As we celebrate our Independence Day holiday, fraught with "nonspecific" terrorist threats, it would be appropriate to remember the obvious. Osama bin Laden and his trained al Qaeda lieutenants have mastered the World War II tactics of deception, rumors, and misdirection to confuse, conceal and cloak their larger mission. Bin Laden is not a student of misdirection. He is an expert.
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Op-ed
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Copyright © 2002 Craig O. Thompson and Brightwater Enterprises, LLC.
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AUTHOR PROFILE: Craig O. Thompson, is a spokesperson for the International Association of Counterterrorism and Security Professionals. He is the author of the book on global terrorism, <i>OMAR: A Novel</i> (Brightwater Publishing Company / StrataGem Press™, HC #0-9675207-03 and SC #0-9675207-11), and the upcoming non-fiction book, The Terrorist Cell Game©. A keynoter and workshop leader for Business Contingency and Disaster Recovery Plans, he is a member of the Institute for Business and Home Safety, and the Association of (Business) Contingency Planners International.
Op-Ed - 718 words
4th of July Threats:
bin Laden a Master of Misdirection?
By
Craig O. Thompson
INDIANAPOLIS, IN - July 1, 2002 -- As we celebrate our Independence Day holiday, fraught with "nonspecific" terrorist threats, it would be appropriate to remember the obvious. Osama bin Laden and his trained al Qaeda lieutenants have mastered the World War II tactics of deception, rumors, and misdirection to confuse, conceal and cloak their larger mission. Bin Laden is not a student of misdirection. He is an expert.
Should we take this lightly? Absolutely not.
Witness bin Laden's pronouncements one week prior to the Attack on America, when major threats were openly broadcast. Osama's warnings suggested that any American military installation or business in Japan and South Korea would soon come under attack. In addition, he implied Japanese or South Korean businesses that served Americans or allies would be subject to terrorist attack.
Where did the United States concentrate its highest alert status? Where was America looking on 9/11? To the Far East...not to the East Coast of America.
Historically, in preparation for D-Day--as with other major operations during WWII--America and its allies carried out diplomatic deception, spread rumors, and created outright fabrications to, as Winston Churchill once described it, endow the facts with "a bodyguard of lies." D-Day, otherwise known as "Operation Overlord," succeeded through a series of deceptions so complex that Hitler and his troops would ultimately be confused, pinned down in the Balkins, and spread too thin in other critical theaters. Does this sound familiar?
Terrorist tactics employed by the al Qaeda--such as those utilized as a screen for the Attack on America--reveal the manner in which we should treat all so-called 4th of July threats, or any future warnings.
At the risk of "threat fatigue," America cannot complacently presume that every warning, or so-called "corroborated" threat is without the potential for jeopardy ...whether the threats emanate from Al-Jazeera, the Qatar-based satellite television network, from interrogations of captured terrorists, or from bin Laden,himself.
The possibility of bogus "Las Vegas-type" threats, such as the cellphone conversation report from an Arabic speaking, naturalized U.S. citizen, born in Lebanon, brings home the new reality. The warning of a 4th of July attack on Las Vegas was found to be without merit. However, if we presume, for only a moment, that these stories are always "lies" we must presume that some could also be terrorist cell codes.
Consider the amount of trouble the semi-retired businessman went to in order to get his message out, nationwide. First he called the Las Vegas FBI and got no response. He called again, with the same result. Finally, he phoned the media and the FBI took notice.
There are at least four possibilities: 1) The man is just looking for his fifteen minutes of fame 2) He actually overheard the reported terrorist phone conversation 3) He is a member of a terrorist cell, publicly spreading codes for a future attack or, 4) He is an honest, though misguided man, who truly believes what he said about "the city of corruption... prostitution...gambling...(and) of unbelievers."
Could any of this be misdirection? Lest we be lulled to believe there are no longer terrorist cells of any consequence remaining on our homeland, since September 11th, remember the famous anthropologist Margaret Mead. She said, "Never doubt for a moment that a small group of committed individuals can change the world....Indeed, it is the only thing that has."
In twenty-four words, Dr. Mead's razor-sharp analysis of what facilitates world change says it all. Whether from the terrorist's perspective or from our own. It's only a matter of degree that permits change to direct history.
Thomas Jefferson said, "No nation is permitted to live in ignorance with impunity.
The key is to remain knowledgeable, cautious, vigilant, alert and active. As you go about daily activities--or 4th of July celebrations--be more focused and have a stronger awareness of your surroundings.
Finally, each of us must take the responsibility--along with our Congress and the President's Cabinet--to emulate and stimulate individual and community implementation of what our best Top Gun jet pilots refer to as "Situation Awareness." This is an intangible force that separates Americans from the ordinary, helps us to analyze and assess any encounter...or the potential for one, exactly as it should be--then, to react instantly and simultaneously, with precision, to multiple tasks to prevent or mitigate terrorist attacks on our homeland.
How each of you choose to address and react to these issues and challenges, today, will determine the level of preparedness our beloved country will reach tomorrow.
Therein lies my hope...and,hopefully, yours.
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© 2002, Craig O. Thompson & Brightwater Enterprises,
LLC
PLEASE NOTE: Mr. Thompson is available for print and electronic media interviews. As a spokesperson for the International Association of Counterterrorism and Security Professionals, terrorism expert and keynoter, Thompson, has been interviewed by over 240 worldwide media outlets--just since the Attack on America.
Craig O. Thompson (BrightPub.aol.com)
Terrorism Expert / www.keynoteR-central.com
P.O. Box 503 Greenwood, IN 46142-0503
1-317-883-3603 (VOICE OR FAX)
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The article made no mention that Al-Qa'idah is a renegade drug-running and diamond smuggling operation in competition with its teacher - the CIA who are not at all Christianlike. Everything that CIA does in Central Asia, the Middle East and Africa is copied and mirrored by Al-Qa'idah. And they are quite effective, though not at all Islamic. It's student vs teacher for Liberty vs Power.
However, the article made no mention that their theatre of operation is Central Asia-Middle East-Africa, with their remit to rid their countries of CIA installed and maintained kings, dictators, generals, drug lords and other despots. Uncle Sam prefers tyrannical governments over democracies because tyrants sell oil for less and also cooperate to not flood the market causing disruption to oil prices. And in countries without oil, such as Afghanistan or Bolivia, tyrants do not destroy the opium crops that CIA needs to refine into heroin for western consumption. Bin Ladiyn declared their theatre of operation for the purpose of ridding the state terrorists. And he came on video to say that he did not do 9/11. He said one of Uncle Sam's many enemies did that, not he.
The videos of Bin Ladiyn after that are all bogus. He was killed in massive state terrorist bombings of Afghanistan. (nothing like backstabbing our former allies against the Soviets, eh?) And now Afhghanistan is rule by an ex-Soviet and growing CIA opium.
Bin Ladiyn was falsely linked to 9/11 in order to justify the unlawful and criminal invasion of Afghanistan because the Afghan government under Taliban had outlawed opium production.
But he and alot of innocent Afghan Freedom Fighters and their families are now dead, thanks to Uncle Sam, the Terrorist Man. And I say this openly, as a former member of the global state terrorists, that Uncle Sam is dishing out global tyranny and terrorism while trashing our civil liberties and the Bill of Rights.