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December 29, 2008
Terrorist Profiling in Europe Being Used to Good Effect
Since the horrors of the Islamist attack on Mumbai, European governments are taking off their politically-correct gloves. Taking a position that used to be an excuse for criticism of the United States, with its tight immigration policy, Europe is now going even one better. Perhaps Europe may not succumb to an Islamic caliphate after all.
One issue at hand is what to do about Iran, which appears determined to produce nuclear weapons as well as to sponsor Islamist terrorism, something that sober Western governments do not want. Europe, as well as Iran’s neighbors, is rightly concerned when a country with a government that demonstrates irrationality and lack of transparency wants to have weapons of mass destruction.
Europe has tried negotiations and persuasion (unlike the U.S.), to no avail. Iranians, both chess players and bazaar bargainers, are better at both than most Europeans, with the possible exception of Russia. But there is a sticky problem that has emerged: what to do about Iranian scientists and scholars who have until now traveled to Europe for academic work. We know that many educated Iranians are neither government agents nor Shiite fanatics – but some are.
France has a new policy to vet all non-European Union researchers working in sensitive areas – and furthermore, to keep out all Iranian researchers. They are urging all EU members not to provide Iran with technical assistance or training that might be used for the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction that might even be used against them. According to Joseph Illand, who heads the EU security office, this is the first country-specific restriction on scholars and researchers. (See Nature News, Nature 456, 2008).
Of course human rights advocates consider this unfair, and would rather have a case-by-case vetting instead. It is true, innocent Iranian scholars will be affected, but the danger is sufficient that these restrictions are needed. The U.S. is prosecuting one such (naturalized) Iranian researcher now who was caught sending sensitive materials to Iran for “training purposes.”
Another bit of news: Agence France Presse and the AP have reported that Belgian authorities have arrested 14 suspected al Qaeda terrorists, including one who was planning a suicide attack. Sixteen raids were executed by 242 police in Brussels and Liege. Security people claim that these arrests were the “most important anti-terrorism operation in Belgium.” This terrorist group was also involved in training and fighting on the Pakistan-Afghan border, supervised by important al Qaeda leadership.
Belgium has waged an all-out investigation against al Qaeda for over a year without being infiltrated. Glen Audenaert, Director of the Federal Belgian Police (and his deputies), have educated themselves on the nature of this enemy. They seemed to understand its ideological nature and were equipped to deal with it.
Another piece of luck, a Belgian woman Muslim convert who has taken the name of Malika al Aroud, has also been arrested. She was the widow of a Muslim man who was the suicide-assassin of Ahmed Shah Massoud, an Afghan anti-Taliban commander and important ally of the U.S., two days before the 9/11 attack. You may remember seeing her interviewed on television in full hijab (veiled up to her eyeballs), when she spoke passionately about her love for Osama bin Laden and his “beautiful face.” This woman, according to Belgian authorities, is a menace and her arrest is most welcome.
There is a link between European-based cells and overseas al Qaeda battlefields, with much traveling back and forth. According to counterterrorism expert Walid Phares, the information coming out of these arrests challenge the assertion that the root causes for terrorism are found in suburban disenfranchisement. The “jihadist case,” says Phares, “is not the socio-economic situation in Brussels.” The target for their planned suicide bombing was the European Parliament, democracy as a whole, not some economic complaint. Belgium, which was opposed to the invasion of Iraq and isn’t a partner in Afghanistan, has learned that the Islamists have a bigger goal than those wars. This is an international (and personal) war.
FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributing Editor Dr. Laina Farhat-Holzman is an historian, lecturer, and author who also writes for the Santa Cruz Sentinel. You may contact her at Lfarhat102@aol.com or http://www.globalthink.net/.
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