A leaked Whitehall report has revealed that Al Qaeda is exploiting the “poor and disenfranchised” in its recruiting efforts;
AL-QAEDA is secretly recruiting affluent, middle- class Muslims in British universities and colleges to carry out terrorist attacks in this country, leaked Whitehall documents reveal.
A network of “extremist recruiters” is circulating on campuses targeting people with “technical and professional qualifications”, particularly engineering and IT degrees.
Yesterday it emerged that last week’s London bombings were a sophisticated attack with all the devices detonating on the Underground within 50 seconds of each other. The police believe those behind the outrage may be home-grown British terrorists with no criminal backgrounds and possessing technical expertise.
A joint Home Office and Foreign Office dossier ” Young Muslims and Extremism ” prepared for the prime minister last year, said Britain might now be harbouring thousands of Al-Qaeda sympathisers.
Via Newsbeat1
A leaked Whitehall report has revealed that Al Qaeda is exploiting the “poor and disenfranchised” in its recruiting efforts;
Old news, Kate. The left has been saying that AQ, and all extremist groups, exploits the poor and disenfranchised for many, many years now.
OT:
Downed US Seals may have got too close to Bin Laden
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0%2C%2C2089-1688012%2C00.html
Via LGF in comments.
Robert McClelland – You contradicted yourself. If the poor are exploited, primarily due to dictatorial rule, then why wouldn’t you spread democracy and freedom to help them out of that situation. Thus you should be supporting President Bush, not denying the initiative.
I never said the poor were exploited due to dictatorial rule, the crazy voices in your head did. The poor and disenfranchised in democratic countries are exploited by extremist groups too.
Really, and which DEMOCRATIC countries would that be? May it perhaps be your definition of democratic, ie: do you classify Iran as a democratic country, even though they vote?
Apparently you missed the sarcasm.
My comments were inspired by the endless streams of “experts”‘ who have been simpering through my radio lately, virtually all of them tenured in Canadian Universities.
Really, and which DEMOCRATIC countries would that be?
Canada, the US, Britain, etc. Where do you think white supremist groups get there supporters from? The poor and disenfranchised.
Young disillusioned Muslims are being led to their deaths by a group of people who neither care about their existence today & care even less about them after they are gone. Although, I am sure that these people will scream that the authorities are targeting them because of their ethicity & beliefs, I believe that is the way the authorities have to operate.
Although we have heard the Muslims in Britain & elsewhere saying that not all Muslims are extremists, & they are probably right. But until these same Muslims begin to actually turn in these extremists, then we have to assume that all or any of them could be a possible suicide bomber.
“The left has been saying that AQ, and all extremist groups, exploits the poor and disenfranchised for many, many years now.”
Take a class on reading comprehension. Seriously. I’ve seen grade four students more apt than yourself when it comes to comprehending the written word, McClelland.
“The poor and disenfranchised in democratic countries are exploited by extremist groups too.”
Good spotting, Detective McClelland:
“It’s people. Plastique Green is made out of people. They’re making our bombs out of people. Next thing they’ll be breeding us like cattle for bombs. You’ve gotta tell them. You’ve gotta tell them!”
“Canada, the US, Britain, etc. Where do you think white supremist groups get there supporters from? The poor and disenfranchised.”
Huh?… Now your way off on a tagent, as usual. What the hell are you talking about, the only country in there that exploits the poor and disenfranchised is Canada, which is against white anglos.
I lived in a Moslem country for 4 years. Most of the poeple I met wanted to get on with their lives, bring up their families and leave the hard stuff, like death and salvation, to God. In my country (UK) religious zealots have done a whole lot of killing in the name of Christianity, so I don’t think one religion has a monopoly on murder. Anyone who thinks God told him to bomb a tube train is a murderer, whether disenfranchised and poor, or studying at a UK university, makes no difference.
If these young people with newly learned expertise are in fact being drawn into the bomb-rigging game, they are likely doing it for some personal gain.
Would it make any sense then for MI-5 to solicit input from *secuity solid* students who could provide info about those who seem to become suddenly wealthy or upgrade from Mini-minor to BMW? 73s TG
“In my country (UK) religious zealots have done a whole lot of killing in the name of Christianity”
Er, excuse me Dave, but I live the UK.
I don’t seem to recall any extremist Methodist groups setting off bombs in the London Underground recently.
Nor to my knowledge have any sinister teams of Presbyterian fanatics hijacked EasyJet planes full of tourists and slammed them into Canary Wharf.
Just who are these “religious zealots” in the UK who have done “a whole lot of killing in the name of Christianity”?
Unless – as I suspect – you are seriously attempting to conflate religious discord in the British Isles from past history with the acts of modern jihadists…
Dave: I hate to tell you, but the motivation of Ulster, hence UK, IRA terrorists was not their Catholicism. Though that did distinguish them–amongst other things, like accent–from the Protestants.
JJM: I eagerly await Presbyterian and Methodist terrorism. Then we can object to racial profiling of Celts.
By the way, why do the media never point out that profiling Muslims as potential terrorists has nothing to do with race? I.e. Not “racial profiling”. Muslims are member of a religion, not a race. They are white (Bosnians, Albanians, Turks from European parts of the Ottoman Empire), less-white, though sometimes it would be hard to tell the difference (upper-class Iranians, Afghans, Pakistanis, Muslim Indians–the original Aryans), brown, yellow, black. Any North American Indian Muslims to add red?
Mark
Ottawa
The “poverty leads to terrorism” is a canard that can be perpetrated only by people who have never experienced poverty for themselves – or forgotten what it is like.
When one’s days are engaged with providing enough to keep body and soul together, Semtex tends not to make it to the shopping list.
Tony Guitar wrote:
“upgrade from Mini-minor to BMW”
Tony, as an obsessed car guy, I can’t help but explain the above (I’m obsessed, after all, about cars).
Many people don’t realize that today’s Mini is actually a BMW, though it’s badged “Mini Cooper”. So one driving a Mini is also already driving a Bimmer. Also, I think you may also have been thinking subconsciously of the old Morris Minor. No big deal, but I guess I couldn’t leave it alone.
And Kate’s right about poverty and terrorism not having any direct relationship. Lots of rich scumbags have committed terror murders, after all, like OBL himself.
Plus, sometimes I feel poor today relative to where I always thought I’d be due to higher education and all that, but just having a high student debtload and less than the deserved income, I am not and never will be a terrorist. Rather, I would fight terror. I have no faith in the Liberals wrt either economic opportunity in my region, the Atlantic, or wrt fighting terror. So that’s a big reason why I admire Albertans and Americans so much.
That’s correct Stephen Mc, Many students may well not know of the old Morris and it’s awful Lucas electrics. Guess the Morris Minor is considered an antique these days.
I should have used Hyundi or Lada as low end examples.
I have owned ’55 Pontiac – ’59 Black Buick Lesabre with the Batmobile Vee tail fins,[wings] and the great ’72 Buick Electra 440 cu in with fender skirts. Similar to that used in the Eddie Murphy cop films. Works of North American art…all. 73s TG
Nice wheels, Tony. Myself, not quite as impressive. First car was an ’86 Dodge Aries. Now I drive a ’92 Dodge Shadow with an immortal, bulletproof powertrain. Recently had a frontal-offset collision on my way home from work late at nite. Couple of old guys in a ’04 Century rammed me after failing to yield right of way in a busy intersection. No damage to the Buick except for scratches, but the Dodge suffered a crushed bumper and dented fender. Cost HIM $1,700 out of HIS insurance to fix. 🙂
My brothers, a few years older, have had some interesting ones: ’77 Silver Anniversary ‘Vette, ’87 Mustang GT ragtop, ’85 T-Bird Turbo Coupe, ’92 T-Bird SC, ’92 Ramcharger, ’63 Pontiac Parisienne, ’80’s LeSabre, a ’70s brown Dodge van with orange fur all over and a bed in the back (the ’70s were great, man!) plus others too ordinary to mention!
Well, the IRA were Marxists. So they were indeed motivated by religion, but not by Catholicism, Christianity or belief in God. The greatest crimes in history were without exception committed by dogmatic atheists, in the name of denying God.