War Helps Recruit Terrorists, Hill Told, Washington Post

[imenja]

The CIA is finally starting to acknowledge the consequences of the Iraq war and US policies in the Middle East.


War Helps Recruit Terrorists, Hill Told
Intelligence Officials Talk Of Growing Insurgency

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A28876-2005Feb16.html?referrer=email

By Dana Priest and Josh White
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, February 17, 2005; Page A01

"The insurgency in Iraq continues to baffle the U.S. military and intelligence communities, and the U.S. occupation has become a potent recruiting tool for al Qaeda and other terrorist groups, top U.S. national security officials told Congress yesterday.

"Islamic extremists are exploiting the Iraqi conflict to recruit new anti-U.S. jihadists," CIA Director Porter J. Goss told the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.

"These jihadists who survive will leave Iraq experienced and focused on acts of urban terrorism," he said. "They represent a potential pool of contacts to build transnational terrorist cells, groups and networks in Saudi Arabia, Jordan and other countries." . . .

"Our policies in the Middle East fuel Islamic resentment," Vice Adm. Lowell E. Jacoby, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, told the Senate panel. "Overwhelming majorities in Morocco, Jordan and Saudi Arabia believe the U.S. has a negative policy toward the Arab world.' "

[applegrove]

1. A political theory known as McJob vs. Jihad - does anyone have

a link?

[imenja]

2. in my view, it's imperialism over poverty

They resent our presence on their holy lands, and our determination to determine the forms their government takes. If we withdrew, they could deal with their own economic problems.

[DinahMoeHum]

3. It's a book titled Jihad Vs McWorld. . .

Link:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0345383044/qid=1108671514/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/104-8372218-0199934


:think:

[applegrove]

6. He also talks about how corporations erode 'civic ' & 'public' culture

and I am not sure exactly where Benjamin Barber lands come 9/11.

IMHO In the Nation article Beyond McWorld vs. Jihad

He seems to be sprouting off about how 'democracy' has to be promoted in the rest of the world. How 'civic' culture has to be king. I think he includes religion in this.

It seems Bush may have borrowed from him or that he borrowed from Bush or something. It all seems very incestuous almost like Bush is doubling back over on himself with all his talk of values & democracy (which would be anti-corporate).

Because this guy squarely blames corporations for eroding 'civic' & 'public' culture and turning it secular. And the Jihadist will never accept over-reaching public norms or values from a secular culture. So apparently the rest of the world has to go tribal? I don't know if that is the conclusion. But the world certainly does look more tribal today than at any time I can remember.

And maybe that is what the neocons get down to: that we are evil and we need to go back to little city-states and forget this civilization thing: because it is a fool's paradise.

Here is the link to Beyond McWorld vs. Jihad:

The Nation
Beyond McWorld vs. Jihad
by Benjamin R. Barber

http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml%3Fi=20020121&s=barber

- off to try and read it!

[applegrove]

10. Good read. Bush does seem to be copying some of this as

his Utopia didn't quite pan out. The point is the corporations make us less robust & healthy as humans if we get caught in the corporate propaganda. Always chasing the next materialistic thing.

Take back the nation from corporations & refurbish civic and public ties. I'd agree with that. Also the part about extending multilateral initiatives to strengthen transnational NGOs, multilateral organizations, etc. etc. The opposite of the Bush doctrine just about.

And I swear Bush is stealing the "democracy" idea from the liberals.

[damntexdem]

4. Well, duh! But it doesn't just help recruit them ...

it also provides training grounds and on-the-job training.

[imenja]

5. we've got slow learners running the country

This was obvious to many of us before the US invaded Iraq.

[Nay]

7. Don't forget, many analysts at the CIA said the same thing before

the runup to war and they were shut down by their bosses and the WH for not putting forth the 'correct' story. A lot of them, I hear, quit or retired in disgust.

[KoKo]

8. And many of these people are like us here. We might work for a

Corporation which has greed, criminal CEO's but down below the crooked Board and Corporate Heirarchy...most of us want to do a good job and do have a "moral compass." What's happened is that America has become "Top Down" and we who make the companies are aren't considered valuable or worth having an input.

As much as I despise the CIA and the FBI and think they have been misused and taken over by the BFEE types who want to rule the world, we have to hope that there are people "like us" who see what we see and they are fighting back. But, getting their opinions out with the Corporate Media is what we here are fighting against. So...we do what we do in our own little corner, and we have to hope and pray that others in Government...the real Civil Servants will band together on their own to try to take our Country back.

Surely not everyone is as evil and drunk with power as what's controlling our government today! :eyes:

[Martin Eden]

9. the WAR on TERRA

will be a LONG war, we are told (and they're making DAMN sure of it).