Contrary to popular belief, the reason behind the actions of terrorist organisations is not to gain advantage over security forces but, mostly, to generate propaganda. For instance, five people killed in a terrorist act do not serve as a measure of numerical superiority for the organisation. However, the impact of such an action, when brought on the agenda numerous times through media organs, would be far more severe so society as if the said action had been carried out time and again.
The skies are no longer a very friendly place to fly if you’re brown or “maybe-Muslim”. A few days ago, an Iraq-born researcher at UC Berkeley was removed from a Southwest Airlines plane for speaking Arabic. A passenger heard the guy end a phone call with “inshallah” and decided it must mean “this plane full of infidels is going down”. In reality inshallah (which translates as “God willing”) is a versatile Arabic phrase that can be used to mean everything from “hopefully” to “never going
In its report on the still-censored “28 pages” implicating the Saudi government in 9/11, “60 Minutes” last weekend said the Saudi role in the attacks has been “soft-pedaled” to protect America’s delicate alliance with the oil-rich kingdom.
That’s quite an understatement.
Actually, the kingdom’s involvement was deliberately covered up at the highest levels of our government. And the coverup goes beyond locking up 28 pages of the Saudi report in a vault in the US Capitol basement
LONDON — The horrific terrorist attacks on the Charlie Hebdo weekly in Paris have led to speculation as to whether the killers — the brothers Chérif and Saïd Kouachi — were lone wolves or tied to masterminds in ISIS or its rival, Al-Qaeda. Although Al-Qaeda in Yemen has taken credit for the attack, it is unclear how closely the affiliate actually directed the operation. No matter which organizational connections (if any) ultimately prove to be real, one thing is clear: the fountainhead of
Virtually every suspect involved in recent Brussels bombing had been tracked, arrested, in custody – either by European security agencies or the agencies of their allies – but inexplicably released and allowed to carry out both the Brussels attack as well as the Paris attack that preceded it.
So obvious is this fact, that the Western media itself admits it, but simply dismisses the obvious and deeper implications such facts pose by claiming it is merely systemic incompetence.
The Wall
PressTV- US officials say Washington is considering to greatly increase the number of its special operations forces deployed to Syria, the Reuters news agency reports.
The US, they say, looks to “accelerate recent gains” against Daesh but Hillary Clinton's leaked emails last month revealed that the United States plotted to topple the Syrian government even before the group existed.
For their new plan, the officials declined to disclose the exact increase under consideration but one of them
An international summit on nuclear security in Washington enters its second day Friday. Top of the agenda is how to stop terrorist organisations such as the Islamic State group from getting their hands on nuclear material. But how real is the threat?
In the aftermath of the November 13 terror attacks in Paris, and with the eyes of the world still focused on the bloodshed in the French capital, soldiers in Belgium were sent to guard the country’s nuclear power plants.
Four months later
By Dr. Sayed Khatab*
In dealing with terrorism, generally speaking, one should be aware that radical religious violence in society in the East as well as in the West is very much the result of what happening in the Middle East.
Nowadays, the world is like a small village and the information is at the tip of one’s fingers, thanks to the internet and social media technology. So, what is happening in the East will be known in the West in a fraction of a second, and vice versa. In addition
Leader's speech in a meeting with participants of International Congress on Takfirism on November 25, 2014:
We cannot ignore and forget about these signs and proofs easily. All these signs show that the takfiri orientation is at the service of arrogance, the enemies of Islam, America, England and the Zionist regime.
Take a look at the condition of today's Libya, Syria, Iraq, Pakistan and see against whom the forces and swords of Muslims are being used. These forces should have been used
The West has brought terrorists attacks on their own people by supporting for decades terrorists trying to achieve geostrategic objectives, said the editor of Politics First Marcus Papadopoulos, commenting on the Brussels blasts.
“The roots of these terrorist attacks are Western foreign policy. For the last 30 years or so America in particular, but also Britain and France have been working with Islamist terrorists to try and achieve geostrategic objectives. And this is what happens when you
Perhaps some right-wing Israel lobby groups can be forgiven for taking up the cause of the exiled Iranian opposition group, the Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK). The more ignorant among them might see a group headed by a woman, Maryam Rajavi, who claims to champion a secular, human rights-respecting democracy in Iran. They don’t know about Rajavi and the MEK’s history: its violence, its cult-like behavior, and its own history of human rights violations. What they do see—however problematic it might be
More than four decades have passed since Brian Jenkins, an expert on security, first represented “terrorism as theater” in a report for the RAND Corporation. Yet, to this day, leaders and policymakers countering terrorism implement strategies composed mostly of military and police actions—little is done to oppose the theatrics. Taking theater as a model, terrorism relies on live performers and unwitting live participants to present the experience of an imagined event, an event in which the
Author and former CIA officer Barry Eisler spoke at the Association of Former Intelligence Officers opposite ex-CIA and NSA director Michael Hayden on Monday. In front of about a hundred former CIA, FBI, and NSA operatives, Eisler talked about bulk surveillance, whistleblowing, and why intelligence professionals need to take especially great care not to let propaganda pervert their intelligence.
Eisler's new novel, "God's Eye View," inspired by the Snowden revelations, is available now on
by François Lopez
Abstract
This Research Note examines why some terrorist organisations, which depend on the “oxygen of publicity” provided by the news media, would target journalists. Journalists have long been the targets of attacks by terrorist organisations and this Research Note analyses why this has been the case by focusing on two case studies of one ‘old’ and one ‘new’ terrorist organisation; ETA and IS respectively. The research is centred around three hypotheses: (i) terrorist
We are petrified by terrorism. And for good reason: terrorists indiscriminately kill American citizens, and so our deeply held national fear is founded on the possibility that we could be next. Yet, while there is rationality in the fear itself, the policies that emanate from the fear can verge on delusional. Terrorism gives us tunnel vision. As the current election cycle has shown, our fear of a deadly attack coerces us to construct a facade that makes terrorists out to be irrational beasts
Situated on the east of Europe, Albania applied for membership of the European Union in 2009. As the poorest country in Europe and designated the most corrupt, there is a lot of work to be done before this country of 3 million people is accepted into the Union. A recent visit by US Secretary of State John Kerry does indicate that this work is well underway. But Albania's efforts to reform and strengthen its political, security, judicial and civic institutions after years of dictatorship, could
The following excerpt, by Michael D. Yates, is the Foreword to Henry Giroux's 'America's Addiction to Terrorism':
Henry Giroux is a phenomenon. He has written more than sixty books, authored hundreds of essays, won numerous awards, and been an outstanding teacher for nearly forty years. His influence on the field of critical pedagogy is without parallel, and he has made significant contributions to many other areas as well, including both cultural and media studies.
What distinguishes
Terrorism is the latest and unexpected source of insecurity, fear and risk. It is unexpected because it does not depend on the liquefaction of society or on the crisis of the modern state, but is somehow linked to modernity, and can be explained by Eisenstadt’s theory of multiple modernities. According to this hypothesis, these evolve at different speeds and take on different connotations depending on where they are.
While Western modernity, the modernity we live in and which belongs to our
The real violence threatening America is that of our immoral public policy choices, at home and abroad.
The following is excerpted from a speech delivered by Rev. William Barber at a Martin Luther King Day celebration at Riverside Church in New York City last month. We publish it today as we both reflect on the violence inflicted upon the people of Flint, Michigan, by the state’s leadership and as we look toward weeks of voting in the presidential primaries. What values must guide our elected
Sociological concepts and methods have been fruitfully applied in efforts to understand and counter terrorism. The focus of research is on the dynamics through which terrorism becomes a social phenomenon. Terrorism is an interpretation of events and their presumed causes. These interpretations are not unbiased attempts to depict the truth but rather conscious efforts to manipulate perceptions to promote certain interest at the expense of others. When people and events come to be regularly
Contrary to popular belief, the reason behind the actions of terrorist organisations is not to gain advantage over security forces but, mostly, to generate propaganda. For instance, five people killed in a terrorist act do not serve as a measure of numerical superiority for the organisation. However, the impact of such an action, when brought on the agenda numerous times through media organs, would be far more severe so society as if the said action had been carried out time and again.
