A Congressional Research Services report on Near East terrorist groups and state sponsors,

September 22, 2001 8:31 PM

A Congressional Research Services report on Near East terrorist groups and state sponsors, published on Sept. 10, 2001. A laundry list of targets for a war on terrorism, published with uncanny timing.
posted by damn yankee (1 comment total)

I was encouraged by the fact that Bush in his speech mentioned specifically only the Egyptian Islamic Jihad and the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan. These are groups closely affiliated with bin Laden's network, and, more than most groups on our Big List, they embrace an ideology and methods that threaten us most directly in their sweeping enmity towards the U.S. and all secular regimes. The criterion of "global reach," while potentially vague, is also a positive development in Bush's public rhetoric. Personally, I will not be surprised if somehow Iraq gets dragged into this "war," but I will take it as a dangerous sign if we broaden our goals to the point where Syria is made a target, or where we can't reach some kind of accommodation with Iran.

Unfortunately, there are elements in the administration (presumably Rumsfeld-Wolfowitz) who have been quoted anonymously as wanting to go after Hamas, Hezbullah, and the like--Palestinian and Shi'a militants whose operations in recent decades are pretty much limited to Israeli targets and who get support from relatively moderate Arab states. If we tread that ground in war mode, we are going to further jeopardize our security instead of finding a way to bottle the truly evil genie.
posted by Zurishaddai at 9:50 PM on September 22, 2001