sweeping objectives of the leaders of global terrorism.”
While Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) may have claimed responsibility for the parcel bomb plot, it’s worth considering how this latest Yemen-linked terror scare has been a gift to their avowed enemies.
A mere two weeks before the discovery of mail bombs addressed to “two places of Jewish worship in Chicago,” Rupert Murdoch sounded prescient as he received an award from the Anti-Defamation League for his support of Israel. “The terrorists continue to target Jews across the world,” declared the media mogul in his acceptance speech. “But they have not succeeded in bringing down the Israeli government—and they have not weakened Israeli resolve.” Equating criticism of Israel with anti-Semitism, the Fox News owner smeared the growing worldwide condemnation of Israel’s rogue behaviour as an “ongoing war against the Jews.”
Benjamin Netanyahu, a frequent London house guest of Murdoch and a likely recipient of his political contributions, was quick to make hay of the foiled plot. Briefing the cabinet on his impending address to the General Assembly of the Jewish Federations of North America, the Israeli Prime Minister told them that it would be “held against the background of reports about the attempt to attack the Jewish community in Chicago.”
Linking the parcel bomb plot to some of the most iconic terrorist attacks of the post-9/11 era, Netanyahu said that “it does not matter if the target was a synagogue in Chicago or a railway station in Madrid, London, Mumbai or Bali.” Deftly associating his increasingly isolated government with the victims of those attacks, the Israeli Prime Minister proclaimed: “We are facing a growing wave of terrorism by extremist Islam.”
Netanyahu, never one prone to understatement, offered this analysis of the unsuccessful attempt to use desktop printers as terror weapons: “It is growing in the scope and brazen gall of its attacks, in the weapons with which it is arming itself, and in the sweeping objectives of the leaders of global terrorism.”
He then assured his colleagues that “one of the main issues” he would be addressing in New Orleans with American Jewish leaders was “the steps that the civilized and free world must take in order to stop this wave that threatens us all.”
Needless to say, those “steps” are unlikely to include an end to the 43-year occupation and colonisation of the West Bank or a lifting of the 4-year blockade of Gaza.
An American apologist for Israel’s self-appointed guardian of “the civilized and free world” took a similar line. Joel Pollak, a Republican candidate in the midterm elections, released a statement condemning the attempted terror attack, saying he would be spending the Jewish Sabbath in West Rogers Park “in solidarity with the people of the 9th congressional district who were the direct targets of Al Qaeda terror.” Sounding a lot like Netanyahu, Pollak attempted to rally his constituents by telling them, “We must not stop fighting to eradicate the twin evils of terror and hatred.”
Again, we can take it as read that the “terror and hatred” Americans are being urged to combat only applies to Israel’s enemies.
DEBKA-Net-Weekly, which describes itself as “the leading geopolitical newsletter,” has even attempted to implicate Israel’s current enemy number one, Iran. The next issue, for subscribers only, promises to reveal “how the al Qaeda air package plot fit [sic] into the selective partnership between Tehran and al Qaeda and homes in on the areas where their schemes dovetail.”
But how trustworthy is “the leading newsletter in this rarefied field”?
“Debka is prepared mostly by former Mossad operatives. A reliable stream of information,” Martin Peretz, the Islamophobic editor-in-chief of the staunchly pro-Israel New Republic assures us.
Ever since an Israeli firm let the Christmas Day crotch bomber “slip through” security at Schiphol Airport without a passport, a few influential voices with close ties to Israel have been instrumental in making Yemen “the new buzzword.”
Appearing on Fox News two days later, the No. 1 pro-Israel advocate and leader in Congress, Senator Joe Lieberman, announced: “Iraq was yesterday’s war. Afghanistan is today’s war. If we don’t act preemptively, Yemen will be tomorrow’s war.”
Within a week, Bruce Riedel, a senior fellow at the Saban Center in the Brookings Institution, had an op-ed in The Daily Beast titled “The Menace of Yemen.” Touting the botched Christmas Day plot as evidence of “the growing ambition of al Qaeda’s Yemen franchise,” Riedel called for “significant American support to defeat AQAP.”
Riedel’s employer, the Saban Center, is named after Haim Saban, the Israeli-American media mogul, who in 2002 pledged $13 million to found the Saban Center for Middle East Policy. Two years later, Saban admitted to the New York Times, “I’m a one-issue guy and my issue is Israel.”
“The US may be walking into a bit of a trap,” warns Gregory Johnsen, a Yemen expert and doctoral candidate at Princeton University’s Department of Near Eastern Studies.
That “trap” has been best described by a former CIA officer. “America’s misguided war on terror,” Philip Giraldi pointed out in a recent article, “is in fact a complete adoption of Israeli security paradigms without any regard for the actual threats that confront the US, making Israel’s many enemies also the foes of Washington.”
Israel must be very grateful indeed for this latest terror scare. If Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula did not exist, they might have to invent it.
Maidhc Ó Cathail is a widely published writer based in Japan.
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Get a grip, you fools. Al-Qaeda is CIA and CIA is Israel. End of discussion.
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Surely your not implying Israel would lie to the world. Shame on you you must be Anti-Semitic. Those will get us into another war in the middle east so our masters [israel] can soon control some more of the world. I don’t blame you for living inn japan. AT LEAST Israel doesn’t control the far east yet. OR DO THEY?
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Who created Osama bin Laden and Al-Qaeda?
It is the USA,for her own interests.The USA and Israel will done all hienous work by the AL-QAEDA– so that, it become easy to blame Islam and Muslims–the way they blames Saddam Hussain for WMD and invade Iraq.The next target is Yemen.
Who knows,the MOSSAD and CIA might discover Al-Qaeda in China and North Korea in future.But it wouldn’t be so easy.
The planet earth will be destroyed by the hands of these two evils-Zionist Israel and USA.
May Allah bless the Palestinians and all human beings on earth.
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pete Reply:
November 10th, 2010 at 7:04 pm
You may be very right Fakhrul, I have believed for some time that the Zionists will be the downfall of the United States of America. And you are right everybody seems to blame Muslims for every terror incident. I was born christian but I have a few Muslim friend who fervently follow the teaching of Islam & let me say I have the greatest respect for there beliefs. They pray 5 times a day, how many Christians or Jews do that? You are a good man Fakhrul & may god bless you always
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Fakhrul Ferdous Reply:
November 11th, 2010 at 11:25 am
Dear Pete,
Thank you very many much for your compliment.
Praying five times in a day is not the only thing to do for becoming a good Muslim.There are lot of things which are inter related and Muslims should perform.But,ironically to say that, the maximum Muslims of this world have derailed from the actual teachings of Islam.And,that’s why they are having a lesson.
May ALLAH bless you,the Palestinians and all human beings on earth.
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Most probably Bin Laden is dead. Most probably now his organization is run by either the USA CIA or the Pakistan ISI? No one knows for sure, yet the assumption is rife that the war in Afghanistan is being fought by the American with an elusive foe who is no where to be seen nor any where to engaged.
Al-Qaida supporters occupy town and cites in Afghanistan they have their own way of justice and they dispense that justice in the presence of the USA force. There is no difference in the time of the Al-Qaida rule of Afghanistan and the current Afghan Government in the shadow of the USA. People are suffering the same fate that had started some time ago by the Taliban.
There are other splinter groups that have made the life and limb miserable for the USA, Israel and the West, but the main casualties of these terror planters are the Muslims, albeit, it is said that the Muslims killed by the Al-Qaida are the Muslims who side with the foes.
The groups activity in Yemen is a blessing for the Arab world as there would be added focus on the lands which are usually ignored by the West, it is only when these areas become the bastion of the terror plotters that the USA and the West seems to focus on them, providing much needed aid and assistance that they the ordinary people really deserve, take the case of Pakistan where the aid flow is being pour in like a stream has open in the heaven of foreign funds for the poor Pakistanis and Afghanis.
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