Who Do Terrorists Work For?

Guest Post by Blogger Mwarang'ethe

In the recent past, we have rejected the common wisdom that terrorists are Muslims fanatics working on behalf of their fellow Muslims, i.e. “framework of orientation.” Some readers of this blog have refused to take these assertions seriously. We revisit the story of the “Nigerian terrorist” who “attempted” to bomb the plane on the way to the USA on 25th December, 2009. We hope by the end of this piece, many will be more enlightened as to who these “terrorists” work for and why.

We start with an article appearing in the New York Times by Eric Lipton, Eric Schmit and Mark Mazzetti on 17th January, 2010. The title of the article is “Review of Jet Bomb Plot Shows More Missed Clues, available here.

Firstly, they tell us that, worried about possible terrorist attacks over the Christmas period, Obama met with senior security and intelligence officials on 22nd December, 2009. In a separate meeting, on the same day, Obama was informed of disturbing intelligence from Yemen that Al-Qaeda operatives were preparing to attack the USA especially on Christmas day. However, as we are told, for “unknown reasons”, “no one could connect the dots.”

This was despite the fact that, a UN expert on Al-Qaeda had in September warned USA policy makers that the same device that had been used in Saudi Arabia in an attempted assassination could be carried aboard a plane. More so, in November, 2009, the USA intelligence learned by “intercepting communications” from Yemen that a man named “Umar Farouk” had volunteered for a coming operation. Please note that these two names are the first two names of this Nigerian.

Furthermore, in later December, these so called “Al-Qaeda operatives in Yemen” mentioned the 25th December as the “good date” and suggested that they “looking for ways to get somebody out” or “for ways to move people to the West,” according to one senior administration official.

Going further, according to Michael Isikoff and Mark Hosenball of the Newsweek, “A White House report on the foiled Christmas Day attempted airliner bomber provided only the sketchiest of details about what may have been the most politically sensitive of its findings: how the White House itself was repeatedly warned about the prospect of an attack on the U.S. homeland by Al Qaeda operatives in Yemen.” Furthermore, they tell us that, “Still, the report refers, obliquely, to what appear to be significant information that had not previously been disclosed by the White House: U.S. intelligence analysts had “highlighted” an evolving “strategic threat” that Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula or AQAP (as the group in Yemen is known) “posed to the U.S. homeland.” See the story here.

However, the “shocker” came during hearings before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee when current Director of the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC), Michael E. Leiter, made a startling admission. According to the Congress Daily, it was reported that on 22nd January, 2010, the intelligence officials “have acknowledged the government knowingly allows foreigners whose names are on terrorist watch lists to enter the country in order to track their movement and activities."

Leiter is reported to have informed this Committee that: "I will tell you, that when people come to the country and they are on the watch list, it is because we have generally made the choice that we want them here in the country for some reason or another."

Furthermore, according to Congress Daily reporter Chris Strohm citing unnamed "intelligence official" confirmed that Leiter's statement reflected government policy and told the publication, "in certain situations it's to our advantage to be able to track individuals who might be on a terrorist watch list because you can learn something from their activities and their contacts."

When this saga started, the USA officials disclosed to the world that the Customs and Border Protection agency learned about Abdulmutallab only after the manifest for Northwest Flight 253 had been generated and the plane took off.

However, we now know this not true. We now know that the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agency had information about alleged terrorist Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab three days before his departure from Amsterdam to Detroit. This is in accordance with the U.S rules that Under U.S. rules, airlines must transmit "passenger name record" data on passengers 72 hours before a flight leaves for the United States. According to Chris Strohm of the CongressDaily, the United States, and Delta, parent company of Northwest Airlines, met that time line for Abdulmutallab, according to officials. In fact, the Delta spokeswoman Susan Elliot was emphatic, "We were compliant with all requirements for submitting passenger information as it relates to the vetting process."

Now, considering that the names Umar Farouk were clearly known before hand from “Qaeda chats,” by the intelligence, further considering that contrary to earlier information, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency had information about Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab three days before his departure from Amsterdam to Detroit, furthermore, taking into account that we now know it is the policy of the USA government to allow well known terrorists to fly into American for “some reason or another” where does that leave the theory concocted by Obama that it was a of “failure to connect dots?”

More so, can one deny that it is entirely possible that these ruthless “choices” made for “some reason or another” which facilitate murder or attempted murder of innocent people while spreading fear are nothing but cynical ways of getting pretexts for advancement of imperialism's geostrategic goals around the world? Let the reader recall what we wrote about Yemen and the, African and Indian Ocean great scramble for big powers.

However, all this is always done in the name of protecting peace, freedom, justice, human rights and such jazz. More so, can we be assured that, the “expected terrorist attacks” by “Somalis terrorists” that Chris has been warning us about, will not be allowed for “one reason or another.”?

In Mein Kampf Hitler said that:

“The great masses of the people in the very bottom of their hearts tend to be corrupted rather than purposely or consciously evil... therefore ... they more easily fall a victim to a big lie than to a little one, since they themselves lie in little things, but would be ashamed of lies that were too big.”