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subject: Terrorism: A Personal Issue [print this page]

Nigerian Umar Abdulmutallab is 23 years old, educated in London, and anyone meeting him for the first time would gain an impression of polite formality. He is respectful and considerate to his elders and also to anyone who is of a difference culture to himself. Good with children; a quiet and private person and like so many of us, he prefers to keep his friendships slightly distant. Abdulmutallab needs to keep his friends at arms length, because his goal in life is to die an Al Qaeda martyr and take the lives of as many innocent westerners with him as possible in the process. On Christmas Day, 2009, Abdulmutallab failed in an attempt to blow up a plane over Detroit, carrying explosives secreted in his underwear. In the wake of 9/11, we all diligently made double and triple checks whenever we travelled and happily submitted to increased security precautions everywhere we went, understanding the necessity to put our safety above convenience. Little by little, that diligence has slipped, it seems, and recent security incidences all over the World highlight that extremist terrorist groups are yet again achieving footholds in the gaps in our security. The profile of the young men recruited to be suicide bombers usually follow the same type: educated; polite; quiet; unassuming; well spoken; deadly. Such young men are promised rewards beyond their dreams in the life thereafter, in exchange for their mortality. Intelligence profiles other young men in the process of training in Al Qaeda camps and the European press freely publicizes the imminent risk of more attacks on more planes and more innocent people. Yet America remains immersed in diplomacy instead of adopting a more appropriate all out campaign to tighten security.

America has been providing support for the Yemeni government in its battle with Islamic militants, but Yemen has become increasingly unstable, with more frequent terrorist attacks from Yemeni bases, such as the one perpetrated by Abdulmutallab on Christmas Day. It is thought that a great deal more intelligence on Yemeni suicide bombers is known by American security but not enough is being done to prevent further terrorist incidents; an appalling indictment considering the sweeping promises made to protect Americans following 9/11. Full body scanners, combined with personal searches and spot checks, are being implemented in airports all over Europe at the start of the new decade, although some doubts are being expressed whether such precautions are effective against liquid explosives and the high tech devices being utilised by terrorists. Pro Islamic groups everywhere are sparking debate on the question of innocent Moslems being marginalised and targeted as a result of over enthusiastic security but the reality is that complacency brings consequences too gruesome to risk. We can do what we can doin the meantime, surely the watchword is vigilence and the American public has little chance of encouraging vigilence if they are unaware of imminent danger. Information is vital to discovery in terms of uncovering plans of terrorist attacks. Scores of similar attacks to the one attempted by Abdulmutallab are suspected to be planned for 2010. Taking steps to crush terrorism rather than appease those who sponsor its atrocities might be the more sensible policy in light of the danger posed to innocent American travellers.

Terrorism: A Personal Issue

By: Boomeryearbook.com

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