Salon.com > islamist militants

How to unpack the Tsarnaevs’ real motives

Thu, 16 May 2013 12:31:00 +0000

What motivated the Boston bombers? That’s the question on everyone’s minds, in the face of a new report suggesting that suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev left a note in his boat attributing his alleged actions to retribution for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Ultimately the debate has come down to this: Is anti-American terrorism and violence a result of anger at U.S. foreign policy, as former Salon writer Glenn Greenwald and others claim? Or does it result from religious extremism, as blogger Andrew Sullivan argues?

The answer is: both. The two are entangled. First, it must be noted that Islamists are hardly the only people in the world angry at American actions in the world. Consider that Russians have nearly as unfavorable a view of Obama’s international policies, as well as the U.S. overall, as do people in Muslim countries. Greeks disapprove of U.S. drone strikes more than anyone else in the world, including Muslim-strong countries such as Jordanians, Egyptians, Lebanese and Tunisians.

Were the Tsarnaevs nuts or revolutionaries?

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 15:00:00 +0000

Why do we Americans find it so important to believe that terrorists and assassins in the U.S. can be dismissed as mere emotionally disturbed maniacs, rather than viewed as revolutionaries in the thrall of militant political or religious ideologies? Why are so we intent in removing the political from political violence?

These questions are timely, following Vice President Joe Biden’s dismissive description of the Boston Marathon bombers as “knockoff jihadis.” Mere amateurs, these brothers, who were capable of murdering several marathon participants, maiming scores more and shutting down a major city and even rail lines for hours or days. The real amateurism, it might be suggested, is that of the pundits and journalists trying to psychoanalyze the Tsarnaev brothers and their relations from a distance.

But there are already reports that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the surviving killer, has said that he and his brother acted in response to the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan — wars that they considered to be attacks on Islam. What if this really was the motive? What if these brothers really were sincere Islamist revolutionaries, like the thousands of others who have rallied to militant jihadism in the past several decades, whether they were connected to international Islamist networks or acting on their own? That doesn’t exonerate their brutal crimes in any way. But surely Islamist terrorists are best understood in terms of the common Islamist ideology they share, rather than personal or familial experiences that are unique to each.

French president’s camel eaten in Mali

Tue, 09 Apr 2013 12:26:00 +0000

French president Francois Hollande had planned to bring his camel back to France -- it was a gift from him a local official in Mali following France's success driving out Islamist militants from the African country. But owing to shipping complexities, the French president decided to leave the camel in the care of a Timbuktu family. Now, according to reports, the camel has been killed. One man's pet is another mans delicious stew. Via British newspaper the Telegraph:

Mr Hollande initially intended to have the camel vaccinated and transferred to a French zoo. But given the complex procedures required and "the rigours of the harsh French climate for a desert animal", he eventually decided to leave it in the care of a family in Timbuktu.

Mr Le Drian [France's defence minister] said the family apparently wasted no time slaughtering the animal and putting it in a traditional tagine. While mature camel is almost inedible, the flesh from young animals is said to be tender.

US transports French troops to Mali

Tue, 22 Jan 2013 16:15:00 +0000

SEGOU, Mali (AP) -- American planes transported French troops and equipment to Mali, a U.S. military spokesman said Tuesday, as Malian and French forces pushed into the Islamist-held north.

Douentza had been held by Islamist rebels for four months, located 190 kilometers (120 miles) northeast from Mopti, the previous line-of-control held by the Malian military in Mali's narrow central belt. The Islamist fighters have controlled the vast desert stretches of northern Mali, with the weak government clinging to the south, since a military coup in the capital in March unleashed chaos.

French and Malian troops arrived in Douentza Monday to find that the Islamists had retreated from the town, said a resident, Sali Maiga.

"The Malian military and the French army spent their first night and the people are very happy," Maiga said Tuesday.

A curfew went into effect at 8 p.m., and there no gunfire or other incidents were reported overnight, he said.

In September, a convoy of pickup trucks carrying bearded men entered Douentza, and in the months that followed the Islamist extremists forced women to wear veils and enlisted children as young as 12 as soldiers in training.

Canadian militants in Algeria siege

Mon, 21 Jan 2013 17:15:00 +0000

ALGIERS, Algeria (AP) -- The Islamist militants who attacked a natural gas plant in the Sahara wore Algerian army uniforms, memorized the layout of the vast complex and included two Canadians and a team of explosives experts ready to blow the place sky-high, Algeria's prime minister said Monday.

The operation also appeared to have help from the inside - a former driver at the plant, he said.

Algeria offered a grim toll in the attack, saying that 38 hostages and 29 militants died in four days of mayhem. The dead hostages included seven Japanese workers and three energy workers each from the U.S. and Britain.

Three of the attackers were captured and five foreign workers remain unaccounted for, the prime minister told reporters at a news conference in Algiers, the capital.

Monday's account offered the first Algerian government narrative of the four-day standoff, from the moment of the attempted bus hijacking to the moment when the attackers began to prepare to explode bombs across the massive gas plant that sprawled over 5 square kilometers ( 2 square miles).

All but one of the dead hostages - an Algerian driver - were foreigners. The prime minister said three attackers were captured but did not specify their nationalities or their conditions or say where they were being held.

“Numerous” new bodies at Algeria plant

Sun, 20 Jan 2013 14:52:00 +0000

ALGIERS, Algeria (AP) -- Algerian bomb squads scouring a gas plant where Islamist militants took dozens of foreign workers hostage found "numerous" new bodies on Sunday as they searched for explosive traps left behind by the attackers, a security official said, a day after a bloody raid ended the four-day siege of the remote desert refinery.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation, said the bodies were badly disfigured and difficult to identify.

"The bodies could be either Algerian or foreign hostages," he said.

Algerian special forces stormed the natural gas complex in the Sahara desert on Saturday to end the standoff, and the government said all 32 militants were killed. Earlier Sunday, Algeria's chief government spokesman said he feared the toll of hostages - which stood at 23 on Saturday - would rise as the special forces teams finished their search.

He said the militants came from six countries and were armed to cause maximum destruction. Sonatrach, the Algerian state oil company running the Ain Amenas site along with BP and Norway's Statoil, said the entire refinery had been mined.

Aid groups can’t reach key Mali town

Fri, 18 Jan 2013 16:25:00 +0000

BAMAKO, Mali (AP) -- Mali's military claimed Friday that it has held control of a key town where Islamic extremists had battled forces for a week, though aid groups warned they were unable to reach the area to provide humanitarian assistance.

Meanwhile, the United Nations warned that some 700,000 civilians could be displaced by the fighting in Mali, where France launched a military intervention last week to oust the rebels from power in the north.

The French took action after the Islamist militants advanced from their stronghold in the vast, desert north toward the central Malian town of Konna.

A Malian military official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to journalists, said Friday that they were holding the town and that the Islamists had been chased out.

Telephone lines were cut off in the town, making it difficult to independently verify the claim.

Doctors Without Borders has been trying to get to Konna since Monday but all roads leading to the community in central Mali have been closed by the Malian military, said Malik Allaouna, director of operations for the group known as MSF by its initials in French.