Anti-American Terrorism and the Middle East
Anti-Americanism, terrorism, and Middle East politics came together in an explosive mix that killed several thousand Americans on September 11, 2001. Yet these factors have long been one of the central issues for U.S. foreign policy as well as events in that region. The seizure of American diplomats as hostages in Iran during the 1970s, the hostage-takings and attacks on U.S. installations in Lebanon in the 1980s; and bombing assaults on Americans in east Africa, Saudi Arabia, New York, and other places in the 1990s all contributed to a growing verbal and armed offensive against the United States and its citizens.
This book examines these forces through the words of leaders and ideologues. Anti-Americanism and the doctrines of Middle East revolutionary movements are described in the words of Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomayni, whose followers seized American hostages; Egyptian cleric Umar Abdul Rahman, involved in the first attack on the World Trade Center; and Syrian president Hafiz al-Asad, whose government backed hostage-taking and bombings of Americans in Lebanon. The rise and worldview of Usama bin Ladin and his al-Qa'ida terrorist group are examined in full, revealing the full passion of his hatred for America as the center of a conspiracy to dominate the world and destroy Islam.
Al-Qa'ida operations are described by participants, including al-Qa'ida's bombing of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania and preparations for the September 11 attacks. A wide range of responses to these events from the Middle East is highlighted, showing the range of factors cited for hating America. Finally, the U.S. government reaction to the attacks is provided in detail, including a flurry of executive and congressional orders to fight anti-American terrorism. Only primary sources are used, many of them in translation or appearing in print for the first time.
THE TERROR WAR READER
Patrick B. McGuigan
[The following is an extract from this article]
For many years -- for decades, in fact -- a malevolent variation of Islam has waged brutal, methodical and effective war against Christianity, Judaism and Western traditions of liberal democracy, capitalist enterprise and humane traditions. Most Americans only became aware we were at war on September 11, 2001, when Osama Bin Laden's suicidal-murdering-assassins carried out a terror attack he had promised for more than a decade.
Only one head of state on our planet praised those who destroyed the Twin Towers of New York and wrecked havoc on the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. That one man was Saddam Hussein, the 'president' and dictator of Iraq. He claimed the United States had received a just penalty for sins, including support of the 'criminal and racist Zionism' -- the nation and people of Israel. He said that 'throughout history' it was Americans 'who crossed the Atlantic carrying with them death, destruction, and ugly exploitation to the whole world.'
At least initially, not even the criminals who once ran the Taliban government of Afghanistan could bring themselves directly to praise those who brought the phrase '9-11' to the world's consciousness. No, that distinction belonged to Saddam Hussein. Reporters interviewing or analyzing the smiling dictator have not found the broadcast time or column inches required to recall Saddam's unique utterance -- broadcast less than 24 hours after the towers collapsed, and long before the bodies of most of New York City's dead (including many innocent Muslims) had been recovered.
In the broadcast carried on Iraq Television, Saddam said 'The United States exports evil, in terms of corruption and criminality, not only to anyplace where its armies travel, but also to any place where its movies go.' Last week, I could not find the speech on the official website of the 'republic' of Iraq, but it is translated word for bloody word in 'Anti-American Terrorism and the Middle East: A Documentary Reader,' edited by Barry Rubin and Judith Colp Rubin (Oxford University Press, 2002, 392 pages with index, glossary of Arabic and Islamic terms, and several appendices).
Original Sources and Restrained Analysis in Oxford Press Book
The Rubins have produced the most essential book of all for those who want to study for themselves the unvarnished words, in English translation, of the evil geniuses who started this war. If you prefer linear treatment, the book includes, pages 351-366, a chronology of terrorism aimed at Americans -- beginning June 17, 1969, with the death of New Yorker Shirley Louise Anderson in Kallia, Israel. She was killed when the Palestine Liberation Organization shelled the resort town of Kallia. The chronology takes you through June 14, 2002, when a suicide attacker (apparently with Al-Qaida) crashed and exploded a car bomb outside the U.S. Consulate in Karachi, Pakistan, killing 11 and wounding 45, including a U.S. Marine.
The book's chronology does not include certain acts of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, whose mugshot appeared on front pages worldwide this week (Sunday, March 2, 2003), after reporters learned the apparent architect of 9/11 had been arrested in Pakistan. But you'll find details of Khalid Mohammed's life (including four aliases) on p. 200 of the Rubins' book. He was indicted in 1996 for a 1995 conspiracy, based in the Philippines, to bomb U.S. commercial airliners. It took awhile, but now his hour has come.
This book includes Osama Bin Laden's description of America, Jews and certain Arab rulers as 'monkeys and pigs' (page 180). You don't have to rely on analysis to get the picture about his agenda. It's presented in his own words -- in three interviews, the texts of long videos he produced and prepared statements delivered over the past 15 years. His 'declaration of war' against us came in 1996, in a statement aimed at William Cohen, President Bill Clinton's Defense Secretary
Osama (Usama, in the Rubins' rendering) explained the young men he has trained 'love death as you love life.' Concerning the United States, Bin Laden said, these youth 'have no intention except to enter paradise by killing you. An infidel, an enemy of God like you.' His 'fatwa' (in 1998, pages 149-50) called for followers to kill 'Americans and their allies -- civilians and military.' This, he said, 'is an individual duty for every Muslim who can do it in any contry in which it is possible to do it. ...' This document was aimed at destruction of 'Crusaders and Jews' -- his shorthand for all non-Muslims in nations not governed by his version of Islam.
Study for yourself the evil genius of a man who, for the sake of advancing the most degenerate brand of Islam, adopts any and all marketing techniques required to reach the broadest possible audience. In Rubin's summary (pages 174-83) of an Al-Qaida recruitment video, Bin Laden is seen at the beginning in the 'plain white head cover of a religious teacher.' Later, he wears a camouflage jacket and white turban, evoking the Tajiks of western Afghanistan. Later he appears on horseback in a manner reminiscent of the Prophet (whom it is forbidden to portray in entertainments). In the background, music evokes the Yemeni homeland of the bin Ladens. At other times, he appears in military garb.
Many hoped Bin Laden's hour to receive justice had come in the spectacular successes of American and allied arms in Afghanistan, but he apparently survived. This book catalogues enemies who may bedevil America for years to come. That might be discouraging -- enough to give the strongest patriot a sense that the conflict in which we are now engaged will never end.
But history's tide has a way of turning. If 9-11 was not enough to convince some that resort to arms is the only hope to survive the firestorm of radical Islam, then perhaps the methodical and brutal honesty of the words printed in the Rubins' study will help. Reading this was often like wading through the daunting 'Gulag' books of Russian patriot Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. Page after page, the accumulated truths about the communist regime both depressed and discouraged the reader. Yet, scattered throughout Solzhenitsyn's works -- as in the Rubins' book -- were rays of sunshine and hope. Those can be found here in a few spots, most notably on pages 305-312, where the writings of several Arab and Muslim leaders or journalists, dissenters from radical Islam, are recorded for posterity.
A Qatari writer denounces an Islamic educational system that produces 'a culture of terrorism.' A Kuwaiti political scientist exposes Arab intelligence services that have 'killed hundreds of intellectuals and politicians from the religious stream itself. The Zionist entity (Israel) has never done (such things) against its citizens. Isn't this terrorism?' Another Kuwaiti, a politician, says there lies ahead 'another war that needs no conventional armies and will result in no body counts. This war needs to be undertaken by Muslims to save their faith from within, and from their own folly.' A Turkish political minister calls it 'just a daydream to expect solidarity in the Islamic world.' And a high-ranking Saudi cleric writes passionately about the events of 9-11: 'This barbaric act is not justified by any sane mindset or any logic, nor by the religion of Islam. This act is pernicious and shameless and evil in the extreme.' May we live to see the hour when such writings will indeed be the majority voice of Islam.
This 'documentary reader' may not be for everyone. Yet it is an indispensable compilation of original source material, the lay reader's introduction to unvarnished radical Islam, with occasional bits of restrained and careful analysis. It is highly recommended.
About the Author: A writer, consultant, educator and public speaker based in Oklahoma City, McGuigan is Capital Editor for Tulsa Today.