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The War on Terror Spectator
Camp Jihad
A decade of war has not eliminated Afghanistan’s terrorist training camps.
One item stood out for me in the coverage of last week’s killing spree that left seven dead in France. That was how the late gunman, Mohamed Merah of Toulouse, was alleged to have traveled to Afghanistan in 2011.
The motive for the pilgrimage of Mr. Merah has been disputed, but why else would a French citizen of Algerian descent and jihadist ambitions visit the “Graveyard of Empires”? The beaches?
From 1996 — when the Taliban rose to power — to 2001, Afghanistan was the hub of terrorist training. At Camp bin Laden, wannabe martyrs were instructed in terrorism techniques, after which they received their marching orders. The U.S.-led invasion was supposed to end all that. Training camps run by al Qaeda or affiliated groups, however, have returned to Afghanistan.
Despite the presence of U.S. troops and drone attacks, training camps remain commonplace in the Hindu Kush region that bestrides Afghanistan and northern Pakistan. And it has been that way since the U.S. shifted its concentration from Afghanistan to Iraq.
In 2007, while the world’s attention was focused on the sectarian violence in Iraq, a U.S. intelligence report indicated that al Qaeda had regrouped along the Afghan-Pakistan border and was in a stronger position than it had been before the 9/11 attacks. At the same time, the London Telegraph was reporting that “estimates for the total number of extremists who have received weapons training and religious instruction at al Qaeda camps, mostly in Afghanistan, ranged from 20,000 to 70,000.”
Now, we figured terrorist camps were going concerns in Pakistan’s tribal areas (Russian intelligence from 2010 put the number of camps there at 40), especially given the Pakistan army’s lackluster attempts to crush the jihadists. And this was recently confirmed by, among others, Pakistani journalist Irfan Husain:
From there, it’s easy to travel to similar training camps in Afghanistan — the border is porous. The training men receive in Afghanistan is very similar.
But the persistence of terrorist-training camps in U.S.-occupied Afghanistan raises important questions about the effectiveness of America’s decade-long mission there. If a major US goal was to eradicate the camps so that terrorists could never again use Afghanistan as a base for future attacks, the U.S. seems to have failed at that mission. And it seems unlikely that another decade of occupation would produce better results.
AND HERE COMES THE IRONY. While NATO countries send troops to Afghanistan to fight al Qaeda and the Taliban, these same countries are exporting a significant number of jihadists — like the Toulouse gunman — to the Afghan-Pakistan border for terrorist training. “So many people arrive every month that there are problems finding places for them to stay,” a suspected al Qaeda member recently told German investigators.
Some European leaders would like to make it a crime to train in terrorist camps, or simply to view jihadist websites. That would certainly keep their intelligence services busy. It is estimated that more than 400,000 journeys are made each year between Britain and Pakistan. Some visit for religious education, but then get sucked into jihadism. It is the same story in Germany. A year ago, the German newsmagazine Der Spiegel reported that “each month, an average of five Islamists leave [Germany] for terrorist training camps in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border area.… Never before have as many volunteers from Germany attended terrorist training camps as in the last two years.… In the last decade, at least 220 people from Germany have completed terrorist training, with about half returning to Germany.”
Many of these training camp directors boast networks of financial supporters back in the West. European Muslims, however, make up just a small portion of trainees. Information from the charge sheet against David Coleman Headley, the U.S. jihadi indicted for plotting attacks in Denmark, suggests that as recently as 2009, north Waziristan was bustling with Chechens, Uzbeks, Tajiks, Russians, Bosnians, and Arabs, all there to support the “holy war.”
America and its allies had two goals going into Afghanistan. Kill Osama bin Laden and his top lieutenants, and make sure that country never again became a haven for terrorists. The U.S. has accomplished the first goal. The second, sorry to say, was never going to happen.
About the Author
Christopher Orlet writes from St. Louis.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (19) | Leave a comment
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Jack in Wi.| 3.29.12 @ 7:36AM
The more we interfere in these countries all over the world the more we enrage them. It is called blowback. They are coming here because we are killing huge numbers of innocents over there. When the French left Algeria the terror stopped from both the Algerian Muslims and the Algerian settlers. Bring the troops home. They should have never gone to most of these places in the first place. Most of them are backwaters that are no threat to anyone, if left alone.
All American American| 3.29.12 @ 8:36AM
Hey bro how many bases did we have in the ME in the 1790s and early 1800s when the muslim Barbary pirates were attacking, capturing, and holding for ransom American ships and sailors?
Screwtape| 3.29.12 @ 11:49AM
They were pirates. I notice you don't call the English pirates -- the christian English pirates. Their religion mattered how? What does Islam have to do with the actions of the Somali pirates?
One if by land...| 3.29.12 @ 12:04PM
Easy Sir! "Christian" pirates are not Christian, then or now. Why not you ask. Because being born to Christian parents or in what is thought to be a Christian country doesn't make you a Christian. In Christianity we have a guy named Jesus. In islam they have a tyrannical war lord name Muhammed. One preached peace, one violence. One healed, one murdered hundreds personally. You can still be a good Muslim and be a pirate, terrorist or almost any other kind of violent moron. You will still be acting in accordance with the quran even. Would you be acting in accordance with the Bible or teachings of Christ while engaging in said activities? NO!!! I would think with the moniker Screwtape, you would understand a thing or two about Christianity. They are islamic pirates when they are trying to advance or aid islam through piracy. Now you know the difference.
Screwtape| 3.29.12 @ 12:28PM
Lame. The English pirates were raised in a country where the official state religion was The Church of England, same as in North Africa where the official state religion was Islam. Nice try though. Anyway, Jesus is a so-called divinity, Mohammed is simply a man and a prophet. Jeez are you dumb.
All American American| 3.29.12 @ 2:58PM
Uhh, the united States of America fought two separate wars against the muslim Barbary pirates. In fact, they're the reason Jefferson had a koran, so he could understand their motivations. Jeff was also against the tributes paid to them for the "safe" return of American sailors, as he felt it only encouraged more piracy, capture, torture, and tribute.
If you truly don't understand the difference between a Christian (follower of Christ) and a muslim (follower of mohammed) you should prolly look into it yourself. Buy a bible and a koran (and accompanying sira and hadiths) and get to reading. Compare Jesus and mohammed as strictly historical figures without attributing any divinity to Jesus, and come to your own conclusions.
Its what I did.
Mac Jehoff| 3.29.12 @ 12:49PM
Yo All American American, Jack has been snorting his cheese again and it has plugged up his brain. He feels safe hiding amongst the dairy cows and breweries, stuffing his maw with brats. He thinks he is God and blesses us with his wisdom by descending from on high for our enlightenment. Le fromage deite.
All American American| 3.29.12 @ 3:03PM
I like brats and beer too, but they don't make me blind and dumb either.
Sometimes I wonder if 9/11 really happened. I mean we still have Americans who believe those 19 "hijacked" islam, as if their motivation was troops in Saudi Arabia or whatever other nonsense they tell themselves in an effort to deny the cold hard evil reality that is islam.
I worry just wtflip it WOULD take to get a majority of Americans to finally say, "huh, I guess they really DO hate us because, well, we're not muslim."
Hijack islam my a**.
Alan Brooks| 3.29.12 @ 7:38PM
So we are not safer now than we were a decade ago?- no kidding!
So what will you do? place Cheney's likeness on Mt. Rushmore?
All American American| 3.29.12 @ 8:39AM
Just so's I get the author straight, does he mean that 11 years of trying to "win hearts and minds" couldn't overcome 1400+ years of ingrained hatred of everything non-muslim in this backwater POS muslim hell-hole? Really? Wowsers. He's smart and stuff.
Rurik| 3.29.12 @ 8:56AM
What do we expect when we have generals who are most interested that no harm comes to any Muslim, and they knew how much we revere their "holy" koran? During WW I we banned the playing of Beethove and Brahms, and during WW II Wagner.Were American troops required to handle Mein Kampf with respect?
Tired Taxpayer PRM| 3.29.12 @ 1:19PM
Nuke 'em.
Two Benefits.
Eliminate Terrorist Training.
Raise the world's average IQ.
I am tired of the whole mess and tired of my tax money going down the Middle East rat hole.
Nock| 3.29.12 @ 1:54PM
Yeah, nuke Pakistan so they can nuke us back. You are a genius Tired Taxpayer PRM. You should be Sec. of State.
Occam's Tool| 4.12.12 @ 8:14PM
I don't think Pakistan has sufficient ICBMs to nuke us successfully.
cicero| 3.29.12 @ 2:50PM
Why not just stop subsidizing them. If we were to exploit our own resources (drill), the price of oil would be below what the muslim world needs to both sustain their dictatorships, and buy weapons. At that point, the next warlord would take over the country, and hold it until the next one c ame along. In the meanwhile, they would sink further and further into poverty, as they produce nothing that anyone else would ever pay for. Pakistan can't get out of its own way. It certainly can't fight a war anywhere it can't walk to. T here is not a muslim country on this planet that can harm anyone but itself and its immediate neighbors , without the aid and assistance of a suicidal West. All the damage these nutballs have done in recent years could not have happened but for the idiocy of the West inviting the crazies home for dinner.
Quartermaster| 3.29.12 @ 5:12PM
Trashcanistan is what you get when you try to prosecute war on the cheap. It is why when we go to war it needs to be for the life of the country, and not some pennyante nonsense that could have been easily prevented.
The real way we could have avenged 9/11 was to nuke Islamabad. The problem in Afghanistan is in Islamabad, and they are the ones that gave Osama shelter and support. All we care about in most countries is that not harbor our enemies. Our enemies need to know that we will not tolerate any one harboring them, and if some one does, well then they will become a horrible warning.
Tim the Enchanter| 3.29.12 @ 5:54PM
Gee, considering the author, I thought this article might be about terrorist training camps in St. Louis.
albert constantine jr.| 3.29.12 @ 9:44PM
My thoughts exactly. I was thinking a Bombay style assault at LaCledes Landing had occurred, or a suicide bomber at the arch. Instead, Al Qaeda terrorist training in Afghanistan. Talk about dog bites man...
POST American| 3.31.12 @ 1:36AM
Those ski masks are looking ever more
distinctly Wal-Mart bin op.
---Meanwhile, our long hijacked CFR front
'government' is pumping guns into, and drugs
out of Mexico ---along with the ever working
illegal alien meltdown----and 'Agenda 21'
takedown, CHEM-trails, the GM food
Halocaust and FUKISHIMA radiation
--a veritable cocktail of FINAL EUGENICS.
And so, here we stand, perhaps 3 years
off from Globalist-bankster 'managed'
receivership to the MOST awesomely
genocidal regime mankind's EVER seen
--------------------ACROSS the Pacific.
Afghanistan? -------RRRRRRIGHT.