2009 Perspective on Future Terrorist Attacks

    

 

Around the world, many have wondered what the terrorist will strike next after the Mumbai incident. Fox News Contributor and Terrorist Expert, Doctor Walid Phares, expressed his opinions on future attacks and the logic behind these attacks on the website, http://foxforum.blogs.foxnews.com/2008/12/04/wphares_mumbai. Phares gives the readers’ three reasons for an increase in terrorist attacks. His first reason expressed that “Urban Jihad is Open for Business” (Foxforum.blogs.foxnews.com). This statement is used to express Phares belief in the future of “Urban Jihad” that will be used to instill shock and paralyzing terror into public spectators by seizing part of a city or neighborhood unexpectedly. He feels that Mumbai was used to initiate an increase in these types of attacks. His second reason was sort of vague, if you’re not from India or it was to me. The second reason for an increase in terrorist attacks was to initiate “Real Jihadi Claims Beyond Kashmir” (Foxforum.blogs.foxnews.com). This expression was used to create a connection between past attacks on Kashmir to the  recent attack on Mumbai. Dr. Phares explained that the Taliban’s goal here is to inhabit half of India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan (Foxforum.blogs.foxnews.com). Phares continued to explain the logic behind this movement as the Taliban’s way to create a Caliphate. You may ask yourself, “What the heck is a Caliphate?”. That’s a question I had to research for myself. According to encarta.msn.com, “a caliphate is a office and realm of the caliph as supreme leader of the Muslim community and successor of the prophet Muhammed” (http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761575871/Caliphate.html). Anyway, moving on towards our reason number three, for an increase in future terrorist attacks includes: “Trans-Regional Forces Trump Local Forces” (Foxforum.blogs.foxnews.com). Phares feels that the attackers involved in the Mumbai incident were supported by a “Pakistan-based Laskar e Taiba, the Indian Mujahideen, Taliban or better known as Al Qaeda” (Foxforum.blogs.foxnews.com). He also states that four of these groups were actually part of one web. I’m guessing that a web is larger than a cell, so maybe his version of four groups is four separate cells. If anyone knows, feel free to contribute to this explanation of a terrorist web. The web that Phares is referring to spreads from Kabul to Mumbai. He elaborates more on the coordination of the attacks, but you can read the article for more insight. The threat that concerns Phares is that three south Asian democracies are all targets of the same enemy, appearing  to the targets or victims as being  multiple enemies (Foxforum.blogs.foxnews.com). There was also a mentioning of a fourth reason for an increase in terrorist attacks, but I forgot to include this in the beginning statement. I can sum up Phares fourth reason by stating that Afghanistan, the U.S., and NATO forces will be involved in another police action/war, in the near future. To sum this all up, Phares explains that Mumbai and future attacks will be “designed to break down precarious relations between the three south Asian democracies in the region and to weaken the efforts promised by President Obama against Al Qaeda and its regional allies in 2009″ (Foxforum.blogs.foxnews.com). I wasn’t really sure who Dr. Walid Phares was, in the beginning of this article, other than who Fox News claimed that he was. I discovered that Dr. Walid Phares is the Director of the Future Terrorism Project at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies and he is the author of “The Confrontation: Winning the War Against the Future Jihad”. I enjoyed reading the article. If your interested in military history or counterterrorism efforts this would be an interesting article to read. Happy Reading!