Global War on Terror: An International Affair

Al Qaida in Iraq - Islamic State of Iraq downs helicopter:

The Islamic State of Iraq, an al-Qaida-linked group, claimed on Friday that it shot down the Apache near Taji in a statement posted on an extremist Web site.

"We tell the enemies of God that the airspace of the Islamic State in Iraq is prohibited to your aircraft just like its lands are," the statement said. "God has granted new ways for the soldiers of the State of Iraq to confront your aircraft."

10 Foreigners Among Captured in Somali - 2 Are Americans:

MOGADISHU, Somalia - Two Americans were among at least 10 foreigners caught by Kenyan police at the Somali border after allegedly fighting with Somalia's ousted Islamic movement, an official said Friday. [snip]

Among the foreigners in Kenyan custody were four Britons, a Frenchman, a Tunisian woman, Syrians and other Arabs, said the Kenyan official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the information. The date of their deportation was not yet known.

Iraq Central Criminal Court Convicts 15

The trial court found a Syrian man guilty of illegal possession of special weapons in violation of Order 3/2003 and Article 10/First/A of the Passport Law and sentenced him to 21 years imprisonment. [snip]

The trial court found a Tunisian man guilty of Article 194 of the Iraqi Penal Code for Joining Armed Groups to Unsettle the Stability and Security of Iraq. [snip]

Those convicted of passport violations, illegal possession of special weapons and entering the country illegally were sentenced from between one to ten years imprisonment. Those convicted include 11 Iraqis and one each from Tunisia, Jordan, Sudan and Syria.

Manila Military Chief Hostage at MNLF compound (Rebels?)

Muslim separatists in the southern Philippines are holding Manila's military chief, the head of the government's truce panel, a colonel and an undetermined number of soldiers hostage, senior military sources said on Saturday.

Members of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) were refusing to let Brigadier-General Ben Dolorfino, the commander of military forces in the capital, and Ramon Santos, government undersecretary for the peace process with the MNLF, leave their camp until their jailed founder was released.

This is why it's called the "GLOBAL" war on terror. In the 1990's, people talked about a world without borders. In a world without borders, not only can good things occur, communication and travel opens up. The disaffected no longer view themselves as simply victims of the system that they live under within specified borders. They see themselves as victims of an entire system that is leaving them behind. Who is responsible for their disaffection? The whole world.

Many people refuse to see the connections between activities in Somolia, Iraq and the Philipines, but it is very simple. In order for people to move to one theater of the global conflict or another, they must have money, they must have places to stay on the way there and they must have places to train. Every active battle space, whether low intensity or high intensity, provides onus and opportunity. In the case of Islamists, even seperatists whose main concern seems local are not immune to and do not object to providing assistance and services to ideological brethern. This is how they network, obtain supplies, money and even men for the fighting.

Foreign fighters from England, France, United States, Syria, Saudi Arabia or Jordan may travel via Indonesia or the Philipines to reach Pakistan to go into Afghanistan in order to cover their activities. On traveling to the Philipines, they may bring money to the local actors as a "gift" and/or they may be provided identity papers, a place to stay until the next leg of the journey and possibly weapons or names of contacts where more shelter, money and weapons and other assistance can be received. Money may be routed through Egypt to Yemen to a "charity" operating in Iraq that smuggles fighters, buys weapons and provides other material support.

Everybody gets in on it via the new reality of globalization. For many in the US and abroad, the idea that all of these activities are part of the active war on terror appears to be a conflation of local activities to a "Global War".

All politics may be local, but ideological terrorism is an International Affair.

Cross referenced at the Castle