Targeting Terrorism
Jihadist terror organizations have set economic terrorism as their new target, intending to harm and paralyze Western economies, the United Sates in particular, claims Prof. Gabriel Weimann, expert researcher of terrorism over the Internet at the University of Haifa. Prof. Weimann monitored websites hosted by terrorist and terrorism-supporting organizations and concludes: “For the Jihadists, the present economic crisis signifies an ideal opportunity and platform to leverage a economic terrorist campaign.”
In the course of a study that was carried out over a number of years, Prof. Weimann surveyed public and encoded websites run by Islamic terrorist organizations, forums, video clips, and practically all the information related to Islamic Jihad terrorism that is flowing through the network.
According to Prof. Weimann, the focus on economic terrorism was set in motion with the September 11 attack on the Twin Towers, when Osama bin Laden stated on the video tapes that he sent out that these attacks mostly damaged the United States’ economic base and that these attacks, which cost $500,000 to carry out, cost the U.S. $500 billion.
via newmedia-eng.haifa.ac.il »Read Full Article.
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I typically don’t do this, but I feel compelled since I wrote a book about cyber-terrorism in 2003.
On this point I am confident that Weimann is about a decade late in his conclusion. We have video of bin Laden adding up the financial damage of the 9/11 attacks. So when have their attacks not been about the economy of the US and attempting to prevent the U.S. from acting on the world stage?
In fact, the entire U.S. Critical Infrastructure Protection effort is based on protecting the economy from terrorist attacks. And that effort began in 1996-1998.
Just a thought.
Wow! Not to put down the professor’s “findings,” but this is hardly a revelation. OBL has been very clear about his intent to damage the economy of the United States as the best way to force U.S. troops into global retreat; he learned this lesson long ago as a leader of the Mujahideen in Afghanistan, and he credits himself and the Mujahideen with bankrupting and ultimately bringing down the USSR. So this is a tactical imperative articulated by OBL as early as the late 80’s and early 1990’s, even if he didn’t carry out such an attack until 2001.
Yeah pretty much, Dan. That is why I think the title is misleading, it implies that the economy is a “new target,” which it clearly isn’t. In fact, it’s been the primary target all along.