Barackface: Islamic terrorism

Showing posts with label Islamic terrorism. Show all posts

Thursday, March 24, 2016

Barack Obama, Brussels, Latin America

Brussels happened. And it is rather sad. It is a major event.

But Barack Obama cutting short his trip would be the stupidest thing he could do right now. That would cause mayhem across America. Every town population 50,000 and up would get riled up for no reason. Bad as Brussels is, most Americans have not heard of it. Barack Obama cutting short his trip would amplify the fear that the terrorists intend.

A POTUS does not stop working just because he is on a foreign trip. It is work travel. The US government machinery keeps chugging full throttle. The POTUS stays in control. There already was a swift retaliatory strike in Yemen. Something tells me Obama might have had something to do with it.

भारतके मुसलमान: पाँचवा कास्ट
Negotiating With Terrorists
The Issues And The Donald
Paris And Brussels

Wednesday, March 23, 2016

Negotiating With Terrorists

English: World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 1996 - Peres, Arafat & Schwab (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter. Arafat said that. What is ISIS? Is it religious fervor? Is it a state? Is it mafia? Is it a terrorist organization? Is it organized crime? Is it Islamic revival? Different people can have different opinions.

ISIS took responsibility for Brussels, as for Paris before that. Both times it has claimed it was merely getting even for what is being done to it in its own territory. That back and forth only ends up in a much bigger war.

There is a saying in democracies. Never negotiate with terrorists. Those whose only ways are the ways of violence are not seeking political solutions. And so don't negotiate.

I think it is possible to negotiate, but only if ISIS were to agree to a wholesale ceasefire. If ISIS were to cease all plots of global violence, if ISIS were to cease all acts of violence in its own territory (some have reported small scale genocide), if ISIS were to cease all acts of sex crimes, if ISIS were to accept mediation over the same, if ISIS were to allow international observers who would oversee that the ceasefire indeed is being respected, then negotiations are possible. Remember, no political issues have been discussed yet. This would be a ceasefire whose only basic requirement is that all violence and all sex crimes to an end. If ISIS could do this much, it might even be possible to carve out a new country for the territory that ISIS holds.

That country's boundaries would be a political decision taken collectively by all parties. The current line of control could end up the final boundary. As to governance in that territory, there would be need for a constitution. Elections can be held to a constituent assembly. The only rule would be the constitution may not clash with the Human Rights Charter, and to that end there would be international judicial oversight. Other than that there would be no rules. Maybe ISIS will become a political party. Its armed members will get pulled into the country's police and army. Maybe ISIS will emerge the largest and the ruling party.

Pan Arabia is an option. If all Arab countries attempt a political and economic union, then why not? But that would be a non-violent, political act. If Europe is any example, the process is not easy, and it is supposed to take time.

Islam is a valid religion. It is as valid as Christianity. But any message against peace, justice and kindness are invalid in all religions.

ISIS in its current form comes across as a mindless, fascist, blasphemous, criminal organization. There are lawful uses of force. Currently ISIS can legitimately be at its receiving end. But a ceasefire could change that. Is there a mediator that ISIS would accept?

Sunday, January 03, 2016

Pathankot Attack: Response To Modi Visit?

The ISI and the Pakistan Army do not call Nawaz Sharif boss. I am not giving Nawaz a clean chit. But those are parallel centers. It is less about Kashmir or any other real or imagined issue. It is about the unchallenged power, money and prestige they enjoy now. So when Modi engages in diplomatic innovation and drops by to say Happy Birthday to Nawaz, he is threatening to those organizations. They don't like it. You are eating their cake. Peace does not work for them. They are not driven by what's best for the people of Pakistan. It is much narrower self-interest that drives them. So how do you deal with them?

Be realistic, and keep expectations low. Unless the Pakistani Army and the ISI are brought 100% under the Pakistani parliament, no real progress is possible on any issue. Then basically it is a counter terrorism operation that the Israelis are really, really good at. They know to make deep intelligence penetrations. They know to make surgical strikes. They know to strike their operatives globally. This is not traditional war. You are not fighting the state of Pakistan. You are not fighting Nawaz Sharif.

Good photo shoots with Nawaz in the public venues of the world is as far as it might go in the short run.

Or maybe this is not the handiwork of the ISI, or any group it sponsors. There is no dearth of freelancers in Pakistan who will happily attack both Indian and Pakistani targets. They will as happily attack ordinary Pakistani citizens.

Pathankot terror attack: PM Narendra Modi chairs high-level meeting

Pathankot air base is under terror attack since Saturday. The security forces have already killed four terrorists and two more are believed to be still holed-up inside the base, and an operation is underway to flush them out.

Pathankot terror attack: India exercises restraint, avoids direct anti-Pakistan comments

Unidentified terrorists attacked the IAF base in Punjab's Pathankot town early on Saturday, leaving three IAF personnel and five terrorists dead. ..... Meanwhile, Pakistan has condemned the Pathankot attack.

Pakistan strongly condemns Pathankot terror attack

Building on the goodwill created during the recent high level contacts between the two countries, Pakistan remains committed to partner with India to completely eradicate the menace of terrorism afflicting South Asian region, the statement said. ...... Terrorists from Pakistan had launched a terror attack on Dinanagar town in Punjab's Gurdaspur district on July 27, 2015, leaving seven people dead, including a senior police official.

Battle for Pathankot Indian airbase enters second night

The attack is being seen as a blow to an apparent Indo-Pakistani peace initiative launched just days ago. ..... Pakistan's foreign ministry and the US State Department have condemned the attack. ..... The attack started before dawn on Saturday, when a group of gunmen - wearing Indian army uniforms - entered the residential quarters on the base. ..... The identity of the attackers is not clear. Some Indian security officials suggested the Islamist militant group Jaish-e-Mohammed was to blame. India says the group is backed by Pakistan, but Islamabad denies this.

Pathankot attack: Terrorist called mother, said ‘I am going to be a martyr’
In one of the phone calls, a Home Ministry official familiar with tape-recordings made by the Intelligence Bureau, said a man with a southern Punjab accent repeatedly tells his mother that he is heading towards martyrdom.

Intelligence officials attribute the Pathankot airbase attack to the Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Muhammad on the basis of intercepted phone calls made late Friday by a member of the assault team. ..... a man with a southern Punjab accent repeatedly tells his mother that he is heading towards martyrdom. The mother can be heard crying in the background, at one point gathering herself to ask her son if he has eaten. ..... the men seemed to be hysterical, and not very well-trained”. ..... The conversations, he said, reminded him of Naved Yakub, a Lashkar-e-Taiba jihadist held in Udhampur last year, who dropped out of school to escape a life of poverty by joining the jihadist group. ...... Based on the phone calls, investigators believe the men crossed one of the streams running across the India-Pakistan border in Gurdaspur — the same route used by a group of Lashkar terrorists who attacked a police station in Gurdaspur last year, killing nine. ..... Punjab Police investigators believe the four terrorists first hijacked an Innova van, after crossing the border early Friday morning. The car stalled on the Pathankot-Jammu highway with a flat tyre, after which the terrorists are thought to have executed its driver, Ikagar Singh. ..... The terrorists then hijacked a vehicle used by Superintendent of Police Salwinder Singh, who was travelling home from a religious leader’s Dera, along with his friend Rajesh Verma, a jeweller, and Verma’s cook Madan Gopal. From testimony given by Verma to the Punjab Police, the men were carrying a large bag, possibly filled with food, assault rifles, a global positioning set and a cellphone. ..... there was no official account of how the terrorists succeeded in penetrating its 10-foot outer perimeter walls, topped with razor-sharp cobra wire, and this in spite of specialist warnings. Early investigations suggest that the men walked along the National Highway to the Air Force base undetected, from the location where they abandoned their car.

Pathankot operations a national embarrassment, who will take the responsibility?

All this happened near one of the most heavily guarded international borders in the world. Not in a far away place not used to terror attacks. .... The Pakistan backed Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorists easily gained access into a vital Indian Air Force Station at Pathankot. They managed to cause the intended damage and instill fear across India..... The inefficient handling of the operation cost us the lives of seven soldiers and also damaged the reputation of our elite security forces....... After Saturday's operations, the Centre even declared that the entire operation was over and all the terrorists have been killed. On Sunday, the firing once again began causing fear and embarrassment at the same time.
Two terrorists actually stayed inside the IAF Station undetected the entire Saturday night.
...... Local media reports suggest that the Punjab Police and other security agencies initially refused to take the words of the abducted SP seriously. They wasted a lot of precious time. ...... After watching the botched up Pathankot security operations, the masters of the terrorists in Pakistan must be smiling. ..... A good 24 hour lead was wasted and the terrorists had easy access to a top IAF base.

Two terror teams may have attacked Pathankot using different vehicles

all the phone calls made by the terrorists to Pakistan were on numbers identified as that of JeM by the security establishment for a long time now.

‘Militants were heavily armed, began spraying us with bullets’

“The militants were heavily armed. They began spraying bullets as soon as they spotted our men near the mess.”

MLK, Malcolm X, And Assassinations

We know both were super closely watched by the intelligence agencies. Their every move was followed. Their associates were watched. Their phones were tapped. Not only the agencies micro watched, but they also intervened here and there at will. Like, fire that staffer of yours. As in, it was important for them to let MLK know he was being watched. That was psychological warfare designed to unnerve him, to perhaps break his will.

There is a reason why the right to privacy is a basic human right. The right to privacy is essential to a human being’s sense of self. Unless you have a probable cause that you are shadowing a criminal, in which case you get approval from a judge with an intent to persecute, you have no business shadowing a human being. The agencies violating MLK’s right to privacy was gross and racist. America’s heart stopped in the 60s because JFK, MLK, RFK all got killed. It was not assassination. It was heart attack. Why do conservative elements on the political spectrum have ready and entrenched allies in the state apparatus? The state is supposed to stay neutral.

If you violate a human being’s privacy enough, in the organized and thorough ways that an intelligence agency’s resources make possible, at some point they no longer feel like human beings. You could snuff their life and not even feel a thing. It is objectification of the highest order. It is kind of like, those who commit hate crimes first have to dehumanize their objects of interest. I am not sure if the MLK assassination was a hate crime or a genocide. A people’s dream got wiped out just like that. The world had to wait for a BHO. Those were long decades.

It is not hard to kill and not leave a trace. There is no proof. How hard is that to do? Most murders in America (and the world) go unsolved. And these are loner criminals doing the deed, or maybe some organized gangs. Intelligence agencies have way more resources than the mightiest cartels down south. See in the movies how it gets done. There is no trace. There is no way to find out.

I am not pointing fingers. I have no proof. But I am tempted to connect the dots. The intelligence agencies totally, thoroughly violating MLK’s right to privacy was gross beyond words can describe. He was never suspected of any crime, so why was he followed around like he ran a cell for the Al Qaeda? It is not like they were throwing a security blanket around him. The country should have given him bodyguards. The Dalai Lama gets bodyguards in India. And he has no sworn enemy. MLK received death threats like you and I receive phone calls. MLK was let out to pasture. It was deliberate.

MLK’s right to privacy being violated is not like a public figure’s right to privacy being violated. The public figure chooses to go into the public domain. The public figure is not micro shadowed like he/she were a terrorist. There is no agency collecting relentless data and analyzing and making counter moves as if the public figure is a criminal. What MLK deserved was a security blanket provided for by the state, what they call Z grade security in India. Instead he got monkeys tapping on his phone.

The surveillance state can get out of hand. It is like the top Bollywood actor Shahrukh Khan got held at an airport in New Jersey for hours because his name showed up on some list. I am sure his last name is on every list! But you just wronged a billion strong nation.

The surveillance state can get out of hand and ordinary people can suffer in scores. Racial profiling can be taken to a whole new level through the surveillance state. No community deserves to be harassed.

There has to be a way for you to get your name off a list if you suspect maybe your name is on some list and erroneously so. Like you have a right to know what your credit history is. You have a right to know if your name has been put on any list. Muslims are the blacks today.

The right to privacy is like the right to free speech, like the right to follow the faith of your choice. If a community is being harassed for being Muslim, that right to follow the faith of one’s choice is being violated, and that’s a no no. The American state impinging on the fundamental rights is the American state doing the bidding of the people it is at war with. Their attack is on values, not on some physical structure. Values are hard to hold, and that is why they have to be held to in a tight embrace.

An Erdos Number by other means. https://t.co/JIykKJFVYi
— Dan Kaminsky (@dakami) January 12, 2016

Saturday, December 12, 2015

Trumping The Intelligent Conversation On Terrorism

Security is important. Safety is important. It is the number one thing we expect government to provide. We want to be safe from crime and terrorism.

That is why Obama killed Bin Laden. The same government machinery, the same CIA, the same Navy Seal, the same Zero Dark Thirty movie crew, but W could not do it. It took a Barack Obama. I guess you have to be sharp.

I think Hillary is also sharp. She did give Obama a tough time in 2008, did she not? It was neck and neck for months until finally Obama squeaked in.

Indira Gandhi commanded the military like no Indian prime minister before or after. That thing is gender neutral. A strong leader is a strong leader. Gender is not a factor. Leadership is.

Terrorism is for real. 9/11 is still fresh in people's memories. Many major cities have been struck since. London, Mumbai, more recently Paris. It is a valid concern that they might be able to pull it off again in some place like L.A. or Chicago or Seattle. That can not be allowed to happen.

Ever since 9/11 I have maintained this War On Terror is the same magnitude as the Cold War. World War II was about taking democracy across from Britain over to Western Europe. The Cold War was about extending that to Eastern Europe. The only way this War On Terror ends is if every Arab country becomes a democracy. That is the big picture. How do you get there?

This is not about tracking down five, or 10, or 20 thousand bad people and physically eliminating them. That view is myopic. Although there is an obvious military element to the fight. But I am no military expert. I will leave that to the experts. The best in the game plot it out every waking hour. They are at it. They are doing everything humanly possible. Be it in terms of intelligence gathering, or surgical strikes, most of which we don't even hear about. They are doing it. And I am glad. And these are professionals. They don't really care if the person in the Oval Office is a Republican or a Democrat. They answer to the American people through their elected government. They are on the people's payroll, and they know it. More than salary, they are driver by a mission, and a sense of love for country and liberty. Country is territory but liberty is a universal value, and they know it. Where liberty does not exist, people aspire for it. That is true everywhere. I don't know if we are in good hands, but I do know we are in the best hands.

The law of political entropy says a country tends towards democracy granted there is a sufficient flow of information. So the thing to do, the top thing to do is to beam the internet from the sky and smuggle millions of cheap, solar powered Android phones into the target territories. You want to swamp ISIS with cat videos. It really is like that.

But if you are trying to spread democracy in Muslim countries, you have to show that democracy works for Muslims in countries that are already democracies, countries like America, and India, and Germany. Because if democracy does not work for Muslims, why will a Muslim country bother going democratic? Why not keep up whatever they have? Why bother? Because all strong, successful democracy movements are homegrown. There has to be a groundswell. Ordinary people have to actively want it.

Which means demonizing Muslims is the exact opposite of what needs to happen. Have you ever heard Barack Obama talk bad about Muslims? And it is nothing to do with the fact that some people think he himself is Muslim.

There is a sick person on the table. Donald Trump's prescription is let's inject poison. I am sure that will take care of the sick person. But I am not sure that is the kind of taking care we are looking for.

The Donald's prescription of demonizing Muslims is the exact opposite of what needs to happen. The Donald's way leads to situations where more Muslims inside democracies get radicalized, and there are more attacks like Paris, and if there are enough of those, next thing you know is we have another Vietnam on our hands.

Vietnam was an open-ended ground operation. Vietnam was a disaster. Vietnam is a blight on the history of this country. However that war started, it became inhuman very fast. America engaged in chemical warfare in Vietnam like Saddam could not imagine.

One of Barack Obama's legacies is going to be that he did everything in his power to prevent another Vietnam. I guess the guy is pretty powerful and pretty effective. We have not seen another Vietnam. It is said if JFK had not been assassinated, we would not have seen Vietnam. Stupid people entered the Oval Office and let it slide, people like Donald Trump.

Welcoming Syrian refugees into Germany is one of the smartest things Germany can do to fight the War On Terror. From the safety of Germany the Syrian diaspora can plot an eventual victory for democracy in Syria. And they can work their own jobs while they are at it. Germany gets to collect taxes in the process.

Every Muslim country that needs to end up a democracy has diaspora populations in America. These are assets. To Donald that is news. It is news he does not want to hear.

Democracy has to be seen working for Muslims. Capitalism has to be seen working for Muslims. And America is as good a country as any to make that happen.

Donald, you are a fool. You are a circus clown.

Thursday, June 18, 2015

Terrorism

Terrorists Among Us: Jihad in America (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

ढाका में मोदी ने कहा, हमें traditional युद्ध करना आता है, सैनिक भेजो, टैंक भेजो, फाइटर प्लेन भेजो, लेकिन दुनिया को terrorism से कैसे सामना किया जाता है वो नहीं आता। True, it is a new strain of virus.

कुछ solutions हैं।

State building ---- जिस तरह मच्छर पानी न बहने वाली तालाब ढूँढती, उसी तरह आतंकवादी ऐसे देश ढूँढ़ते हैं जहाँ failed state हो।
Cooperation between States ---- दुनिया के देशों को information sharing करनी होगी। Otherwise if each country is a silo of its own, you give the terrorists a lot of room to play.
Information Technology ------ The leaders like Bin Laden might choose to go "dark." But generally speaking terrorist cells rely a lot on electronic communication. There has been much contention on this. Even in countries like America there has been a lot of talk about how civil liberties are being curtailed and citizens are being spied upon. Perhaps there is a happy medium somewhere where you rely mostly on machine reading until you have something substantial and only then you get humans involved. Like with Gmail, the email service serves you ads. But it is machine reading, and you don't feel violated.
Social network mapping ------ All terrorist groups rely on social networks. Smaller and tighter the group, more reliant they are on their social networks. So when you nab a few, they lead you to others.
Political grievances have to be proactively addressed. Not because terrorism is and should work. But if there are legitimate concerns, they are legitimate. And they should be addressed. Not as a matter of negotiation with the terrorists or as a step in being blackmailed, but independent of all that.
The "frontline" is where you have small, agile, well trained operatives who engage in direct action. Mistakes have been made in drone attacks, but they are also one of the tools on the frontlines.
Ideological fights on social media.
Larger debates in society, at universities, in old media, on TV, in newspapers. Point by point rebuttals.

Terrorists rely on the war of asymmetry because they know that is the only way they have any chance. आमने सामने आएंगे तो asymmetry गायब हो जाएगी।

That is why you have to fear the ISIS more, because they are breaking many of the rules of the traditional terrorists. Terrorists prefer not to hold territory.

Terrorists rely a lot on out of the box thinking. That goes along the lines of asymmetry. So you have to keep on your toes and constantly be trying to figure out what their next moves might be. It is a game of chess.

Ultimately you just have to drown them out with plentiful information. Wireless broadband and cheap Android phones for the masses ----- I think that is the number one thing. Hundreds of millions of Muslims sharing cat videos makes ISIS irrelevant. You drown out the terrorists with everyday boring stuff. I happen to think that is the most potent weapon.

I have said this many times. I think of the War On Terror as being on par with the Cold War. It will conclude after there is a total spread of democracy across the Arab/Muslim world.

India is the new Britain, because ultimately this is about the ideology of democracy. The oldest and the largest democracies belong together. America and India need each other.

Terrorism is "cutting edge" like Climate Change ---- they both require global coordination. No one country can tackle either.