CNN is broadcasting a 5 part series of videotapes August 18-22, discovered by Nic Robertson (a CNN reporter) which show Al Qaeda experiments and training in producing and testing deadly gas and nerve agents. The first day?s films show noxious white gas visibly creeping across the floor toward a dog, who salivates, convulses and, finally, dies, yelping in agony. While the story, as shown by CNN, revolves around al-Qaeda and Osama bin-Laden?s preparation for attacks on us humans, there is much more to consider.
I have written frequently about the terrorist culture as an inter-linked matrix of terrorist groups, who behave as one cohesive unit. Granted, they appear to have separate organizations, each with a grudge against some government, the religion of the others, different ethnic groups - but, all with the common operational threads of terror. These are comrades-in-arms, whose common grudge against humanity makes them one united fighting force - very powerful in their motivation and technology.
The al-Qaeda videos, as screened on CNN, show merely one micro facet of the terror world, which has been under development and even in effect for quite some time. We in the free West have a tendency to watch each terror attack through the separate lens of a news story, which seems unconnected to other terrorist attacks. A terrorist group in Japan used Sarin gas in a subway. It was a terrible event, but seemed entirely separate from Egypt?s President Gamal Abdel Nasser?s earlier use of mustard gas in Yemen, during his era of control. Saddam Hussein ordered up experimental gas chambers from Germany to use as test equipment on Iranian and Kurdish prisoners. We now all know that during the eight-year Iran-Iraq war, Saddam used various mixtures of poison gas on Iranian soldiers, who were successfully counterattacking Iraqi troops. Saddam used mustard gas and Sarin gas on a Kurdish village as a split experiment. The blistering mustard gas tore apart the victims? lungs, who died in agony. The Sarin gas killed in a more ?humane? way, as TV and news journals showed mothers with children in their arms lying dead in the streets, as if in peaceful slumber. Syria?s President Hafez al Assad assaulted his own people in the city of Hama, Syria where, after a full artillery bombardment reduced the city to rubble, he sent in his poison gas units to kill off any survivors hiding in their cellars. Hitler?s use of Zyklon B gas to kill 6 million Jews left its red mark on history. He also used gas in trucks to kill the handicapped and gas in sewers of the Polish ghettos to asphyxiate escaping Jews. Gas, chemicals and nerve agents all seem to be a popular weapon of choice when it comes to killing in large numbers.
Syria, in particular, has one of the most advanced chemical weapons? industries in the world. The country hosts at least 12 terrorist organizations - one reason Syria is still on the U.S. State Department?s list of terrorist nations. Syria can arm their terrorist groups with missiles carrying various chemical warheads in hours ? unless, of course, it already has. Many of these terrorist groups are currently stationed in Lebanon, on Israel?s northern border. Al-Qaeda, HezbAllah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and others are already there in force, mostly operating under the guidance, funding and training of Iran. Israeli intelligence knows that there are missiles in Lebanon that are armed with chemical warheads - courtesy of Iran. All of these terrorist organizations trade and train with each other in a marketplace of deadly horrors. Can there be a more deadly combination of rogue nations, suppliers of chemical weapons and fanatical terrorists dedicated to Islam?
Most of the technology obtained by these rogue nations and terrorist proxies came from the West. America and Europe developed many of these technologies during the Cold War with the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union, China and North Korea also developed and stockpiled these chemical and biological substances - often placed in missiles and artillery shells, ready for use. VX (a nerve agent), Anthrax, Hemorrhagic Fever, Small Pox and genetically engineered variations, which defied vaccines, are among other deadly pathogens. For instance, Saddam?s scientists ordered and received "for experimentation" West Nile Virus from the Atlanta Disease Control Center. All of these witches? brews made it into the hands of primitive third world nations, controlled by dictators or religious clerics who do not fear a retaliatory strike.
What does this all mean? If the West does not destroy the capability of these nations and their terrorist proxies in one blow, they will be enabled to kill us en masse. And, sad to say, they may succeed in killing hundreds of thousands (according to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld), or even millions, if we take only a re-active position, instead of a pro-active or preemptive position.
The accommodating, pro-Arab U.S. State Department knowingly allowed thousands of "sleeper agents" over the years to enter America from radical Islamic countries; agents who are trained to kill us like the puppies dying in agony in the CNN al-Qaeda videotapes. If we in the free West wish to live without threats of genocide, we have one option. We must pre-emptively destroy Iraq, in one blow, allowing Saddam no chance of response. We cannot threaten Saddam, nor can we afford to mobilize our forces gradually, allowing him time to launch his catastrophic WMD (Weapons of Mass Destruction). We cannot allow the terrorists time to arouse the other radical nations, or to start deadly attacks in the U.S. and Europe. This cannot be a war of rules, patience, restraint or brinkmanship. This must be a war of instant elimination of the real threat that can put in motion forces which could de-populate this planet.
Iraq must be hit with nuclear weapons (or neutron bombs to limit spread of radioactivity) in a blow to destroy any possibility of their launching a counter-strike with NBC (Nuclear, Biological or Chemical) weapons.
Within days of that blow, a message should go out to Syria and Iran to stand down their Weapons of Mass Destruction and close their weapons factories, laboratories (under a tight ratifying inspection) or suffer a similar fate. Further, along with this mandate, would be a demand to vacuum back their "sleeper agents" or give us their names, codes and locations for our police forces to round up. Yes, we might expect reprisals, but we would probably have been hit by their "sleeper agents" regardless.
We will hear complaints and moaning from the Leftist liberals, especially the Europeans, but since they are always in need of rescuing, their voices are irrelevant. Due to the availability of WMD to rogue nations and terrorist proxies, there is no room for a conventional protracted war. This war must begin and end in minutes, with the shock wave impacting outlying terrorists and nations who may fight if given sufficient time to gather their forces and wits. We have passed through the eras of spears, through gunpowder, thousand-pound bombs, smart bombs, et al. We have entered an era of area-wide weapons that can decimate any city with NBC (Nuclear, Biological and Chemical) materials. Unfortunately, these genocidal weapons have fallen into the hands of dictators who, at the threshold of falling from power, would release the nightmare.
I fear that when we reduce these horrors to mere words like WMD (Weapons of Mass Destruction), we lose the real impact of the scene of personal death. I will not take this space to describe dying from radiation poisoning, hemorrhagic fever (like Ebola), smallpox, mustard gas, Sarin gas, etc. One could consider oneself lucky if touched with a drop of VX nerve agent, causing instant death. So, the next time you hear WMD (Weapons of Mass Destruction), let your mind wander over a hundred ways to die in agony. One other thing: Before you explode in a fit of self righteous humanity, look across your table and imagine those you love no longer sitting in their places. Neither you nor your family deserve to be eliminated because a dictator has the will, the desire and the funds to make it happen. Just make sure he doesn?t have the permission of the Free World to do it.
There is no reasoning with such dedicated enemies. It is either them or us.
----------------------------------
Emanuel A. Winston is a Middle East analyst and commentator.
I have written frequently about the terrorist culture as an inter-linked matrix of terrorist groups, who behave as one cohesive unit. Granted, they appear to have separate organizations, each with a grudge against some government, the religion of the others, different ethnic groups - but, all with the common operational threads of terror. These are comrades-in-arms, whose common grudge against humanity makes them one united fighting force - very powerful in their motivation and technology.
The al-Qaeda videos, as screened on CNN, show merely one micro facet of the terror world, which has been under development and even in effect for quite some time. We in the free West have a tendency to watch each terror attack through the separate lens of a news story, which seems unconnected to other terrorist attacks. A terrorist group in Japan used Sarin gas in a subway. It was a terrible event, but seemed entirely separate from Egypt?s President Gamal Abdel Nasser?s earlier use of mustard gas in Yemen, during his era of control. Saddam Hussein ordered up experimental gas chambers from Germany to use as test equipment on Iranian and Kurdish prisoners. We now all know that during the eight-year Iran-Iraq war, Saddam used various mixtures of poison gas on Iranian soldiers, who were successfully counterattacking Iraqi troops. Saddam used mustard gas and Sarin gas on a Kurdish village as a split experiment. The blistering mustard gas tore apart the victims? lungs, who died in agony. The Sarin gas killed in a more ?humane? way, as TV and news journals showed mothers with children in their arms lying dead in the streets, as if in peaceful slumber. Syria?s President Hafez al Assad assaulted his own people in the city of Hama, Syria where, after a full artillery bombardment reduced the city to rubble, he sent in his poison gas units to kill off any survivors hiding in their cellars. Hitler?s use of Zyklon B gas to kill 6 million Jews left its red mark on history. He also used gas in trucks to kill the handicapped and gas in sewers of the Polish ghettos to asphyxiate escaping Jews. Gas, chemicals and nerve agents all seem to be a popular weapon of choice when it comes to killing in large numbers.
Syria, in particular, has one of the most advanced chemical weapons? industries in the world. The country hosts at least 12 terrorist organizations - one reason Syria is still on the U.S. State Department?s list of terrorist nations. Syria can arm their terrorist groups with missiles carrying various chemical warheads in hours ? unless, of course, it already has. Many of these terrorist groups are currently stationed in Lebanon, on Israel?s northern border. Al-Qaeda, HezbAllah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and others are already there in force, mostly operating under the guidance, funding and training of Iran. Israeli intelligence knows that there are missiles in Lebanon that are armed with chemical warheads - courtesy of Iran. All of these terrorist organizations trade and train with each other in a marketplace of deadly horrors. Can there be a more deadly combination of rogue nations, suppliers of chemical weapons and fanatical terrorists dedicated to Islam?
Most of the technology obtained by these rogue nations and terrorist proxies came from the West. America and Europe developed many of these technologies during the Cold War with the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union, China and North Korea also developed and stockpiled these chemical and biological substances - often placed in missiles and artillery shells, ready for use. VX (a nerve agent), Anthrax, Hemorrhagic Fever, Small Pox and genetically engineered variations, which defied vaccines, are among other deadly pathogens. For instance, Saddam?s scientists ordered and received "for experimentation" West Nile Virus from the Atlanta Disease Control Center. All of these witches? brews made it into the hands of primitive third world nations, controlled by dictators or religious clerics who do not fear a retaliatory strike.
What does this all mean? If the West does not destroy the capability of these nations and their terrorist proxies in one blow, they will be enabled to kill us en masse. And, sad to say, they may succeed in killing hundreds of thousands (according to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld), or even millions, if we take only a re-active position, instead of a pro-active or preemptive position.
The accommodating, pro-Arab U.S. State Department knowingly allowed thousands of "sleeper agents" over the years to enter America from radical Islamic countries; agents who are trained to kill us like the puppies dying in agony in the CNN al-Qaeda videotapes. If we in the free West wish to live without threats of genocide, we have one option. We must pre-emptively destroy Iraq, in one blow, allowing Saddam no chance of response. We cannot threaten Saddam, nor can we afford to mobilize our forces gradually, allowing him time to launch his catastrophic WMD (Weapons of Mass Destruction). We cannot allow the terrorists time to arouse the other radical nations, or to start deadly attacks in the U.S. and Europe. This cannot be a war of rules, patience, restraint or brinkmanship. This must be a war of instant elimination of the real threat that can put in motion forces which could de-populate this planet.
Iraq must be hit with nuclear weapons (or neutron bombs to limit spread of radioactivity) in a blow to destroy any possibility of their launching a counter-strike with NBC (Nuclear, Biological or Chemical) weapons.
Within days of that blow, a message should go out to Syria and Iran to stand down their Weapons of Mass Destruction and close their weapons factories, laboratories (under a tight ratifying inspection) or suffer a similar fate. Further, along with this mandate, would be a demand to vacuum back their "sleeper agents" or give us their names, codes and locations for our police forces to round up. Yes, we might expect reprisals, but we would probably have been hit by their "sleeper agents" regardless.
We will hear complaints and moaning from the Leftist liberals, especially the Europeans, but since they are always in need of rescuing, their voices are irrelevant. Due to the availability of WMD to rogue nations and terrorist proxies, there is no room for a conventional protracted war. This war must begin and end in minutes, with the shock wave impacting outlying terrorists and nations who may fight if given sufficient time to gather their forces and wits. We have passed through the eras of spears, through gunpowder, thousand-pound bombs, smart bombs, et al. We have entered an era of area-wide weapons that can decimate any city with NBC (Nuclear, Biological and Chemical) materials. Unfortunately, these genocidal weapons have fallen into the hands of dictators who, at the threshold of falling from power, would release the nightmare.
I fear that when we reduce these horrors to mere words like WMD (Weapons of Mass Destruction), we lose the real impact of the scene of personal death. I will not take this space to describe dying from radiation poisoning, hemorrhagic fever (like Ebola), smallpox, mustard gas, Sarin gas, etc. One could consider oneself lucky if touched with a drop of VX nerve agent, causing instant death. So, the next time you hear WMD (Weapons of Mass Destruction), let your mind wander over a hundred ways to die in agony. One other thing: Before you explode in a fit of self righteous humanity, look across your table and imagine those you love no longer sitting in their places. Neither you nor your family deserve to be eliminated because a dictator has the will, the desire and the funds to make it happen. Just make sure he doesn?t have the permission of the Free World to do it.
There is no reasoning with such dedicated enemies. It is either them or us.
----------------------------------
Emanuel A. Winston is a Middle East analyst and commentator.