Islamic Militants Said to Infiltrate Iraq to Battle the US Occupiers

[kskiska]

SULAIMANIYA, Iraq, Aug. 11 — In much the same way as the Russian invasion of Afghanistan stirred an earlier generation of young Muslims determined to fight the infidel, the American presence in Iraq is prompting a rising tide of Muslim militants to slip into the country to fight the foreign occupier, Iraqi officials and others say.

"Iraq is the nexus where many issues are coming together — Islam versus democracy, the West versus the axis of evil, Arab nationalism versus some different types of political culture," said Barham Saleh, the prime minister of this Kurdish-controlled part of northern Iraq. "If the Americans succeed here, this will be a monumental blow to everything the terrorists stand for."

Recent intelligence suggests the militants are well organized. One returning group of fighters from the radical Ansar al-Islam organization captured in the Kurdish region two weeks ago consisted of five Iraqis, a Palestinian and a Tunisian.

(snip)

Long gone are the bearded men in the short robes believed worn by the Prophet Muhammad that the Arabs who went to Afghanistan favored. Instead, the same practices that allowed the Sept. 11 attackers to blend into American society are evident.

more…
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/13/international/worldspecial/13ISLA.html?hp

[fizzana]

1. Don't you get the feeling that the really bad stuff hasn't even

begun to happen yet?

[priller]

2. All together now: Well, DUH!

All but the ideologically blind neocons in the Pentagon (and their addled puppet in the WH) could see this one coming a mile away.

[underpants]

6. Wow you must be a fortune teller

What tipped you off to this was it the opinions expressed by not only experts but anyone who has any knowledge of the area or was it the world leaders trying to tell W&Co. this was going to happen or was it the millions of people marching in the streets around the world?

What's really sad about this is that this is in the neo-con (PNAC) playbook.

[section321]

3. Well this was the strategy all along...

We're smokin em out in the open. Gonna git em right where we want em. Then we bring the overwhelmin might of the US of A right down on their terrorist butts.

It was the plan all along. We just couldn't tell y'all or it woulda ruined the plan.

We got them terrs right where we want em.




</sarcasm>

[David__77]

4. Kurds should be careful, have no illusions...

Mr. Saleh speaks of "terrorism" now, and is cozy with the west. But he should realize that, if the winds change, Kurds will be case as the new "terrorists" and they will have to return to the mountains to wage a struggle. An independent Kurdestan? Not if the west has a say...

[underpants]

5. Not if Turkey, ~Iraq, or Iran have anything to say either

Which really is a tragedy that a people can't rule themselves in what is their long historic home.