An analysis of terror tactics: from PFLP to Al Qaeda
The following analysis is not intended as an endorsement of terrorism in any way, it is merely an open minded discourse, thinking out loud, an evaluation of the progression of terrorist tactics in the Middle East over the last 40 years. The conclusions drawn point to a relationship between the rising levels of injustice inflicted upon a people and the escalating violent reactions to these injustices.
“…Our blows are directed at the weak parts in the enemy's structure, to throw him into confusion…
“The operations of the Front demonstrate that the safety and life of any imprisoned member of the Revolution is no less valuable than the safety or life of any Westerner and that it will not permit Arab lands or Arabs to be considered as fair game for abuse…
“Has it been said that these operations expose the lives of innocent people to danger? In today's world, no one is innocent, no one is neutral. A man is either with the oppressor or the oppressed. He who takes no interest in politics gives his blessing to the prevailing order…”
The above statement was taken from a policy document published by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) in 1970, reprinted in a book titled Black September published by the PLO Research Center in Beirut on the events of September 1970 in Jordan. Substitute the word Muslim for Arab and it might as well have been written by Al Qaeda.
You are either 'with the oppressor or the oppressed', funny how much right wing American Presidents and Palestinian revolutionaries have in common. There is always a critical choice forced upon us by the violent and uncompromising, 'you are either with us or against us', there is no middle path to follow.
The above statement came at a time when the PFLP was glowing red hot in terms of revolutionary activity. In September 1970 the front hijacked four airliners and blew them up. Sounds familiar?
The airliners, a Swissair DC 8, a TWA 707, a Pan American 747 and a BOAC VC 10, were taken mid-air and diverted, three landed in 'Revolution Airport', a landing strip in the Jordanian desert under PFLP control, while the 747 went first to Beirut then to Cairo. In all cases, passengers were taken off the planes before the aircraft were blown up. No one died, but four aircraft were destroyed.
Could it be that Osama bin Laden took a page out of the PFLP playbook, or was it more, was 9/11 in fact a twisted tribute to the PFLP and the Palestinian cause? Fact: In 1970 all four hijackings were coordinated within hours of one another and the last three aircraft taken by the PFLP were blown up on September 12, coincidence or design?
But Al Qaeda took matters further, much, much further, I would say to megalomaniacal levels, and the immense loss of life on 9/11 was that operation’s own undoing. Proof that terror tactics cannot be used to declare total war on a superpower by a non-state actor without dire consequences for the perpetrator.
By contrast, the PFLP only annoyed a few airlines and some Middle East governments whose own failure in the 1967 Arab-Israeli War forced Palestinian revolutionaries to the fore. But what about the Fedayeen-Al Qaeda connection, there seems more to it than just tributes and sentimentalism.
A statement attributed to Carlos the Jackal (a jailed PFLP-EO operative) on Wikipedia somehow rings true and makes a lot of sense: “Carlos, the Jackal, praises Osama bin Laden and the September 11 attacks and advocates Revolutionary Islam as a new, post-Communist answer to what he calls United States' ‘totalitarianism’, telling readers: ‘From now on terrorism is going to be more or less a daily part of the landscape of your rotting democracies.’”
Taking matters to the next level, so to speak, from the PFLP was the organization known as Black September; the group responsible for the murder of Israeli Olympic athletes in Munich in 1972. Black September was formed after the PLO was expelled from Jordan.
Here is yet another snippet from Wikipedia: “According to American journalist John K. Cooley, the Black September (BSO) organization represented a “total break with the old operational and organizational methods of the fedayeen. Its members operated in air-tight cells of four or more men and women. Each cell’s members were kept purposely ignorant of other cells. Leadership was exercised from outside by intermediaries and ‘cut-offs’ [sic]”, though there was no centralized leadership (Cooley 1973).”
The similarities are uncanny with Al Qaeda methodology. What is very telling is the progression over the last four decades from hijacking for the purpose of making a statement and freeing imprisoned comrades, to hijacking as tool for mass murder. The increasing sophistication and violence of attacks, from Revolution Airport to the murders of Olympic athletes in Munich to the mass killings of September 11, seem to indicate that the longer perceived or actual injustices remain unaddressed and the more they grow and fester, the more intense and violent the reprisals become.
The questions that beg to be answered: What can the world expect next as long as Israel continues to do as it pleases without consequence and as long as Arab governments refuse to open the steam valve to relieve the pressure? When will the US consider Israeli actions to be counterproductive and damaging to its policies in the region, will they ever?
In my humble opinion Israel is the source of all terror in the region; it both perpetrates it, provokes and inspires it. Fighting against terror is the noblest of endeavors simply because you can't fight terror effectively with guns and bullets; you fight it by removing its cause, the original injustice.
For an end to terror solutions must be found, people need to sit together and talk, but all must be on equal footing, in order to arrive at a formula for coexistence. That has not happened so far. Palestinians are always dictated to rather than engaged in peace negotiations. All extremists, including those in the present Israeli Government, need to be isolated from this process for it to succeed.
“…Our blows are directed at the weak parts in the enemy's structure, to throw him into confusion…
“The operations of the Front demonstrate that the safety and life of any imprisoned member of the Revolution is no less valuable than the safety or life of any Westerner and that it will not permit Arab lands or Arabs to be considered as fair game for abuse…
“Has it been said that these operations expose the lives of innocent people to danger? In today's world, no one is innocent, no one is neutral. A man is either with the oppressor or the oppressed. He who takes no interest in politics gives his blessing to the prevailing order…”
The above statement was taken from a policy document published by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) in 1970, reprinted in a book titled Black September published by the PLO Research Center in Beirut on the events of September 1970 in Jordan. Substitute the word Muslim for Arab and it might as well have been written by Al Qaeda.
You are either 'with the oppressor or the oppressed', funny how much right wing American Presidents and Palestinian revolutionaries have in common. There is always a critical choice forced upon us by the violent and uncompromising, 'you are either with us or against us', there is no middle path to follow.
The above statement came at a time when the PFLP was glowing red hot in terms of revolutionary activity. In September 1970 the front hijacked four airliners and blew them up. Sounds familiar?
The airliners, a Swissair DC 8, a TWA 707, a Pan American 747 and a BOAC VC 10, were taken mid-air and diverted, three landed in 'Revolution Airport', a landing strip in the Jordanian desert under PFLP control, while the 747 went first to Beirut then to Cairo. In all cases, passengers were taken off the planes before the aircraft were blown up. No one died, but four aircraft were destroyed.
Could it be that Osama bin Laden took a page out of the PFLP playbook, or was it more, was 9/11 in fact a twisted tribute to the PFLP and the Palestinian cause? Fact: In 1970 all four hijackings were coordinated within hours of one another and the last three aircraft taken by the PFLP were blown up on September 12, coincidence or design?
But Al Qaeda took matters further, much, much further, I would say to megalomaniacal levels, and the immense loss of life on 9/11 was that operation’s own undoing. Proof that terror tactics cannot be used to declare total war on a superpower by a non-state actor without dire consequences for the perpetrator.
By contrast, the PFLP only annoyed a few airlines and some Middle East governments whose own failure in the 1967 Arab-Israeli War forced Palestinian revolutionaries to the fore. But what about the Fedayeen-Al Qaeda connection, there seems more to it than just tributes and sentimentalism.
A statement attributed to Carlos the Jackal (a jailed PFLP-EO operative) on Wikipedia somehow rings true and makes a lot of sense: “Carlos, the Jackal, praises Osama bin Laden and the September 11 attacks and advocates Revolutionary Islam as a new, post-Communist answer to what he calls United States' ‘totalitarianism’, telling readers: ‘From now on terrorism is going to be more or less a daily part of the landscape of your rotting democracies.’”
Taking matters to the next level, so to speak, from the PFLP was the organization known as Black September; the group responsible for the murder of Israeli Olympic athletes in Munich in 1972. Black September was formed after the PLO was expelled from Jordan.
Here is yet another snippet from Wikipedia: “According to American journalist John K. Cooley, the Black September (BSO) organization represented a “total break with the old operational and organizational methods of the fedayeen. Its members operated in air-tight cells of four or more men and women. Each cell’s members were kept purposely ignorant of other cells. Leadership was exercised from outside by intermediaries and ‘cut-offs’ [sic]”, though there was no centralized leadership (Cooley 1973).”
The similarities are uncanny with Al Qaeda methodology. What is very telling is the progression over the last four decades from hijacking for the purpose of making a statement and freeing imprisoned comrades, to hijacking as tool for mass murder. The increasing sophistication and violence of attacks, from Revolution Airport to the murders of Olympic athletes in Munich to the mass killings of September 11, seem to indicate that the longer perceived or actual injustices remain unaddressed and the more they grow and fester, the more intense and violent the reprisals become.
The questions that beg to be answered: What can the world expect next as long as Israel continues to do as it pleases without consequence and as long as Arab governments refuse to open the steam valve to relieve the pressure? When will the US consider Israeli actions to be counterproductive and damaging to its policies in the region, will they ever?
In my humble opinion Israel is the source of all terror in the region; it both perpetrates it, provokes and inspires it. Fighting against terror is the noblest of endeavors simply because you can't fight terror effectively with guns and bullets; you fight it by removing its cause, the original injustice.
For an end to terror solutions must be found, people need to sit together and talk, but all must be on equal footing, in order to arrive at a formula for coexistence. That has not happened so far. Palestinians are always dictated to rather than engaged in peace negotiations. All extremists, including those in the present Israeli Government, need to be isolated from this process for it to succeed.
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