Reuters has the news that Abu Ayyub al-Masri, the leader of al-Qaeda un Iraq, has been killed by US Forces. This is the same guy that put out an audio message last week for
…experts in the fields of “chemistry, physics, electronics, media and all other sciences — especially nuclear scientists and explosives experts†to join the terror group’s holy war against the West.
and, in the same message
…called on insurgents in Iraq to capture Westerners so they could be traded for the imprisoned Egyptian [blind] sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman, who was convicted in 1995 of conspiring to blow up New York City landmarks.
I have to admit that that one worried me — not for what it said on the surface, but a perhaps irrational linking of the two: might it be a call to kidnap American scientists and nuclear experts? Too Tom Clancy, perhaps… but it was one of the first possibilities that crossed by mind when I heard the report. That thought hits too close to home.
CentCom is reporting that
Coalition forces detained a former driver and personal assistant of Abu Ayyub al-Masri along with 31 others during a series of 11 raids targeting al-Qaida in Iraq activities in the Baghdad area Sept. 28.
Both of these appear to be good news.
“media and all other sciences”
“media” is a science? Who knew?
This is comically unserious. Even if a “nuclear expert” joined al Qaeda in Iraq, how would that be a threat? Are you not aware that it requires, you know, highly enriched uranium, sophisticated machining and computational technology, elaborate containment and trained technologists to actually build a nuclear explosive? This is not something you do in a tent in the desert or the basement of a tenement.
Put your thinking cap back on netmom.
How many times have they announced “Yay, we’ve killed the number x guy in Iraq”?
Joel, can you be surprised that Reuters thinks that media is a science? That was a quote from them — I didn’t make it up.
And it’s not their call for scientists and nuclear experts that troubled me, it was my “perhaps irrational” linking of the call to kidnap westerners and for nuclear scientists, in the same tape, that was bothersome. My parents are overseas at the moment, and Dad spent his whole career at K-25 and Y-12.
My thinking cap is on, thanks. At least I recognize when I may be stretching it. I’m convinced that my parents are paying me back with a day of worry as an adult for every hour of worry I cost them as a teenager. It’s not the first time they’ve done it: just days after 9/11/01, they took off for a few weeks in Spain and Morocco.
“Joel, can you be surprised that Reuters thinks that media is a science? That was a quote from them — I didn’t make it up.”
Never said you did. I don’t really care who said it. I wasn’t crticizing a person or organization, I was criticizing at very silly remark. “Media” is/are not a science.
“Dad spent his whole career at K-25 and Y-12.”
I doubt they’re targeting your dad. Anyone who thinks kidnapping of nuclear experts is any more significant than kidnapping of haut cuisine chefs doesn’t understand nuclear weapons. Not even a fabled “nuclear expert” can just rub two sticks together and make a fission weapon.
“I’m convinced that my parents are paying me back with a day of worry as an adult for every hour of worry I cost them as a teenager.”
I think you nailed it this time (except I would have prefaced the word “worry” with the adjective “needless”). The point of terrorists is not the killing and mayhem the cause in a given terrorist attack–these are easily dwarfed by the killing and mayhem that occurs every year on US highways. The point of terrorists is to inspire irrational fear and actions (or paralysis of inaction) in others. When we yield to such fears, they win.
Oh, and not only did Reuters get the relationship between media and science wrong (I’m taking your word for this, as I couldn’t get your link to work), they apparently got the report wrong on which this post was based:
http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/10/05/al.masri/index.html
Make that “criticizing *a* very silly remark.”
“I doubt they’re targeting your dad. Anyone who thinks kidnapping of nuclear experts is any more significant than kidnapping of haut cuisine chefs doesn’t understand nuclear weapons.”
Like the rocket scientists in al-Qaeda? Of course I agree that kidnapping a nuclear scientist would more than likely, be a waste of time for al-Qaeda but for some reason this group doesn’t seem to follow conventional wisdom.
“. . . this group doesn’t seem to follow conventional wisdom.”
I agree, but that doesn’t mean they can perform magic.
al Qaeda will never build a fission weapon. They may build a dirty bomb (conventional explosive to disperse radioactive material), but the infrastructure required to enrich uranium, machine it properly, handle it properly, assemble the closely timed explosive components to drive critical mass in the proper geometry, and the trained personnel to carry this out is far beyond their resources. You can’t just stick a few scientists in a room with several tons of yellowcake ore and expect a bomb to emerge.
I am agreeing with you Joel…I just don’t have a lot of confidence that these morons understand your finer points of bomb building and are much more of a threat to kidnap someone that may have the expertise than they are to actually build the big one.