Sunday, December 28, 2003
DEBKAfile on Al Qaeda's assasination strategy
Interesting thumbnail history of Al Qaeda's strategy of assasination. Buried at the bottom, this fascinating nugget, referring to the second attempt to kill Musharraf:
"However, realizing that al Qaeda was gunning for him and would try again, the Pakistani ruler was prepared. DEBKA-Net-Weekly's counter-terror sources report that in addition to the American jamming equipment, the president provided himself with a second gadget designed in Israel especially for detonating explosive belts carried by suicidal terrorists. This gadget is still being developed for the American army in Iraq. Instead of stopping a timer to gain one minute for escape, this system detonates the bomb belt on the terrorist's body.
"Israel's development of this device has been guided by three objectives:
"1. To acquire the ability to pre-empt a suicide bomber by detonating his charge before he reaches target, thereby cutting down casualties.
"2. Of late, Palestinian terror groups have taken to using advance parties to conceal a would-be suicide killer's bomb belt at safe drops like mosques or caves, where he picks it up a short time before he sets out for attack. The new system once perfected can be used to detect a suspected terrorist's hiding place and blow his belt up before he straps it on.
"3. Israeli intelligence has received word of a new weapon developed by al Qaeda and the Lebanese Hizballah in partnership: an explosive that is not activated by the bomber but is preset to blow up at a given time regardless of whether he is caught before he strikes. It also acts as back-up for faulty mechanisms. The two terror groups started working on their pre-timed device after the partial miss of the two British bombers, Muhammed Hanif and Omar Sharif, in their attack on a Tel Aviv bar on April 30, 2003. Hanif blew himself up, while Sharif's bomb-belt was faulty.
"The Israeli device is still experimental. It will undergo further testing before it goes into service."
While this may not be true -- DEBKAfile tends to frame rumors and speculation as if they were established fact -- it would be great if we were learning how to blow these guys up before they kill.
"However, realizing that al Qaeda was gunning for him and would try again, the Pakistani ruler was prepared. DEBKA-Net-Weekly's counter-terror sources report that in addition to the American jamming equipment, the president provided himself with a second gadget designed in Israel especially for detonating explosive belts carried by suicidal terrorists. This gadget is still being developed for the American army in Iraq. Instead of stopping a timer to gain one minute for escape, this system detonates the bomb belt on the terrorist's body.
"Israel's development of this device has been guided by three objectives:
"1. To acquire the ability to pre-empt a suicide bomber by detonating his charge before he reaches target, thereby cutting down casualties.
"2. Of late, Palestinian terror groups have taken to using advance parties to conceal a would-be suicide killer's bomb belt at safe drops like mosques or caves, where he picks it up a short time before he sets out for attack. The new system once perfected can be used to detect a suspected terrorist's hiding place and blow his belt up before he straps it on.
"3. Israeli intelligence has received word of a new weapon developed by al Qaeda and the Lebanese Hizballah in partnership: an explosive that is not activated by the bomber but is preset to blow up at a given time regardless of whether he is caught before he strikes. It also acts as back-up for faulty mechanisms. The two terror groups started working on their pre-timed device after the partial miss of the two British bombers, Muhammed Hanif and Omar Sharif, in their attack on a Tel Aviv bar on April 30, 2003. Hanif blew himself up, while Sharif's bomb-belt was faulty.
"The Israeli device is still experimental. It will undergo further testing before it goes into service."
While this may not be true -- DEBKAfile tends to frame rumors and speculation as if they were established fact -- it would be great if we were learning how to blow these guys up before they kill.
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