A little contest

Good afternoon, all. Once again, I have changed the header at the top of the blog. And I have some questions to ask about the famous international terrorists pictured both here, and in the new header.

Here are the contest rules: The first student with a correct answer to any of these questions gets a brownie point. Students answering more than one question are disqualified from the contest. All answers must come in comments appended to this post. Good luck!

Questions:

1. What is the (full) name this man was born with?

2. In what country was he born?

3. What was his nomme de guerre?

4. What is the title of the novel from which he got his famous moniker?

5. What is the (full) name of the terrorist group with which he was associated in the early 1970s?

6. Where does he currently reside, and why?

Achmed the terrorist sings some Christmas songs

Here is some belated Holiday humor.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wskT6YfVB6E

Because of my recent bout with mononucleosis, I have had really weird cycles of extreme sleeplessness followed by days of extreme fatigue. Tonight I wasn’t able to sleep so I decided to peruse the news. As I was browsing the international news section of CNN, a news alert flashed across my screen that was pertinent to our class. However, before one reads this latest news article I wanted to sort of chronicle the events that have lead up to this latest attack.

In the past week, renewed tensions between the LTTE and the Sri Lankan government have come to a head. The Sri Lankan government officially pulled out of a truce with the LTTE last month; it was a truce which had begun earlier this year. Immediately after withdrawing out of this truce, the Sri Lankan government began shelling suspected militant hideouts. The LTTE said that the targets of the shellings were merely Tamil civilians and that the government was not targeting them (read: the LTTE) but rather they were targeting ethnic Tamils in a bid to try and coerce their people.

In response, the LTTE reinstituted their campaign of terror. Their first act was a suicide attack on a civilian bus that killed 12 and wounded 100. A dozen or more attacks then followed: the LTTE was also implicated in a hand-grenade attack on a local zoo and on the Sri Lankan Independence Day, the LTTE staged a variety of attacks, which killed 13 and wounded even more.

Recently this week, the LTTE ambushed 3 Sri Lankan soldiers and executed them south of their “safe zone of de facto control.” The government responded with aerial bombings of suspected militant strongholds and hideouts.

All of these attacks have been increasing in crescendo. In fact, today, there was another governmental response to the LTTE’s previous attacks: the government killed an estimated 46 rebels and destroyed 5 bunkers in a new offensive aimed at curbing the violence. It seems that the violence is going to continue to escalate, for the LTTE has already vowed to respond to this latest governmental attack.

My question is this: for anyone who is familiar with the LTTE, why did they “mysteriously” agree to a cease fire after September 11, 2001? Why didn’t the government accept their terms of greater autonomy (read: the LTTE dropped their demands for independence)? Why did the cease fire fail? Why did the 2006 ceasefire fail? And furthermore, why did this most recent cease fire fail?

PS Another interesting news article linked to the CNN article that stemmed all of this musing can be found at BBC Sinhala.

Israeli/Palestinian Peace Talks

This article http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7252305.stm discusses recent Israeli/Palestinian attempts to formulate a plan for peace regarding Jerusalem and the creation of a Palestinian state. Tension has dominated the peace talks and increased with militant activity in Gaza and the Israeli plan to build a number of homes in East Jerusalem. Both sides hope to reach an agreement soon before negotiations become improbable. Many wonder what a peace settlement between Israelis and Palestinians would look like because Palestinians want East Jerusalem to be their capitol while Israelis claim the entire city. It seems that peace talks like this are ongoing in the Middle East yet never resolved. Does anyone know more about how many attempts have been made to negotiate peace among Israelis and Palestinians?

Terrorism, Counter-Terrorism, and Star Wars

I was looking for something to post about and I discovered that the content from a pro-terrorist site I have used to post in the past was "removed by the user." I thought this was a little odd and started to look around and I found something very interesting. There are a lot sites that support terrorists on the internet, many of which are hosted in the US. I then found a bunch of sites devoted to the downfall and removal of these pro-terrorist sites. These sites request users to file complaints to servers hosting pro-terrorist sites to stop them from spreading their messages. The site which seems to be popular (other sites/blogs have links to this site or refer to it) in fighting these pro-terrorist sites is called The Jawa Report. After poking around on their site and reading what the whole Star-Wars Jawa analogy stuff was all about I thought it was pretty interesting. These people see themselves as players in what is going on with terrorism in the world, and they use Star-Wars characters to identify different actors. They are taking a very active (there have been two new posts since i started writing this entry) role to prevent terrorists from spreading their message and gaining support here in the US, and it seems that they have been successful on various occasions. It is interesting to think that there is a cyber-struggle going on for space to spread ideals. I don't know if these people are really having a large impact because the people who read the pro-terrorist sites regularly usually tend to agree with them and will find pro-terrorist propaganda elsewhere. Either way, at least they are trying to have a positive impact.

Hidden Terrorists

Last week we talked about members of terrorist groups that blend in with the rest of the population. Last September there was a young man in Germany that was arrested for transporting chemicals to Pakistan. Here is the article.

A Sick, Twisted Little Bunny

I just came across this clip from Hamas TV. The only thing I can compare it to is Bugs Bunny having a bad acid trip.

A [Silly] Question. . .

I was home with the family this holiday weekend, and my 7-year-old sister got me thinking.  At one point on Sunday evening she wasn't getting her way, and like any good youngest child, she began screaming and crying.  Her sobs were obviously not motivated by real pain, but geared towards getting attention and sympathy.  

This brought to mind the terrorist strategy of armed propaganda, and leads to this question: Are childish outbursts a form of low-grade terrorism, or is terrorism simply an overblown temper tantrum?  Perhaps both?  Neither?

Interpreting God

As compared to secular terrorists, religious terrorists inflict a lot more casualties on enemy targets. According to Hoffman, it is because of, "radically different value systems, mechanisms of legitimation and justification, and concepts of morality".
What seems so ironic to me about this is that religiously motivated terrorists seemingly value human life less than secular terrorists, who see killing a large number of innocent civilians as immoral and counter productive to their goals.
In regard to Islamic terrorism, it seems that the promise of the after life has blurred their line between a moral and immoral act. While secular terrorists seek to improve the world for the present times, religious terrorists have fewer qualms about killing "infidels" because it is sanctioned in the Koran. But, who is to say what the criteria should be for determining an enemy of Islam?

Hezbollah still has 2 Israeli Soldiers

We sort of talked about this in class on Friday, so I did some research and found this article. It really did take some research, because like we discussed, the international community has largely forgotten that these two soldiers are still being held. Barely anything has been written on them until today, when it came out that they may soon be officially classified as "dead". It's unfortunate that no one seemed to put much sustained pressure on Hezbollah to release them. These are the two soldiers that were kidnapped during a cross-border raid in July of 2007. They are the reason that Israel attacked Hezbollah, and the fact the they are still being held is the reason Hezbollah is claiming victory, while Olmert struggles to stay in power in Israel.

Musharraf Says Election Vital to Anti-Terrorism Fight

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a31ISoTro0dY&refer=home
This article is on the Pakistani elections for parilament that are coming up tomorrow. During these last few weeks of camaigning there has been terrorist attacks. Most recently was yesterday (the final day of campaigning)suicide bomber killed at least 38. he attacker, driving a car laden with explosives, struck in the northwestern tribal town of Parachinar yesterday, about eight miles (13 kilometers) from the border with Afghanistan. He targeted the offices of opposition election candidate Syed Riaz Hussain Shah. In this article, President Pervez Musharraf said tomorrow's parliamentary elections are vital to Pakistan's fight against terrorism. In this article the attacks during the campainging were not called terrorist attacks, they were called by militant attacks, including the Dec. 27 assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. This surpised me. So I wonder why in some countries they call attacks, "Acts of Terror" and in other countries they are called "militant attacks". I also wonder about AL Queda's presents in the tribal villages of Pakistan. I hope you guys like the article and can fill me in on some new info.
Thanks
Austin Conners