You probably heard about the terrorist attacks in Jakarta today. In terms of body count, it wasn't a very good showing by the Jemaah Islamiyah terrorists, who only killed 9 and wounded 52. But their objective isn't a body count - it is to, ahem, terrorize.
Hence why a hotel, and not a military checkpoint or political rally or whatever. Indonesia has a booming tourist economy, and the terrorists there want to scare travelers away. In fact, in the last decade, seems like most hotels in Indonesia have been bombed... Scared tourists will go to some other country now, and hotels will have to spend a buttload more money on security to try to calm those panicky travelers down. Rule number 4: If you're fighting someone in power, chaos hurts those in power, and thus helps you.
In fact, this is so many hotel attacks in a row that its hard to believe a sensible terrorist group is behind it. They even hit the same hotel they hit in 2003! This wasn't a very big operation - not too spectacular, and it's been done before. So there's not much terrorist street cred in carrying it out. bin Laden isn't calling these guys up to congratulate them.
Tourism in Indonesia isn't a huge business - only 6.5 million tourists last year bringing in $7.4 billion dollars. But that was just as memory of the Bali bombings and other attacks was fading from the rich Westerner's memory (its ok if you forgot about them too...). The Bali bombing in 2002 probably lost Indonesia half a million tourists, as it went from 5.0 million tourists and $4.3 billion down to 4.5 million tourists and $4.0 billion in revenue. So the spectacular attack cost Indonesia something like a half billion dollars in lost revenue, and probably double that including the damage to persons and property.
In comparison, Indonesia had 16,548 traffic fatalities in 2007. So 9 deaths is about 17 hours worth of car fatalities... not too terrorizing.You probably heard about the terrorist attacks in Jakarta today. In terms of body... more
Zouheir Alnajjar, a Collective Journalism contributor who lives in Gaza, gives us an exclusive look at a group of Palestinian militants who make - and set off - homemade rockets headed for Israel.
For years Palestinian militant groups such as Hamas have fired these homemade rockets into Israeli towns and settlements as a means of resistance against the IDF and Israeli occupation or embargoes. Thousands of rockets have fallen on Israel and over a dozen have been killed.
Collective Journalism, Current's citizen journalism program, works by combining perspectives from around the world to create a picture of the world we live in.Zouheir Alnajjar, a Collective Journalism contributor who lives in Gaza, gives us an... more
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, Oct. 17 -- Four of the five main online forums that al-Qaeda's media wing uses to distribute statements by Osama bin Laden and other extremists have been disabled since mid-September, monitors of the Web sites say.
The disappearance of the forums on Sept. 10 -- and al-Qaeda's apparent inability to restore them or create alternate online venues, as it has before -- has curbed the organization's dissemination of the words and images of its fugitive leaders. On Sept. 29, a statement by the al-Fajr Media Center, a distribution network created by supporters of al-Qaeda and other Sunni extremist groups, said the forums had disappeared "for technical reasons," and it urged followers not to trust look-alike sites.
For al-Qaeda, "these sites are the equivalent of pentagon.mil, whitehouse.gov, att.com," said Evan F. Kohlmann, an expert on online al-Qaeda operations who has advised the FBI and others. With just one authorized al-Qaeda site still in business, "this has left al-Qaeda's propaganda strategy hanging by a very narrow thread."
At the same time, in an apparently unrelated flare-up of online sectarian hostility, Shiite and Sunni hackers have targeted Web sites associated with the other sect, including that of a Saudi-owned television network and of Iraq's most revered Shiite cleric.
On several occasions over the past three years, unknown hackers have shut down al-Qaeda-affiliated Web sites after they announced the imminent release of a new video message from Osama bin Laden or another extremist leader. It is often impossible to pinpoint the source of such online attacks, though some experts say the culprits could be independent activists.
A U.S. intelligence official, asked about the online attacks, declined to say whether U.S. spy agencies engage in them. American and British security forces each have joint commands overseeing online operations against extremists.
"There had been this aura of invincibility" about al-Qaeda's media operations, said Gregory D. Johnsen, a U.S.-based expert on violent Sunni groups in Yemen. "Now this has really been taken away from them."
In early September, the al-Fajr forums were drumming up anticipation of al-Qaeda's annual video marking the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. "Await Sept. 11!" one message declared.
Instead, on Sept. 10, the forums vanished.
Rapid changes in domain-registration information and in servers suggested that the sites' webmasters were working intently to bring the forums back up, according to a statement from the SITE Intelligence Group, a leading private monitor of Web sites of extremist groups.
After about 24 hours, one forum, al-Hesbah, reappeared, according to Kohlmann, a senior investigator with the NEFA Foundation in Charleston, S.C.
Al-Qaeda's Sept. 11 video eventually appeared on al-Hesbah, which means "one who holds others accountable," on Sept. 19. By then, the shine had been taken off the anniversary for al-Qaeda supporters.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, Oct. 17 -- Four of the five main online forums that... more
Hundreds of "insurgents" have been executed since 2003, victims of the same summary justice they mete out to their own captives.
Like all wars, the dark, untold stories of the Iraqi conflict drain from its shattered landscape like the filthy waters of the Tigris. And still the revelations come.Hundreds of "insurgents" have been executed since 2003, victims of the same... more
