Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Al Qaeda and Weapons of Mass Destruction

I read an article today concerning an increase in the number of video and audio instructions released by Al Quaeda. The article discussed a new video tape that urges supporters to use WMD technology to attack the West. Many different scholars do not feel that use of a WMD is likely. There are too many incentives for terrorists groups to avoid this action, and generally not enough resources to materialize the threat. The new video has been identified as a conglomeration of different clips taken from multiple previous Al Quaeda releases. Most of the community that keeps up on this stuff feels these are the words and views of the political base of the movement and not leaders or direct participants in the organization.
Terrorist organizations are flattening. The hierarchical structure is disseminating into autonomous cells. In this atmosphere I feel that this kind of propaganda is more dangerous than if an intact hierarchical organization had published the message. Leaders of a terrorist group do not want the consequences associated with using a WMD. They want to be noticed, but they also want to exist. Even though the actual Al Quaeda organization continues to follow this kind of reasoning, the ideology they preach to produce support induces in the public a mentality of finality and an apocalyptic present. In these conditions members of the movement who are not responsible to any leader may act according their own intentions.
As has been previously outlined, most terrorist organizations do not have the assets necessary to be a realistic WMD threat. Even fewer individual terrorists have this ability. However, the incentives that keep the best developed and funded terrorist groups at bay, do not manifest themselves in the soul individual, the member of the movement without a leader. Here is where a threat could surface, even if the possibility was incredibly low.
Well this class is definitely over, and for myself, my class room days in an undergraduate Political Science course have come to a close. I am working for the local government now and working towards law school. I posted a couple of weeks ago; wondering if anyone would still contribute. I think this forum is a good way to express our views on different issues surrounding terrorism and other its role in US foreign policy. Being involved in as many ways as possible keeps me on my toes. I feel at times like an embodiment of Plato's political animal. Perhaps no one will ever read what is posted here again, but I highly doubt that. We are in Google's search base now.