[IP] more on Los Angeles Times: Cyberspace Gives Al Qaeda Refuge
Begin forwarded message:
From: Titus Brown <titus@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: August 15, 2004 1:37:42 PM EDT
To: David Farber <dave@xxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: [IP] Los Angeles Times: Cyberspace Gives Al Qaeda Refuge
-> http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-
-> cyberterror15aug15,1,4439590.story?coll=la-home-headlines
->
-> THE WORLD
->
->
-> Cyberspace Gives Al Qaeda Refuge
[ ... ]
-> On March 11, terrorists set off bombs on four commuter trains in
Madrid
-> and killed 191 people. Three days later, Spanish voters replaced the
-> pro-war government with a party whose leader had promised to withdraw
-> the country's 1,300 troops from Iraq.
[ ... ]
-> "It's quite extraordinary in that you have a group of people ?
talking
-> about influencing a political process and then having it happen,"
said
-> a U.S. national security official who analyzed the 54-page posting
and
-> spoke on condition that his name not be used. "Reading through this
-> thing, it is just mind-blowing."
[ ... ]
This is something that has been persistently misrepresented in the
media (not sure if it's restricted to the US). The Spanish
government initially pinned the attacks on ETA, not al Qaeda, even
when it became clear that it did not fit the ETA's MO. Well past
the point where the police had ruled out ETA as suspects, the
government pushed them as the perpetrators. When it became clear
that the government was intentionally lying, the resulting backlash
cost them the election.
This is not a case of al Qaeda cleverly influencing the political
process, at least not in the simplistic way portrayed in the above
article.
One interesting note: the incumbent (pro-war) government was ahead in
the polls, _despite_ the general anti-war feeling in the populace.
Here is a good article from the New Yorker, a magazine that has been
regularly publishing outstanding articles on Iraq and the "War on
Terror":
http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/?040802fa_fact
It seems our media is ignoring the clear facts of the case in favor
of something that is either simpler to explain to people or is
supportive of the US gov'ts views on al Qaeda. (Maybe I'm a little
paranoid, yes ;).
--titus
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