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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

Skirmish in the 'war on terror'

By: Staff Writer

29/12/2009 1:00 AM | Comments: 5

ON Christmas Day, Northwest Airlines Flight 253 from Amsterdam to Detroit ended in a deep trauma. It is a mark of the world we live in that this, in some ways, can be considered a blessing.

Among the 278 people aboard the plane was a young Nigerian man, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, an alleged Islamist fanatic and a self-confessed associate of al-Qaida in Yemen, who had a bomb hidden in his underpants. He had escaped detection by airport screening in Nigeria, where he had begun his trip, and again at the airport in Amsterdam where he boarded the flight to Detroit.

The only thing that prevented the trauma of Flight 253 from turning into the tragedy of Flight 253 was that the bomb failed to detonate. When Mr. Abdulmutallab attempted to set it off, all that resulted were flames and smoke and he was overpowered by passengers and crew.

Western and Yemeni security officials cannot or will not affirm Mr. Abdulmutallab's connections to al-Qaida in Yemen, where he says he acquired the explosives and was trained in their use, but the exercise does bear the stamp of Osama bin Laden's terrorist organization. Indeed, it is almost a carbon copy of an attempt to blow up another airliner in 2001 by Richard Reid, who had a bomb made from the same powerful explosive -- known as PETN and a staple in al-Qaida's arsenal -- hidden in his shoe.

That bomb, too, failed to detonate and trauma did not escalate into tragedy. But those are, according to security analysts, only two of at least 28 attempts by terrorists to attack the United States since Sept. 11, 2001. None of them has been successful, even the existence or the details of most are unknown to the public.

There have been known Islamist terrorist attacks in Europe and at least one homegrown terrorist plot in Canada that are either directly linked or inspired by al-Qaida, which has, since 9/11, become an octopus of death and destruction with arms in Africa, Europe and Asia, particularly from Afghanistan to Yemen and Somalia.

The trauma of Flight 253 has affected people in various ways -- most particularly the passengers aboard the flight. It has directly affected air travellers at the busiest time of the year as new security rules compound the chaos created by storms across the United States and Eastern Canada. It is worth remembering in this regard that America is, weather-wise, the most storm-tossed nation in the world, a fact that seems also to extend to the metaphor of international politics and terrorism.

The trauma has certainly affected governments, particularly in the United States, but also in Europe and Canada, as they wonder what went wrong. How was Umar Farouk Abdulmutullab, whose own father had reported his fears of his son's extremism to American and Nigerian authorities, who had been denied a visa by Britain because of his activities and who was already on a U.S. terror watch list, get on a plane to the U.S.?

As airports hustle to tighten their security and as passengers wait stoically for hours and days for planes, politicians and bureaucrats in Washington scramble to provide some answers or excuses and, one hopes, to stop some gaps.

What happened on Christmas Day in Detroit, however, affects all of us. Since the terror of 9/11, amid the apparent calm that has prevailed during the absence of successful terrorist attacks on mainland North America, many people, including many Canadians, have become complacent. The Twin Towers may be a vivid memory, but they are a distant one, a long-ago horror of history. The very phrase "war on terror" has become an embarrassment in some circles if it is used seriously, a "Bushism" that leaves its users open to ridicule.

Flight 253 is a traumatic reminder it is far too soon to become complacent or to pack up the troops and come home. The war on terror is real and continuing and needs to be won. This trauma of Flight 253 reminds us loudly of that. It should not take tragedy to drive that point home.

 

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition December 29, 2009 A14

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5 Commentscomment icon

SBartlete missed the point of my comments totally. I was talking about the issue with the human race as a whole, not one segment of it. As I said, we are becoming more violent with time. I don't know why humans are behaving like this, we are supposed to be the most advanced life forms on the planet and yet we act like children. I swear, our ancient ancestors were more civilized than us. If this continues, I don't see a future for the Human Race. God...if you can hear me (and I am sure you do), come down to Earth and give our Civilization a good kick in the ass. We NEED it.

climber: Look into criminology. Also, there is much less organized crime in countries which have stronger social norms, and are more collectively organized.

As long as there are human beings, there will be terrorists. They are no different than the Mafia or the Hells Angles, or any other crime organization (the Hells Angles and the Mafia are still doing well in spite of law enforcements effort to wipe them out). All this is a symptom of a serious disease affecting our civilization. I don't know what this disease is and that's the problem. You can't cure what you don't understand. War will not cure it (unless of course we wipe out the human race). I have no answer for this myself but I do know that if we stop letting fear rob us of our rational and common sense and start working together, we can get to the bottom of this. The answers are out there. I firmly believe that. This is a problem that can be solved. I have to be positive...we all do. Violence is not the answer. It is part of the problem. Please, don't let the Darkness win. We owe it to ourselves.

Come on now, 'watchingout'. This paper has been salivating for another attack for several years now. The longer between attacks, the less likely people are to take this 'war on terror' BS seriously. It was getting pretty desperate, if you know what I mean. Luckily, there are still enough 'deeply religious' fools out there who will do anything for god (or attention). Bottom line is, these scare-merchants will milk this idiot's actions for all they're worth and common sense will not impede. (Scared people tend to vote conservative / republican).

There are two big fudges in this editorial:

1) Al Qaeda is not an "octopus of death...". I.e., it is not a comprehensive and cohesive organization that commits crimes worldwide, such as the CIA. It is a collection of loosely connected groups who may or may not communicate or even know of each others' existence. Some clearly appropriate the name simply for its cachet.

2) The last paragraph glibly implies our troops in Afghanistan are increasing our airline security. This is demonstrably false; the only effect the NATO occupation of Afghanistan has on potential terrorist acts in N. America is to make them more likely -- by enraging previously neutral/friendly people, and causing already committed terrorists to find safer havens, which they apparently have no trouble doing.

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