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The Spectacle Blog
Yesterday, President Obama was interviewed by Wolf Blitzer of CNN. Blitzer asked Obama if he thought al Qaeda would attack the United States in revenge for killing Osama bin Laden. Here is part of what Obama said:
The biggest concern we have right now is not the launching of a major terrorist operation, although that risk is always there, the risk that we're especially concerned over right now is the lone wolf terrorist, somebody with a single weapon being able to carry out wide-scale massacres of the sort that we saw in Norway recently. You know, when you've got one person who is deranged or driven by a hateful ideology, they can do a lot of damage, and it's a lot harder to trace those lone wolf operators.
It is interesting to see President Obama characterize Anders Behring Breivik as a "lone wolf terrorist." In this instance, the characterization would be accurate. Barring any new evidence, it would appear Breivik planned and carried out his attacks last month on his own.
However, if I were Blitzer, I would have asked Obama if he also considered either Fort Hood shooter Nidal Malik Hasan or would be Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad to be "lone wolves." While the killings at Fort Hood and the attempted bombing of Times Square could be described as acts carried out by a single person let us remember that both Hasan and Shahzad were in contact with Anwar al-Awlaki, the American born al Qaeda leader now operating out of Yemen. Indeed, Hasan attended the same Virginia mosque at which Awlaki preached along with two of the September 11th hijackers. Would Hasan have shot and killed 13 people screaming "Allahu Akbar!!!" without the support of Awlaki? Would Shahzad have entertained the idea of bombing the busiest place in all of New York City if not for Awlaki's influence?
Now, it could very well be that al Qaeda is either out of the business of planning attacks on the scale of September 11th like attacks or simply isn't in the position to carry them out at this time. But as demonstrated by Awlaki's mentoring of Hasan and Shahzad, al Qaeda has adapted its tactics towards smaller scale operations which could be carried out by a single person. With this in mind, I would not characterize either Hasan or Shahzad as lone wolf terrorists. The question is: Does Obama?
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More Blog Posts by Aaron Goldstein
http://spectator.org/blog/2011/08/17/obama-beware-of-the-lone-wolf
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Occam's Tool| 8.17.11 @ 12:10PM
Obama is an imbecile. Nothing moves within the cobwebs except a desire to ride on Air Force 1.
Margie| 8.17.11 @ 4:05PM
Maybe Obama doesn't consider Osama Bin Ladin's terrorism "hateful ideology."
He certainly dodged the question, didn't he?
Oldefarte| 8.17.11 @ 4:19PM
Nah, Margie, he was just some down-on-his luck terrorist who liked watching Oprah on his TV probably!!!!!
Oldefarte| 8.17.11 @ 4:17PM
Hades, OT, he now has his black armour-plated campaign touring bus, for which us taxpayers paid $1-million [Who needs AF One?]!!!
irmaladuce| 8.17.11 @ 12:35PM
I'm sure Breivik was in touch with other violent white supremacists. Birds of a feather and all that.
Incidentally, this kind of post is what people are mean when they say you are attempting to redefine terrorism as something only Muslims do.
Bob Grant| 8.17.11 @ 1:24PM
You completely missed the writer's point. He was trying to flesh out the distinction between "lone wolf terrorists" and "networked terrorists" and how public figures label them, and why.
He want's you (us) to figure out the rest.
irmaladuce| 8.17.11 @ 1:33PM
No, I understood his point. It just wasn't a very good one. He is once again saying that acts of terrorism committed by Muslims are categorically different and somehow worse than acts of terrorism committed by non-Muslims.
Bob Grant| 8.17.11 @ 1:46PM
Facts and statistics are sometimes inconvenient truths.
I have faith the reasonable out in the hinterlands and elsewhere understand the difference and are more than capable of understanding the threat level of the groups.
The only question is what obama thinks. It's up for debate, which is pathetic!!
Bill Hussein O'Stalin| 8.17.11 @ 12:47PM
You have to define who the terrorists are before you can hug them.
George S| 8.17.11 @ 1:01PM
One man's terrorist is another man's ghost writer.
Pecos Pete| 8.17.11 @ 1:25PM
Cute.
albert constantine jr| 8.17.11 @ 6:17PM
Zinnnng. What a country!
simon templar| 8.17.11 @ 1:15PM
Aaron, well I appreciate that you at least noticed this recent statement of the poser but you seem to have missed the point entirely.
The poser is attempting to gin up paranoia, fear, and suspicion of people, like those right wing tea party types, who are steeped in ideology, as dangerous and a threat. He does not see al Qaeda as the real threat and continued threat.
This outrageous and inappropriate statement seems to be going right over your heads. On the other hand, your cohorts are keen to jump all over Perry for saying that he thinks printing money right now is almost treasonous, given the financial crisis we are in now, and claim he was advocating violence and labeling Bernake as a terrorist.
Oldefarte| 8.17.11 @ 4:24PM
ST: Even though I know that he intended his 'treasonous' labeling as a not-literally comment; i wholehearted agree with his word usage in describing Bernanke/Fed's actions regarding their QE excrement [the full effect of which has not yet been felt within our deplorable economy, but their exploding of dollars within our economy will eventually result in inflation the likes of which will make Carter look like a inflation-miser]!!!!!!
Jason| 8.17.11 @ 1:51PM
Beware of the upcoming False-Flag. Keep your head down but camera's rolling, we've busted the last few with simply some good Americans with their eyes and ears open at the right place right time who then came out and blew the story.
Occam's Tool| 8.17.11 @ 2:30PM
8/16 bodycount from Religion of Peace:
2011.08.16 (Uruzgan, Afghanistan) - Eight innocents are dismantled by a Taliban motorcycle bomb at a market.
2011.08.16 (Kandahar, Afghanistan) - Fundamentalist gunmen muder an 18-year-old teenager as she is getting into her car.
Note no coverage. Muslim on Muslim killing is so common, it's boring.
Oldefarte| 8.17.11 @ 4:29PM
This president should have lost all respectability on the terrorism issue when his Homeland Security issued its official report claiming the grave threat to this country from returning military members [from the middle east], when this country's interior contains numerous SLEEPER CELLS of potential terrorists [not to mention the hundreds probably crossing our southern border 24-7] in existence now. The POLITICAL CORRECTNESS of this administration regarding this issue alone makes me want to puke!!!!!!!
Oldefarte| 8.17.11 @ 4:33PM
PS; Immediately after the FT HOOD MASSACRE, he sould have been screaming bloody murder over same, but you could have heard a pin drop from inside the WH. Additionally, his pussyfootin with the potential developers of the Muslim mosque near ground zero was a slap in the face to this country and to the 3000+ who died on 9/11/01!!!!!