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 Terrorist
Sophistication
Or atrocity by handy, everyday technology?...
[Gordon Cucullu] 7/27/05
Before the
dust had settled in the London subways and the wounded evacuated
much was already being made by breathless commentators about
the “increasing sophistication” and technical expertise
of the terrorist killers. These kind of coordinated attacks,
we were assured, presuppose a highly intelligent, highly skilled
group of terrorists. The implication is that we are losing
ground and are increasingly helpless in the face of such professional
competence. We have been forced into a reactive mode to an
invincible terrorist threat. Well, that’s simply not
the case.
Contributor
Gordon Cucullu
Former
Green Beret lieutenant colonel, Gordon Cucullu is now
an editorialist, author and a popular speaker. Born
into a military family, he lived and served for more
than thirteen years in East Asia, including eight years
in Korea. For his Special Forces service in Vietnam
he was awarded a Bronze Star, Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry,
and the Presidential Unit Commendation. After separation
from the Army, he worked on Korea and East Asian affairs
at both the Pentagon and Department of State as well
as an executive for General Electric in Korea. His
first major non-fiction work, Separated
at Birth: How North Korea became the Evil Twin,
is based in large part on his extensive experience
in Korea and East Asia as a governmental insider and
businessman. [website]
[go to Cucullu index]
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In fact,
to judge by the sophistication levels of terrorist attacks
they reached the pinnacle with the simultaneous hijacking of
airliners and converting them into homicide missiles on September
11, 2001. The terrorists have been unable to equal that attack
and since then the degree and sophistication of terrorist offensives
have declined. Frankly, it is no great shakes for a jihadist
revolutionary movement with the kind of funding al Qaeda receives
from sheiks in Saudi Arabia and mullahs in Iran to blow up
a few bombs individually or simultaneously. It does not take
loads of sophistication to pack a car with explosives, drive
it to a target, and close an electrical circuit. Nor can it
be anything other than sheer desperation to rely on terrorists
who kill themselves along with their victims. Use of suicide
bombers is a strategy of self-imposed attrition that can only
result in organizational self destruction. Horrific, yes; advanced,
no.
Where we
see – or think we see – a growing sophistication
of the terror movement is in organization and communication.
Again, commentators speak in hushed tones of the use of the
Internet for communications by al Qaeda, as if this is some
amazing technological feat. What would really be amazing would
be a terror organization that eschewed use of cell phones,
PDAs, e-mails, wire transfers, and other everyday technologies
that we all employ. The origin for this odd attitude can be
found in the commonly-held stereotype that these terrorists
are poverty-stricken, ignorant refugees, fleeing from a life
so cruel and unfair that killing Westerners is the only avenue
open to them. A brief look at the biographies of these killers
ought to be sufficient to disabuse that notion.
In a rather
small set of terrorists – the 520 detainees held by US
forces at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba – one will find men with
advanced degrees in engineering, economics, finances, and philosophy.
One will find computer geeks capable of creating complex software
programs or innovative methods of triggering explosives. Locked
away in the GITMO cells are practical, hands-on technicians
who can wire up a bomb in the dark as adroitly as they can
behead a helpless hostage. There are a few men from the rougher
classes of the 17 countries represented in the camp, but most
are educated, intelligent, and, in their own twisted world,
highly creative.
Initially
much was made of the fact that in the London bombing all of
the explosions went off within a minute of each other. Folks,
that is what timers are designed to accomplish. One commentator
noted that “in Madrid the bombs went off within two minutes
of each other. (In London) they went off within a minute. That
shows remarkable capability.” Again, the question has
to be raised: does it really?
Perhaps,
if the explosions were under the desks of heads of state, inside
key communications facilities, or capable of taking down an
electrical grid and all blew simultaneously we could credit
al Qaeda with highly increased sophistication. Not for the
timing devices – these are fairly easy to rig and detonate – but
for the placement of the explosives. But in London we saw none
of this. Rather we saw the most basic kind of terrorist attack:
random bombing of innocent civilians in the most public of
places, subway trains and busses.
The late
explosion – the bus explosion – was observed by
witnesses as the terrorist fiddled inside of the pack containing
the explosives. Was he trying to disarm the explosive or detonate
it? Interesting question, because even though the terrorists
have been labeled as “suicide bombers” by the police
there remains an open – perhaps insoluble - question:
could these bombers have been fooled themselves? Suppose they
were directed to enter the public conveyances, place the backpacks
in a crowded location, then leave? The timers, which they might
have been told were set to go off a half-hour or so later,
were then rigged to detonate early and convert their attack
into a “martyrdom” operation.
Is this a
frivolous notion? Not necessarily. Recall that post-911 we
saw video of Usama bin Laden entertaining a visiting sheik.
Bin Laden was regaling his visitor with stories of how he pulled
off the September 11 attacks. In the course of the conversation
bin Laden mentioned – with a half-smile – that
several of the attackers “did not know that this was
a martyrdom operation.” In other words even on what to
date has been the most complex al Qaeda operation only a restricted
few were privy to the real nature of the attack. This is certainly
in keeping with what is known in the business as “tradecraft,” reflecting
precautions of compartmentalization and “need to know.” Once
committed to the World Trade Center attack there was no opportunity
for the terrorists to back out. Had they known all along that
it was a suicide operation might one or two chickened out?
It is always a possibility, one neatly checkmated by the simple
act of lying to the operative.
Given the
backgrounds of the British-Pakistani men involved in the London
terrorist attack it seems suspicious that they all four would
have agreed to be homicide bombers. In my opinion, it is highly
likely that they were intentionally misled by their al Qaeda
control. If al Qaeda is now at the point where it cannot even
recruit simple homicide bombers then it is struggling indeed.
Regardless, we must be careful that while we give ample credit
to the cunning, commitment, and aberrant ideology of our Islamist
enemy we do not overstate their capabilities. We have them
on defense and need to keep hounding them till we kill or capture
the last one. tRO
Curious
about North Korea? Learn more in Gordon’s
best-selling book Separated
at Birth: How North Korea became the Evil Twin became
the Evil Twin, Lyons Press available at bookstores now.
copyright
Gordon Cucullu 2005
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