We Are Losing The Global War on Terror

Evidence suggests that we are unable to keep up with the changing tactics of the Global Jihad and although we have caused the Jihadists considerable losses regionally, we are in fact losing the war on terror on a global scale. There are many reasons why we are not gaining ground globally and in order to win the war and not just a few battles, we MUST change our tactics and our laws to enable our agencies charged with our protection to do their job effectively.

One of the major reasons we are losing this war is because of the constraints that are placed on our intelligence gathering and this is a fact the enemy knows well. The Italians recently thwarted an attempt to bomb a church and a subway, by monitoring calls, arresting the perpetrators and deporting them, all BEFORE notifying the media.

How were they able to accomplish this? Because they shared intelligence, they acted swiftly and were not constrained by laws that prohibit the monitoring of suspicious activity and a key point, NO media involvement until the incident was over. Jihadist groups monitor the media more closely than just about any other group of people, and they use the intelligence gathered from this source. All too often we publicize our weaknesses, mistakes and downfalls, all in the name of keeping the people informed. It's high time we stopped doing that and learned to keep our mouths shut. Remember the old saying put on posters and hand bills at the ship yards and defense factories during the Second World War, "Loose lips sink ships"?

If a test of security finds a flaw in a system, such as the recent story about agents being able to get cesium-137 through border checkpoints in December of 2005, a press release is issued and it's "Film at 11:00!"

Why do we do that? We are inviting a terrorist to hop in his rental car and bring in a load, before we fix the problem. Full disclosure should be done AFTER the problem is fixed, not before. Instead, we play the blame game and point fingers and all too often these incidents are used as pawns in the political chess game.

The war on terror is an ongoing effort that will last for many years into the future, and perhaps a lifetime. We must remove the barriers that are binding our government in order to stay ahead of the constantly shifting tactics of the Global Jihad. We must learn to think differently in the way we act and react to situations. We must tighten security EVERYWHERE and we must do it quickly.

All too often we are running around putting out fires instead of preventing them in the first place. Terrorists exploited a weakness in our air transportation system, so we went gung-ho fixing that problem. We are just chasing the rat to a different hole. The problem is complex and vast, but these are different times and the enemy is highly capable of thinking on their feet and changing the play in mid-count, like a quarterback calling audibles when the defence comes to the line of scrimmage.

The solution will be just as complex and vast as the problem, and winning public support of those changes may be the most difficult task of them all. It takes money, lots and lots of money to affect these changes and that is the pitfall. How do you make the ordinary citizen understand the need to spend many billions of dollars when they have felt safe for so long and consider themselves safe? How many days like September 11, 2001 will it take to change the public perception of safety?

Once again politicians come into play by showing their voter base how the chess game is coming by making statements such as, "The radiation detection system at the borders will take 'n' dollars to implement by 2009, we just don't have that kind of money." A seemingly harmless statement of boosting to ones constituents that you are on fiscal guard duty. To a terrorist it say, "Ah, I have more time to work on my plan."

How, specifically, are we losing the war?

Terrorists are using Democracy to gain control of governments and their people. A case in point is the recent election of Hamas to power in the Palestinian parliament. They are using the very ideal we are trying to institute in Afghanistan and Iraq to their advantage. Now that they are in power in Gaza over the Palestinian people, they will use their authority to institute Sharia law and eliminate democracy completely. This victory in Palestine has given encouragement to other Jihadist factions to duplicate the Hamas tactic.

Presently, this same tactic, is being used to undermine the Jordanian government by yet another Muslim Brotherhood created faction, the Islamic Action Front Party. Hamas has warned the Jordanian regime not to interfere with the Democratic progress of the IAF and is evidenced by the election of Zacki Bani Irshid as general secretary of the IAF. Irshid has close ties with Hamas.

In fact, Azaam al-Huneidi, the head of the IAF bloc of the Jordanian parliament sees the Hamas victory in Gaza as an important model for Islamic takeover of other Arab governments.

Here at home we cannot stem the flow of money out of the country and through Iranian banks to the Hezbollah, al-Qaeda, Hamas or just about any other Jihadist group you care to name.

With all this funding, they are arming themselves to the teeth to continue their Global Jihad. On April 3rd, Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau turned off a 3 Billion Dollar pipeline and is pursuing one of the biggest banks in NY.

Last week a smuggling operation was uncovered in the Michigan area and was shut down. Initial reports indicate that it was part of a nearly 9 Billion dollar operation. That is a total of 12 Billion dollars in just these two cases.

al-Qaeda continues its Jihad, although diminished from it's former numbers by the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. They have enjoyed renewed funding from direct sources such as Iran and indirect sources such as the smuggling operations outlined above. They are gaining a foot hold in Gaza and are recruiting and training new members rapidly.

Intelligence as recent as the 1st week of April, 2006, reports that new recruits in Hezbollah, al-Qaeda, Hamas and others are being trained directly by the Iranian Republican Guard inside the borders of Syria.

al-Qaeda and Hamas differ fundamentally in their approach to spreading the Global Jihad. al-Qaeda sees terror as the most effective way of rejecting western culture from the world, while Hamas is content with exploiting western Democratic rules, at least on the surface. Hamas still adheres to al-Zawahiri's past wishes and will not give up armed struggle or make a peace with Israel, ever.

One of the least talked about and most dangerous of all the terror groups is the Muslim Brotherhood. One of the oldest and most prolific, founded in 1928, of all anti-western groups, the Muslim Brotherhood is the father of such groups as Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, to name a few.

The election of Hamas in Gaza marks the first success the Muslim Brotherhood has had in the electoral to take virtually exclusive control of an Arab regime in the very heart of the Arab world. (Previously, Hassan Turabi rose to power through the Muslim Brotherhood in Sudan.) In the past the Muslim Brotherhood had sought to replace secular regimes in Egypt and Syria, but were unsuccessful.

Israeli intelligence views Hamas' rise as an extremely significant event in the Muslim Brotherhood movement, which is hard at work in Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, and Syria. The current leader of the international Muslim Brotherhood, Mahdi 'Akef, admitted openly "that the Brotherhood is a global movement whose members everywhere share a basic, similar religious worldview (spreading Islam until it takes over the whole world)."

Until the US went into Afghanistan, the Muslim Brotherhood actually had training camps where it worked with Kashmiri militants and sought to expand its influence in Central Asian states, especially Tajikistan.

This organization has been this active for almost 80 years, and they continue unabated and one hardly ever hears a word mentioned about them, from the Media or the administration. They must be taken into account seriously, yet we have seemed to side stepped them completely. Or have we?

Fear not bravehearts, all is not lost.

We will soon begin to turn the tide and gain ground in this war on terror. Iran has been funding all of these groups and allowing them sanctuary and the use of it's banking system to move money from around the world to the coffers of these groups.

Their insistence on obtaining nuclear weapons, under the veil of building a peaceful power source, will be their undoing. The western world will not allow them to have their weapons and are preparing to deal with the problem. In dealing with the problem of nuclear weapons, we will make a huge leap forward toward winning this war. Crippling Iran will cripple, by default, many terror groups.

Eliminating Irans power will eliminate a major axis of evil however, it will not be the end of the war. It will be a huge set back to be sure, but there is much more to do. The next battleground of the war on terror will in all likelihood be the South Pacific, and specifically Jemaah Islamiya. Much of the planning of the 9/11 attacks on the United States was done in Jemaah Islamiya's back yard.

There are more Muslims in this part of the world then anywhere else and this makes it is a fertile environment for the further development of a huge terror organization. Funding has been tough to come by, but terrorism has a way of finding the money. Although the exact strength of JI is not known, more and more are being arrested everyday. With thousands of islands at their disposal it is an easy place to protect and produce terror. JI is believed to have cells spanning Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines.

Remember, a second round of plane missile attacks, exactly like the ones on 9/11/01 was planned using Asian terrorists, because Osama Bin-Laden knew we would be looking for Arabs.

The administration has recently stated that they are taking a long hard look at terrorism in Europe. You can be sure that they are looking just as hard at the South Pacific as well.