9/11 – 10 years on

Remembering the fatal Tuesday of September 11, 2001, is important most of all be­cause this was a suicide terrorist operation that aimed to wreak havoc on the most powerful nation in the world.

Al Qaeda managed to bring death and destruction to the heart of US homeland in one single day. But did the organisation commit suicide on 9/11?- Joseph Attard

Indeed, it did; striking at the heart of the superpower’s symbols and, moreover, killing 2,995 people, most of them US citizens.

Al Qaeda managed to bring death and destruction to the heart of US homeland in one single day, scoring a number of points against the world’s mightiest military power. But did the organisation commit suicide on 9/11?

One has to admit that there was a build-up to this event since this same group had targeted US interests in Saudi Arabia since 1995, the USS Cole in Yemen in 2000, and as early as 1998 it also used the same modus operandi of simultaneous attacks on US embassies in Tanzania and Kenya.

But ‘The Planes Operation’ was born even before most of the above-mentioned attacks. The blue print was designed in 1997 and its logistics were already being fine-tuned in 1999.

But where is Al Qaeda going and what is its future? Military invasions of Iraq and Afghan­istan may seem to highlight victory for the US and its allies but these conflicts have brought about the killing of innocent civilians, mostly Muslims.

This, together with the problems being faced by the Palestinians, has further helped Al Qaeda to drive a wedge between moderate and extremist Muslims.

In short, problems faced by Muslims and that may be both directly or indirectly caused by the west feed further Al Qaeda’s propaganda for further insurgency and terrorism attacks.

Even if, for example, Turkey does not join the EU in the foreseeable future that would constitute a further wedge between moderate and extremist Muslims. On the other hand, if Turkey does join the EU this would fuel further far-right movements which will find fertile soils where to flourish in the current global situation.

One has to admit that the organisation’s timescales are very different from secular western ones. It has an eschatological timescale and hence it looks not only at this life but also beyond. So it can easily indulge in suicide operations, glorifying the principal actors as martyrs.

Due to such a wide timescale spreading from this life to paradise, certain victories for the US and its allies such as the capture and killing of Osama Bin Laden and other prime actors in the organisation could be interpreted as acts of martyrdom.

Though at first glance religion seems to play an important role in Al Qaeda’s conflict with western powers, it is all about foreign military presence in Muslim nations, especially in Saudi Arabia where there are the most important Muslim shrines – Mecca, and it’s holy of holies, the Kaaba.

It also regards certain Arab governments and dictators as being dangerously close allies, and moreover, often manipulated by western governments, namely the US.

With the dawning of the Arab Spring in Tunisia leading to its spread like wild fire in other Arab and North African countries Al Qaeda is set to lose a lot of its significance as a revolutionary organisation aimed at liberating Muslims from tyrannical governments through extremist Islam by implementing Sharia law.

In the short term, Al Qaeda and its franchise organisations seem to have suffered a blow, but what if the Arab Spring fails or remains half-baked? Islamic extremist organisations would come back with an even stronger momentum dragging much more support from disillusioned revolutionaries.

One has to point out that there are Al Qaeda insurgents in their thousands who have had experience fighting urban warfare both in Afghanistan and Iraq, some of whom have turned up in Yemen, and others in Libya.

These insurgents were seasoned by fighting well-armed motivated US and British soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. These have acquired much more experience since they fought more equipped and much more determined military forces than those who fought the Soviets in the 1980s in Afghanistan.

The world is currently a fertile ground for both religious and political extremist organisations that may flourish gradually, reaching their peak in the 2020s.

Al Qaeda may look like it has disappeared from the global political and religious scene but its comeback may be stronger. Coupled with this is the fact that as a reaction to an extremist ideology there may be other ideologies taking sides against it, with innocent people getting trapped in the crossfire.

Looking to the near future it may be legitimate to ask whether the western world is currently overspending on its security, when statistically the chances of being killed in a terrorist attack, according to former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, is similar to being struck by lightning. In fact, it is one in three-and-a-half million a year for a person living outside a war zone.

Security is a cornerstone for any society that functions reasonably well, but 10 years on from 9/11 it is justified to ask whether both private and public security agencies in the western world are being overfed by taxpayers’ money.

For example, after 9/11 the US increased its expenditure on homeland security by a trillion dollars. Overreacting and simply throwing money at the terrorism\security problem without long-term planning and networking between both public and private agencies that can help ameliorate the worldwide economic situation and address climate change problems is imperative in order to counter terrorism.

Having said that, one has to admit that even if all the money in the world is put into security agencies, this will not guarantee that a terrorist incident similar to 9/11 will never happen again.

joseph.m.attard@gmail.com

Mr Attard is a former member of the counter-terrorism unit of the Malta Police Force and is currently a PhD research student in Investigative Psychology of Terrorism at the University of Huddersfield, UK.