Wednesday, September 06, 2006

Taqiyya, Western-Style

There is a war between the ones who say there is a war
and the ones who say there isn’t.

                    — Leonard Cohen

Gates of Vienna has no doubt that there’s a war on, and what the nature of it is.

Cindy Sheehan doesn’t think there’s any war on except the one that the racist tyrant Bush caused when he invaded Iraq.

Terror suspect released in OdenseBut the Danes know there’s a war on. It arrived at their doorstep last winter, after one of their newspapers published some cartoons. The latest skirmish took place in Odense yesterday, when a group of terror suspects was arrested, most of whom were Danish citizens, though not “of Danish background”.

Here’s the AP story:

Seven men faced preliminary charges of plotting a terror attack in Denmark on Tuesday, while two others arrested in pre-dawn raids were released.

Investigators said they launched the pre-emptive raids early Tuesday after having the group under surveillance for some time, though they said they weren’t sure what stage of planning the suspects were in.

“The clues police found indicate that they were very likely planning an attack somewhere in Denmark,” Justice Minister Lene Espersen told The Associated Press.

And what kind of plotters were they? The AP is coy:

Officials said the nine suspects arrested were Danish citizens between the ages of 18 and 33. Findsen said eight had immigrant backgrounds but didn’t specify from what countries.

This is standard operating procedure for the MSM. If you read the details in different versions of the story, you’ll find quotes from family members of the detained men, family members whose first names just happen to be Ali or Mohammed. It’ll make you suspect that the alleged terrorists weren’t just off the boat from Finland or Estonia.

The Danish newspapers aren’t so shy. According to Jyllands-Posten:

All of those arrested are of Islamic background and under 30 years old. The men will face a preliminary hearing sometime today.

The Børsen news service has additional information:

Minister of Justice, Lene Espersen, describes the terror case in Odense as the most serious case of a terror threat in Denmark directed at the country in recent times.

“It is probably one of the most serious things which have happened in Denmark ever,” Lene Espesen said.

PET, the Police Intelligence Service, took action last night against a number of addresses in the Odense suburb Vollsmose.

Nine persons were arrested, all of them young men under the age of 30. The majority of them are Danish citizens.

“The majority of the arrested persons are Danish citizens, and this is to me the most important challenge. These are people who are Danish citizens and who were apparently planning a terror action in this country,” Lene Espersen told the news agency Ritzau.

All we can do is hope that the Danish judicial process isn’t as protracted and procedurally sandbagged as it is in the U.S.

Demonstration in Odense, February, 2006Presumably this case will give Danish prosecutors the same kind of heartburn that Zacarias Moussaoui and Jose Padilla caused their American counterparts. However, as has been noted here frequently, the Danes have recently shown every sign of getting tough on Islamist-related terror and criminality, especially when you compare Denmark with its European neighbors.

The big question is whether these newly-arrested conspirators were involved in some of the other recent plots that have come to light in Europe. The authorities seem to go out of their way to discount such connections:

Authorities said the suspects had been under surveillance for some time. But Findsen said the sweep was not related to neighbouring Germany’s arrest of four Lebanese suspected of involvement in a failed attempt to bomb trains.

Yet one of the Muslim suspects recently arrested in Germany after the failed train-bombing plot was headed for Denmark, and had Danish Imam Abu Bashar’s phone number in his pocket. Abu Bashar, you may remember, is the fellow who took the Mohammed cartoons (both the real ones and the fakes) on a Middle Eastern tour to gin up the requisite amount of Muslim outrage.

And Abu Bashar, not surprisingly, loudly proclaims his non-involvement. According to ABC (Australia), Abu Bashar said this:

Osama Bin Laden, he give message to Denmark and Italy and London and Spain. Bin Laden do something before, some years ago, in Madrid, and last year in London. I cannot say I am sure, but I am afraid that Bin Laden’s sent somebody to do something against Denmark.

Oh, yes, I’m certain that Abu Bashar hasn’t the faintest inkling of what Osama bin Laden’s minions are doing in Denmark. If indeed such people exist. How could he know? He has nothing to do with people like that.

And, as the AP reminds us, there’s the possible Bosnian connection:

Two weeks ago, four suspects in custody in Denmark since October were charged with supplying explosives to two men arrested in Bosnia for allegedly preparing a terror attack.

Investigators said that group planned to blow up a target in a European country to force the withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan and Iraq.

But then…

Police didn’t say whether the new arrests were related to that case.

That seems to be the mantra these days. Various people of the Muslim persuasion are arrested hither and yon, but “authorities say there is no connection with terrorist suspects recently arrested in City X” or “officials emphasized that there is no known terrorist connection with this incident”.

We have every reason to be skeptical about all these breathless assurances. But we also would do well to remember the possible reasons for all those Mandatory No-Terror Disclaimers. It’s possible that our intelligence and law-enforcement officials are stupid, or incompetent, or in the pay of CAIR, or afraid for their careers if they don’t utter the politically correct platitudes required by their superiors.

But there may be other reasons.

Shrinkwrapped has been running an excellent series of articles by Owen, a retired intelligence analyst. Owen’s account of the current war is too extensive and detailed to summarize here; go to Part One and start working your way forward (he was up to Part Five the last time I looked).

Owen places special emphasis on Information Warfare (IW), which is an important part, probably the most important part of this conflict. The enemy is very adept at it, playing our news media like violins, faking photos and news stories, engaging sympathetic Western liberals to regurgitate their propaganda in the newspapers and on television.

But Owen wants us to remember that our side is engaging in IW at the same time. Because our society is so open, so divided on these issues, and so riddled with enemy sympathizers, our IW efforts have to be more subtle. We must practice the carefully refined feint, the art of dissimulation, the skill of keeping a poker face. Above all, we can’t always reveal everything that we know.

IW as practiced by Al Qaeda, Hizbullah, Ahmadinejad, etc., is a version of honor-based Islamic tribal practice, and consists mainly of bragging, bluster, bullying, threats, and lying. It can be very effective, but it’s about as subtle as a shark attack.

One assumes that George Bush doesn’t mind if he looks ignorant. It doesn’t cause him shame, or do damage to his family’s honor, if he looks foolish on TV. And, if it served our country’s purposes in this war, I’m certain that he would gladly do it deliberately.

Call it taqiyya, Western-style. “Shucks, I don’t know nothin’ about no Muslims.”

Let’s reconsider all the incidents we’ve read about that are invariably followed by the Mandatory No-Terror Disclaimer:

  • The El-Al gunman in July 2002 at LAX had no connection with terror.
  • When Islamic convert Joel Hinrichs blew himself to bits at Oklahoma University, there was no connection to terrorism.
  • The UNC jihadist had no connection with terror.
  • The Frisco hit-and-run guy had no connection with terror.
  • The Sears Tower plotters in Florida were Al Qaeda wannabes, but never made it all the way to terrorists.
  • The Toronto conspirators had no connection to Islamic terror.
  • The German train-bomb plot had no connection with the Heathrow plane-bomb plot.
  • The Heathrow plane-bomb plot had no connection with the 7/7 Tube bombings.
  • The recent terror arrests in Britain had no connection with the Heathrow plotters or 7/7.
  • And now the Danish plotters had no connection with any of the above.

I’m sure there are many other examples that I’ve neglected to list.

Do you see a pattern here?

If you were to take all this at face value, you’d have to assume that our counter-terror authorities are as dumb as a bag of hair.

I prefer not to believe that. I think there’s a good reason for them to let everyone think they don’t know all the connections amongst all the different mujahideen operating in the Western world and beyond.

I think some of those poor innocent “detainees” locked up in various undisclosed locations are singing like turtledoves in exchange for an extra ration of falafel or a softer prayer rug.

If I were in charge of such operations, I wouldn’t want the friends of these stool pigeons to know this fact. And I wouldn’t mind looking like a fool if it helped my plan along.

This counter-taqiyya operation is just a hypothesis on my part, but I prefer to believe it. While the lefties are screeching about Chimpie McBushitler and Halliburton, while the media count the bodies of our soldiers and weep over all those poor dead Lebanese children, while we conservatives argue and bicker about what a bad job our government is doing in the war against Islamofascism, the other part of the war is going on quietly in the background.

The New York Times will expose any pieces of it that it can find. The Democrats and the media will do their best to undermine it when they learn about it.

But while all this bluster and brouhaha is going on, dedicated and unrecognized people are working unnoticed on your behalf to try to make sure that things are not what they seem.

There is a war between the left and right,
a war between the black and white,
a war between the odd and the even.

13 comments:

kepiblanc said...

The former chief of Danish "Police Intelligence Service" (PET), Mr. Bonnichsen frequently appears on TV with what The Baron calls "a poker face" and preaches moderation, cooperation with the Muslims, tolerance, understanding, dialogue etc., etc... - thus giving the Danish population an impression of a very, very naïve and incompetent intelligence service.

But now - right after the arrest of 7 "homegrown", usual suspects - he suddenly lost face and admitted : "I've told the imams you'll be the first to pack up your suitcases if an act of terror takes place in Denmark".

Fellow Peacekeeper said...

The fog of confusion the MSM spreads cuts both ways. Sadly the gulible sector of our populace is at least as confused as the islamoids. However, People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf. , though the lefties would try to stop it if they knew. Fortunately, soundbite media can hardly succeed in showing up the complex and the subtle, even if it didn't cause conflict with their biased agenda.

Though I do like this quote : Old George Orwell got it backward. Big Brother isn't watching. He's singing and dancing. He's pulling rabbits out of a hat. Big Brother's holding your attention every moment you're awake. He's making sure you're always distracted. He's making sure you're fully absorbed... and this being fed, it's worse than being watched. With the world always filling you, no one has to worry about what's in your mind. With everyone's imagination atrophied, no one will ever be a threat to the world.

:)

Zerosumgame said...

The fact is that the media is the enemy. They're not neutral, they're on the other side.

And in the case of the European media, they are especially the enemy to us Jews. They want us "wiped off the map." Not just in Israel, but everywhere. That is often why they whitewash Islamofascism -- they agree with one of its major goals.

X said...

It's almost ironic that so much of the left has taken on the mantle of jew hatred from, as they originally proclaimed them, the right wing. But not so ironic if you consider that jew hatred has always been something th left have engaged in to some extent or another.

Islam is their useful tool. I wonder how they'll feel when it finally turns on them.

ZMalfoy said...

An interesting thought, good Baron.

Too bad there's no way to know for sure, one way or another, unless you're one of the people using these, er, "Jedi Mind Tricks"

This is not the terrorism you're looking for. . .

Wally Ballou said...

baron - thanks for pointing out that some of the pros - many of who have devoted themselves to fighting terror round the clock since 9/11 - may actually know what they are doing. They have got to feel unappreciated by left and right. Every war has its armchair generals but thanks to the blogverse, this war has an armchair general staff more numerous than an infantry division.

Zerosumgame said...

Archonix

It's almost ironic that so much of the left has taken on the mantle of jew hatred from, as they originally proclaimed them, the right wing. But not so ironic if you consider that jew hatred has always been something th left have engaged in to some extent or another.

It's not ironic if you reject the left's definition (and since the left controls academia, arts and media, it has sadly become the general definition) of left and right.

The Nazis were NOT right-wing. They were the National SOCIALISTS - collectivists with a racist angle. If you define far-left as those with genocidal totalitarian visions of how the state should be run (Nazis, Stalinists, Maoists), then this is not ironic at all. It is in fact the historical pattern.

Beach Girl said...

Baron, thank you for reading the NYT for us. Whew! On our intelligence folks, yes, they are far more competent than they would have us know. One of the things I like about Pres. Bush is that he makes it so easy for the left to make fun of him. I can only think he and Laura must get some good laughs from the all-knowing arrogance of the left. We all notice how quickly the names of our drive-by terrorists quickly disappear from the news.

With the leaky Dems and our left-wing media, we have all the enemies we need. Not counting the ones who want to kill us directly in contrast to those who want to kill us slowly. Thank goodness we don't have to stay after school until we read the NYT.

Francis W. Porretto said...

You tell me
Just look all around,
At the past and the present,
The Cross and the Crescent,
The signs and the planets
Are lining up like before.
There are souls on fire
In the day and the night,
On the left and the right,
In the black and the white,
You can see it burn
In the eyes of the rich and the poor...

Rumours of war...
Rumours of war...

(Alasdair Ian Stewart, 1984)

X said...

"The Nazis were NOT right-wing."

I've pointed this out around here a few times in the past. :) Perhaps irony is the worng word for the point I was trying to make. Leftist denial is probably a better way of phrasing it. :)

Profitsbeard said...

Speaking of intelligence, President Bush's revealing of "secret CIA prisons" by the "transfer" of "14 detainees" to GITMO, strikes me as a startingly short-sighted gutting of a commonplace element in ALL security system worth the name.

Since we cannot do without such kinds of secrecy -or the need to detain terrorist suspects, in "unknown locations", in order to keep their fellow-jihadists off-babalnce, as we try to extract the captives' murderous plans- the exposing and supposed public "ending" of these CIA jails, is troubling.

It seems more a nakedly political/tactical move than rational for our national security.

Pretending that we are ending the "secret prisons" (or WORSE, are somehow magically ending their NEED, by fiat) when we DARE not close them all, is unnecessarily screwing around with the intelligence services' mandates.

Secrecy has its own uncanny power. Even "open secrets" (-the general notion of CIA 'black ops centers', worldwide, for imprisoning and interrogating terrorists) HAVE a vital USE.

One, being: that such jails had to exist... the terrorists were somewhere, after all... but the jails also had to be denied... to add to their threatening mystery.

Because their YES/NO uncertainty keeps your enemy off balance - especially when you serenely deny that such jails exist (we MUST show our opponents that we can lie and bluff and bullsh*t as blandly and grandiosely as they do daily).

The more secrets we give away, the more our enemies have.

It is Machiavelli's Fatal Balance.

We shouldn't sacrifice our mortal security for legalistic popularity.

Anonymous said...

Re: "The enemy is very adept at it, playing our news media like violins, faking photos and news stories, engaging sympathetic Western liberals to regurgitate their propaganda in the newspapers and on television."

I disagree, the enemy doesn't have to play our news media like a violin, they are more than willing to play themselves. The media aren't being duped, they are accomplices.

Profitsbeard said...

MahdiHotline-

No surprise then that Islam attracts the mentally uneven.

(Where they proclaim a 'religion of peace' as they saw off your noggin.)

Islam, where no head is better than one.

And their 'God', odd.