The Fall of Al Qaeda?

Is Al Qaeda still a threat to the world?

 

    So this seems like a good topic to discuss this week.  Is this core superpower terrorist group still a threat to the U.S., or anyone for that matter.  Well let's explore the recent facts.  Since the tragedy of 9/11, There has not been a single successful attack on us soil, that’s 12 years.  Since the Bombing of London's transport service there has not been a major attack in Europe for 8 years.  Since the War on Terrorism began in 2002, The rate of suicide bombings has greatly decreased down to a minimal number.  Less and Less do you turn the television on and hear about bombings around the world.  This is a good sign that This elite terrorist group is crumbling, more so in the past year and a half since the death of their leader Osama Bin Laden. 

    When Bin Laden was killed, the world feared that his "martyrdom" would wreak havoc and Al Qaeda everywhere would just start blowing up everyone and everything, but nothing happened.  Since 2008, President Barrack Obama's tenure, The U.S. Military has been able to successfully seek and destroy 38 Al Qaeda leaders.  Let's put it this way, say we have a small group of terrorist and they see their fearless leader gunned down along with 38 other leaders of their group.  With no one to keep them grounded and rally orders out, this group will not last very long.  The most they may be able to do is attempt to plan their own "solo" attack, but will most likely be either ineffective, or get caught trying due to the world major powers attempting to prevent attacks. 

    What about all the other small splinter cells of Al Qaeda?  Well, most of them have been either destroyed or the last few remaining members have gone into hiding.  Jemaah Ialamiah, Abu Sayyaf Group, The Pakistan Taliban, and AQAP have been mostly destroyed by countries who have searched and captured all of their top officials rendering these groups obsolete. 

    And then there is AQIM who I recently heard about.  This group runs the northern Africa cell, but after being together for over seven years, has only carried out the attack on the Algerian Gas Facility, which did not have a major impact.

    So the dire question is, Are they going extinct?  I say yes, slowly this group will meet its demise and never rise again and become a tale of stories like the Vikings, At first they were strong and later they fell.  So here is the real kicker and twist to this story…With Al Qaeda diminishing and the recent attacks from KDHP-C, does this enter the next age of terrorist groups?  Will KDHP-C be the next Al Qaeda, or even the next KGB?  Are the cold war groups coming out of hiding to strike?  Only time will tell, but I will keep looking into it.

 

Victor Out

U.S. Embassy attack, who's to Blame?

The attack on U.S. Embassy in Turkey, they say its DHKP-C, is it?

 

First of all, excuse the strange text background, Blogger has been having issues all day.

So here's the latest scoop on world news.  On Friday Feb 1st, a bomber, now possibly named as 


 Ecevit Shanli, walked up to a guard check point entrance outside the U.S. Embassy and blew himself up.  The news and other organizations are calling this a terrorist act claimed by DHKP-C.  First of all, who the hell are these people?  Well, they originated way back in the Kennedy days during the cold war.  DHKP-C has a good track record for being a "sub contractor" for terrorist groups and militant outfits and has also been believed to have some ties to Syria and Iran.  DHKP-C also has a relationship with the Turkish Kurdish separatist group PKK, which is also close to the Syrian government. About one-third of the PKK's fighters are said to be Syria..  DHKP-C is usually viscerally hostile to the Turkish state, the United States and NATO, and has had links with the far-left in Europe.

Now, they are saying that they do not believe that DHKP-C has any ties to al Qaeda, but who really knows these days.  Governments keep that kind of info on the down low.  But enough news garble, let's get down to the nitty gritty. 

 

First off, I want to know who names these groups, really.  Who sat there for hours and came up with the name DHKP-C?  that doesn't sound threatening at all to me, sounds like a really hard acronym to remember.   Back in the day real groups that actually were real threats to society had decent names. 

 

Ok, back to history time.  Here is some background info I found on this Ecevit character, source was CNN.   http://www.cnn.com/2013/02/01/world/europe/turkey-explosion-terror-group/index.html?iref=allsearch

 

 

" Shanli received bomb-making training somewhere in Europe in the mid-1990s, according to Hasam Selim Ozertem, a security expert at the International Strategic Research Organization in Ankara. Turkish officials say that as a result of counterterrorism operations on Turkish soil, DHKP-C became increasingly active among the Turkish diaspora in Europe.

Shanli returned to Turkey in 1997 and was subsequently involved in attacks on the Istanbul police headquarters and senior military officials using anti-tank weapons. After being arrested, Shanli went on a lengthy hunger strike and was released from jail in 2002 because of a neurological disorder.

DHKP-C has been active for more than 30 years and espouses a Marxist-Leninist philosophy reminiscent of the Cold War. It grew out of another far-left group, Devrimci Sol (Revolutionary Left), formed when Turkey was in political turmoil, with clashes between militant left- and right-wing groups undermining a weak political system. Devrimci Sol claimed responsibility for gun attacks that killed two Americans, including a U.S. military employee, and an attack that wounded a U.S. military officer in early 1991 in protest of the Gulf War.

Among other attacks attributed to the DHKP-C was the assassination of a former justice minister, Mehmet Topac, in 1994, as well as the murders of a number of senior police and military officials and, 1996, a prominent businessman, Ozdemir Sabanci.

Among its more recent operations was an attempt to kill another former justice minister, Hikmet Sami Turk, in 2009. The female suicide bombers main explosive charge did not go off."

 

HOLD UP!  So let me get this straight…Because Shanil had a neurological disorder they just released him from prison?  WTF? And here I thought America's prison system was stupid.   This needs to be highlighted - After being arrested, Shanli went on a lengthy hunger strike and was released from jail in 2002 because of a neurological disorder.  Ok world, what's wrong with this sentence?  So now I don't feel as bad for Turkey anymore, they are the ones who let this idiot out of jail in the first place.  Well…I thought I was going to have a great debate topic for this one, but obviously not a single news channel caught this one.  So here is Victors run down of this tragic day;

 

1997: Turkey arrests Shanil

2002: Turkey released Shanil due to Neurological Disorder

2013: Shanil blows up and embassy

Future: who is going to get the blame?  Not Turkey, they will blame DHKP-C

Moral of this story…Turkey needs to re-do their prison system, Victor out!

 

 

 

Also here is a link to the screen shot of the website that shows Turkey released Shanil

 

[URL=http://imgur.com/m0ODLjz][IMG]http://i.imgur.com/m0ODLjz.png[/IMG][/URL]