Back in the day, when I was working towards my degree in Terrorism, I remember that one of the first things the teacher said was, “there is no definition of terrorism.” And absolutely, one of the greatest problems with the War on Terror, especially in Central Asia, is that the various definitions all conflict with each other and lead the DoD, the Dept. of State, PMCs, NGOs, and the actual host government’s police forces and military to all define their objectives differently and to then stake their claims on different goals.
Seriously, some quick wiki‘ing can introduce you to the problem.
- Department of State: “The term “terrorism” means premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated against noncombatant [including off-duty military] targets by subnational groups or clandestine agents, usually intended to influence an audience.”
- Department of Defense: “Calculated use of unlawful violence to inculcate fear; intended to coerce or intimidate governments or societies in pursuit of goals that are generally political, religious, or ideological.”
So of course the DoD’s definition includes attacks on military, because then they’re relevant to the war on terror. So then people who fight ISAF in pitched battles are terrorists whether or not they kill civilians. Except for the countries in ISAF where DoD’s definition doesn’t fly. It gets really fascinating when you look outside of NATO, though. I can’t find it for the life of me online, but I believe Iran defines terrorism as “an act of Zionism” or something along those lines. There is no international, interstate, acceptance of An Issue of Terrorism. Not even close. And if you wanted to bet that the UN’s definitions have been lawyered beyond all comprehension, you’d be right.
The use of an amorphous definition to fight an amorphous problem allows repressive regimes plenty of room to operate. I’m not as well-versed in Central Asian sub-state actors yet, but the old Turkish Hezbollah was, by many smart folks, believed to be a government creation to fight the PKK. And, I mean, there’s the whole history of the ISI. And though that stuff gets conspiracy-theorist in a hurry, the very existence of dark corners is a function of this vague and confused definition of terrorism.
I mentioned the terrorism degree before, and it stands to say that the folks I got it from also put out the Global Terrorism Database, which is a terrific amount of fun. If you’re interested, you can download an excel file of all their data, which allows folks like us to crowdsource terrorism research. All of this is good, good, stuff.
At the same time, there are some gaps to fill. Gaps that exist because of the aforementioned amorphousness of the issue the GTD is there to study. And I hate to harp on Andijan, but I view it as a litmus test of someone’s knowledgability of Central Asia: If you know about the events and the questions surrounding it, there’s a good chance you’re pretty knowledgable about the rest of the issues surrounding Central Asia (or at least are in a good position to learn more). And the GTD? Well, it don’t know Andijan:
Thousands of armed protestors stormed a jail in an effort to free 23 members of the Akramia religious group in Andijan, Uzbekistan. At least nine people were killed and numerous others were injured in the incident. The government of Uzbekistan believed that the Akamia religious group was in contact with the outlawed, radical Islamic party Hizb-ut-Tahrir. No group claimed responsibility for the attack.
So here we go again. It’s not GTD’s fault, per se. The point of the database is to create a set of datapoints, and this datapoint has the right date, the right location, and all of that. There’s just a stark lack of sincerity about the underlying issue. This weird dichotomy exists between the “With us or against us” belief and the “Let countries figure out how to deal with their own problems” I’m honestly not sure how Karimov landed on a side, Kadyrov landed on a side, and all of that.
The tools to study exist, but there is no consensus on what to study. The whole inchoate beginning of Terrorism Studies as a field relies on an ability to define terrorism like one can define history, anthropology, or geology. Withouth that, it’s just political posturing and think tanks. I’m not sure what the better solution is.
{ 16 comments }
Setting aside the very fun* statement that you have “a degree in terrorism” as opposed to the study of, you are right that this is problematic. You’re right again that the UN is hopelessly convoluted over it’s attempts at a definition (inevitable with any club of nearly two hundred members). Most definition fail by being too specific in my opinion. When teaching, I have preferred above all others the elegant definition of my old professor and great international legal mind Sir Adam Roberts (I have to paraphrase from memory and apologize for the inevitable mangling that follows):
Groups or organizations use, or threaten to use, violence in an organized fashion in order to drive off, terrorize, or exert control over part of a population or government that the action is directed against.
* and disconcerting for the literal-minded, of which I am not one
Hmmm, I suppose I should’ve given a definition I liked. I just stumbled upon this one by Richard Mosse:
“Terrorism is a gesture of advertising; it’s a literary act, a form of representation, before all else. Its aim is not primarily to kill, but to capture the popular imagination through killing….there is no finer, more succinct, more international, and more culturally loaded expression of the catastrophe than a plane crash. An airliner in vertical descent is a spectacle of modernity’s complete failure. It is horrifying, but also aesthetically powerful—and it’s for these reasons that terrorists covet the air disaster. I feel that photographers, who work in close proximity to advertising, can enter the terrorist’s symbolic order and violate the same taboos.”
from: http://bldgblog.blogspot.com/2009/12/leviathan-interview-with-richard-mosse.html
(and Sailani: telling people that I got a degree in terrorism starts wayyyy more conversations. And besides, I try to look at it from much less of an academic standpoint and far more of a tactile stand point. If we can’t agree on what we’re studying, we can at least agree on what we’re doing.
there might be different definitions of the term, but the problem is with how these definitions are interpreted. The term creates paranoia, it is emotive, and can easily be misused.
in iran, it might be zionism (or something along these lines, as you say), in central asia it might be anyone actively practicing Islam (religious terrorism). because the creed does not recognize the borders and believers automatically affectionate, it is alleged, with the terrorists they never came in touch with or their ideas and interpretations of islam. it is enough to have the literature of Sayed Qutb to be alleged of terrorism, and get 10-20 years of prison.
Also, a terrorist and anti-terrorism specialists often sound identical and both create fear. In the West, the term terrorist sounds like the term infidel.
I will never forget an “expert” on Central Asian terrorism saying that he has never been to the region (and if some do, it is never more than two or three weeks). Maybe GTD just made some copy and paste job from those experts’ works.
A couple of points…..
Looking at the two definitions
Department of State: “The term “terrorism” means premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated against noncombatant [including off-duty military] targets by subnational groups or clandestine agents, usually intended to influence an audience.”
Department of Defense: “Calculated use of unlawful violence to inculcate fear; intended to coerce or intimidate governments or societies in pursuit of goals that are generally political, religious, or ideological.”
I think it is pretty clear that a violent Zionist would be a terrorist under these definitions. The guys who got caught ‘spying for Israel’ would then be terrorist spies (if they were motivated by political Zionism, as opposed to money or patriotism).
But from a US perspective, calling Zionists terrorists is anti semitic.
Also note that a mafia protection racket meets the both definitions of terrorism perfectly, apart from political/religious motivation.
We therefore find ourselves saying that the difference between terrorism and organised crime is terrorists have principles.
Personally I think terrorists are largely defined by the definer. I don’t think I ever heard anyone calling someone on their own side a terrorist. That should definitely be the first thing down on the definition.
What about state terrorism (cf. Uzbekistan)?
“The form of government, in theory, bears on the tendency of a state to resort to terrorism. Military dictatorships have often maintained power through terror. Such governments, as the authors of a book about Latin American state terrorism have noted, can virtually paralyze a society through violence and its threat: “in such contexts, fear is a paramount feature of social action; it is characterized by the inablity of social actors [people] to predict the consequences of their bevhavior because public authority is arbitrarily and brutally exercised.” (Fear at the Edge: State Terror and Resistance in Latin America, Eds. Juan E. Corradi, Patricia Weiss Fagen and Mauel Antonio Garreton, 1992).”
http://terrorism.about.com/od/whatisterroris1/a/StateTerrorism.htm
I don’t think regimes of terror are necessarily terrorist.
I wouldn’t describe Nazi Germany, or the French Jacobins as terrorists.
Ironic you mention the Jacobins as they are associated with the origins of the term terrorism, as in “la Terreur”.
Sometimes defining things is nothing more than “Make Work”. Back to the basics as in “KISS” will work over 90 percent of the time.
My definition of Terrorism (today) is anyone who does not respect the rights of others and tries to change their mind (or their state of health) by the use of violent means.
Unless of course, the ones being “terrorized” were the terrorists to start with. You see the implication of that? Protecting yourself from those that attack you first is not terrorism it is retribution and self defense.
There are several other qualifiers but I like to keep it simple as long as possible. But you know that never stays that way.
The story of the “Hatfields and McCoys” is a good example of that.
Happy and Safe New Year to all.
Papa Ray
OH..I have no degree in Terrorism. Just practical experience and observation.
My dear fellow Americans and fellow students of terrorism:
Back at UC Berkley I took a course on terrorism with the 1960s famous terrorism expert the brilliant Hungarian Freedom Fighter, Prof. Molnar. To explain our common terrorism experience under Stalin and his successors Prof Molnar asked the students to imagine everyone speeding across the Bay Bridge. The police can’t stop and ticket every car as the cops are few so they resort to selective stopping. But that selective stopping must be random in the eyes of the drivers; otherwise any seeming pattern will cause a lot of rebels to think that they can game the system. Only through randomness can EVERYONE be terrorized and scared to death thinking that he /she has equal chance of being hit. So, back then, terrorism was “STATE” terrorism, not insurgent terrorism—just as in Vietnam the terrorism was not indigenous South Vietnamese “people’s terrorism” but STATE TERROSISM from North Vietnam for it was Hanoi that dictated every katushka rocket shot from the jungle at 10AM into village market places to kill the maximum number of peasants buying and selling vegetables.
If you think about it, alQaeda never hit that way. Its blows were always REACTIVE NOT PROACTIVE for it sought to take over none of OUR lands, just liberate THEIRS. However since Americans are so self-centered, they deem every inconvenience and discomfort, just like every act of violence, as hateful “terrorism” and thus a “crime against humanity.” When I survived 9/11 at the World Trade Center (having also survived a number of acts of “terror” in Vietnam and the Middle East) I ran home and when I found out what happened I realized that it was the airlines that terrorized the passengers by refusing to enforce the rules established in the 1970s during a spade of skyjackings. Neither were 2 sky marshals put on every plane, nor was the pilot’s cabin impenetrable in flight as the door was constantly kept open so that 4 airliners were taken over in 10 minutes each. On 9/11 a (God-should-damn-him) airline exec shamelessly explained on TV that they must keep the pilot’s cabin door open because people pay a lot of money for first class seats and therefore have a right to see that someone is flying the plane!!!!!!!! By Day2 it was already clear that the Bush Administration would cover-up the airlines’ violation of the law!
Previously, the Clinton Administration was terrorizing the Islamic world to push down the price of our imported oil (not Europe’s) and to blow up aspirin factories. In fact, when Saddam was planning a petro$ exchange for petroEuros scheme with Iran, Bush engaged in the ultimate act of terror by abandoning Afghan retaliation for invasion of Iraq. Looking at our warfare techniques to date, we rely primarily on B52s or drones that people can’t hear or see so we can terrorize with randomness any Afghans, Pakistanis, Arabs or anyone else when that gets in the way of cheap oil for our SUVs. We might get one or two terrorists but that’s not the point. The point is that all those “can’t be helped collateral damage people” charred to bits help us to tell all Muslims that if you cross US you will die and your family will die and you’ll never guess whom and when should you in any way support the “terrorists.” It’s a kind of official USAF Mafia!
So you guys who go for “terrorism degrees” try to remember who does whom, as Lenin
the great terrorist” used to say. If you get an MS in “terrorism” in the US, be sure to go do your PhD in terrorism in Israel because that’s where Laron inbred midgets like Begin and Shamir learned to compensate for their size by planting bombs that kill the families of tall British soldiers long after they run off out of sight on their tiny-stride steps. Now there’s the combine Israeli-American STATE terror toys for dollars that assure an inventive blood-thirsty engineer a kinetics career killing them “others” who dare defy the great American-Israeli alliance. But, alas, the US is now broke and there’s not much work for these kineticists because Obama’s got morals and wants affordable universal healthcare and a Green Revolution for all Americans (you can’t ever trust such “Muslims-loving” not-America-born blacks these days to keep focus on our “anti-terror” real mission in the world.
All in all, despite billions spent, your high-tech terror-for-dollars failed to catch a Nigerian shahid with plastique around his scrotum. On the other hand, all you tough “Special Forces” guys proved to be putzes in need of rescue as soon as their radio battery dies because they live by B52 strikes alone with teeth dependent on a fat and long ammo logistic tail because they don’t shoot, they spray and need variety in their LURPS.
I say all this because you’ll never hear it in the lectures of your “terrorism” program at Georgetown U– the Jesuit College making up for pedophile priests and systemic anti-Semitism by hiring Zionist Mossadist professors who get to feel their “mesh-hood” by teaching at its exclusive “terrorism” graduate programs– like a certain guy named Daniel who teaches how to follow the Israeli mass people-killing techniques so that if ever the US gets a moral pang about the Israeli lebensraum killing-Arabs-for-land from the air games (like shooting fish in a barrel) they can say to you: WHO THE HELL ARE YOU, YANKEE, TO MORALIZE TO US!!
So, with an MS from make believe terror experts like Byman and Hoffman and the Potomac Foundation’s beer-belied “experts” you can prep up theoretically for your REAL practical education at the U of Tel Aviv.
All in all we will lose and the Chinese will win because they secretly pass nuclear technology to every dinky cruel totalitarian state that realize that (a) to have A bombs is such a good deterrent against Americans and Israelis (who shiver at the thought that anyone can do onto them what they can do onto others) and (b) make a big manpower army unnecessary so no head of state need fear that generals might run coups against them so they will all take the Chinese technology, as Iran did. The result will be that our terror-nukes’ aim will have to defuse so widely that China’s miniscule terror arm against us gets to look big enough to give us diarrhea every time we think we should threaten China for doing as it likes in Asia.
Second rate post-Vietnam generals who otherwise would have been sergeants– had West Point not been hard-up for students– made up the grand spirit of kill-class of 76 are now planning to run for President as the closest thing to 7 DAYS IN MAY, not realizing that those Pillsbury Doe Boy civilian politicians may not be able to do near as many pushups as the generals but sure can run rings around the generals before they get to count to 10 and therefore can outwit them so that you PHDFFFTS in “terrorism” will always make you career clerks in the civilian bureaucracy. Fact is, politicians will soon get as sick of you as they got decades ago of professional “anti-Communists.” Already Gen. Powell pointed to the excess of you guys trying to make yourselves indispensable so you can pay your Wash DC area apartment rents.
In conclusion, there isn’t much of a future for “anti-terrorists” in a terrorist country because you guys who live as obese gourmandies with diabetes wishing to die old peacefully in your sleep will never be able to figure out what people ready to die NOW to avenge your drones’ victims will think up as you could never imagine being in their shoes. America has become the new banker-gypsies. People talk about investing with you as we East Euros used to talk about inviting gypsies to stay in the house overnight while we all sleep. You are despised not because you are immoral and killer of masses but because for more than half a century everyone believed you Americans are the people of the Shinning City on a Hill; but, instead, you proved to be only the unheard and unseen white phosphorous manure flingers– THE REAL TERRORISTS– with no capacity for introspection or history so no one can come to terms with you; one only can take revenge against you and must wipe you out. Hell has no fury like an admirer disillusioned! Alas, trickle, trickle, trickle….you are running out of men and the “Injuns” are going to get their revenge as they surround you with growing numbers realizing that all of your fat bankers and the crooked allies you prop up in the low tech-high commodities nations you support with your chariots of fire have to be destroyed. As killer of their past and of their future, more and more of the world’s little people you like to terrorized will decide that God wants them to use their lives and bodies and minds to destroy you. You are running out of six-pack bellies and tight pecks killers for adrenaline-high types and will be left only with the obese PhDs in “terrorism” who won’t be able to hold back the vengeful hate with their degrees.
I’m an American by choice, dragged half way around the world on the belief that you are the highest stage of homo-sapiens evolution. The father that dragged us here is now dead and never got to realize what the “Paradise of Freedom” has become since 9/11. But I have American born children and grandchildren who will suffer the consequences of your American MS and Israeli PhDs in “terrorism” as I’m sure most of you do too. So, sitting at a console in Nevada killing Afghans and Pakistanis with your chariot-of-fire drones is neither going to slim down your pot bellies nor bring you victory. These acts of unmanned terrorism will only mobilize the whole world of savages who “despise your freedoms” (sic), according to combat evader GW Bush, to get your kids and grandkids when you’ve lost all your heroes and patriots on expeditionary wars for oil run by idiot generals.
Don’t wait until most American and Israeli mensch surviving are peace and art loving gays and no one will go out to terrorize the oil lands for you. Focus on what we all grew up loving you for: your moral sense of equality and democracy and humanitarianism. Or, if you get a PhD in “terrorism” invite Muslim professors rather than the Zionist expansionists like Daniel to educate you. The Daniel-types only want to push you into evil so you lose the moral platform from which to complain about what the IDF does with your terrorism toys paid for by US tax dollars. Regain the moral high ground. The same set of principles that got the Arabs to stand with FDR instead of Stalin. Don’t think that Stalin’s first allies in the Middle East can show you the way to cheap oil through terrorism. You will end terrorism when you have alternatives to oil that make you independent of the oil-pushers whom your addictive SUV habits support. After all, your cars on the road, manufacturing nothing are killing the planet while the same oil acquired with sugar instead of terror from the sky has made the Chinese your bankers who TERRORIZE you with foreclosure on your national debt.
HAPPY NEW YEAR and please resolve to study molecular biology and alternate clean energy technology instead of terrorism. Then you’ll all be doing something REAL for mankind.
Dear Teh Teodoru, could you expand on that point?
Terrorism is the use of terror to accomplish a political purpose.
That’s it. It’s not about killing civilians, it’s not about blowing stuff up, it’s just scaring people, in the hopes of accomplishing a political purpose. Woo-hoo.
Terrorism is the use of terror to accomplish a political purpose.
That’s it. It’s not about killing civilians (if it was, then the USS Cole attack can’t be a terrorist attack…but it IS a terrorist attack, so it has to be not about civilians), it’s not about blowing stuff up, it’s just scaring people, in the hopes of accomplishing a political purpose. Woo-hoo.
My dear fellow American brothers and sisters that I am so grateful to for giving me a home in America:
Forgive my stream of consciousness response as I am shaking in tears because I love your and my country and our Western civilization and I really had hoped that, like our parents, we could leave to our kids better than we got. Alas, not a chance, because we have made “stupid” king and smart dismissed as “trouble makers.” I hope Petraeus gets the presidency in 2012 so that he can drown in the cesspool he and his ilk created. But I’m so sorry for all OUR kids and grandkids who deserve more than idiots killing their parents sent to find, fix, and destroy “terrorists” (God what a dumb moron military statement that could only be impressive when said after you’ve had half your head blown off, not when you’re a baker’s dozen general staff making PowerPoints for a clueless president.
Terrorism is a POLITICAL act that is a criminal act– a police matter– when done as by the guy with plastique around his scrotum. Since escaping on 9/11 I turned against Bush– having supported him heart and soul in the 2000 election– because it seemed to me that he was stepping on a snake at its middle, unaware that such a snake can still bite your leg. He was clearly treating Afghanistan as an ulterior motive, not as a target. My point is that alQaeda is NOT gang terrorism but hidden multi-state operation just as Viet Cong was tightly controlled by Hanoi. Fact is that a lot of Saudis knew about 9/11 as did the Israelis. That Taliban went along with it all knowing that many others knew what and when is still an unexplained story. Still, kept from us is how many states had alQaeda infiltrated, these states serving both as WILLING cover and as support providing conduits for cash and purchase of supplies with that cash. This is not to say that binLaden’s reason of wanting the US out of Holy Territory was not his reason for serving as the point of the spear, but the states that made alQaeda possible each had reasons of their own for supporting terrorist acts against the US. The fate of the USS Cole was also an act of war made to look like an act of terror. Ditto for the embassies. . These were all tests to see how US responds to alQaeda in preparation for 9/11. These were tests just as Con Thien was a test before Tet to see if Westy would invade North Vietnam. All in all, the nations involved all grouped around Iraq and Iraq was at issue but not voluntarily so. Here our friends felt safe enough to be our enemies and for that Bill Clinton must take total blame.
An anarchist placing a bomb or a shahid blowing himself up is not enough to affect the policies of a nation. Note that in Israel bombings did not change people’s daily life nor national policy until Israel used it as excuse to “trim” the Palestinian population in order to ease its “demographic problem.” To terrorize many people, contrary to Bush’s Bush-it, blowing up a couple of airliners will not cause the US to retract its oil sucking tentacles. Note that 9/11 became an excuse for bait-and-switch to attack Iraq. Note that we went in with “shock-and-awe” which means total terrorization because we didn’t have enough troops and too expensive a war would not have been worthwhile. We sought to terrorize South Vietnamese when we couldn’t distinguish our “gooks” from the VC’s. But we had the power to terrorize. We terrorized the Soviets, for example, not by acts of threat but by ramping up our strategic assets. WTC on 9/11 was WTC 1993 bis. The first WTC blow-out did not terrorize Americans because it disrupted so few. alQaeda could not terrorize us despite three years of explosive actions. But in 2001 we terrorized the Taliban and their “Sudiste” Pashtun allies with only 15,000 CIA ops guys and a hell of a lot of ordnance from B52s. That we are about to lose Afghanistan to the Taliban is proof that you can’t sustain terrorism, neither could the Germans in England during WW II. Hiroshima and Nagasaki were effective but meant not only to terrorize Japan but also Stalin.
I can go to your house and terrorize your wife. I can even terrorize your neighborhood. But the laws of Newtonian physics limit how much I can get away with in the face of our PAST very able FBI gumshoes. We’re talking here about Bush’s WAR ON TERROR. The attack on Iraq was bait-and-switch in order to present Congress with a fait accompli on Iraq: YOU CAN’T REFUSE THE FUNDING WHEN OUR TROOPS ARE ALREADY IN THE FIELD! As a result alQaeda’s top guys escaped and became the GHOST THAT WOULD NOT DIE. This multiplied Muslim anti-US support by nations so that after shooting ourselves in the foot in Iraq—THERE WE WERE MORE TERRORIZED BY IRAQI INSURGENTS THAN WE COULD TERRORIZE THEM– we are leaving Iraq inconclusively in a desperate attempt to save Afghanistan from the ridiculous Taliban. It’s strength is our terroristic character that makes us hated. People the whole world over, as in Asia during the Vietnam War, see Americans as scared cowards with big guns. But our Muslim enemies realize that since our SFs spray instead of shoot and put choppers at risk to pick up wounded and pull back instead of going in force, they realize that we quickly run out of ammo and skedaddle when casualties resulting from being ambushed because our generals are afraid of being pink-slipped for heavy casualties. Old Westy was telling me that LBJ was a real turd in how he cut him off, limited his ability to strike bases in Cambodia and when Westy achieved the “cross-over point” where the PAVN men and supplies were lost faster than they could be replaced, he was fired for wining the Tet Offensive. I’m sure McKiernan is equally disgusted with Obama as Westy was with LBJ.
Since WW II Americans have shown not only that they get scared easily but that they are dishonest to themselves (Afghan bait-and-switch to force a fait accompli on Congress in Iraq is a case in point). We couldn’t have really been terrorized by binLaden since Bush openly declared that he didn’t give a damn about binLaden only a few weeks after decalaring that he’s “wanted dead or alive.”.
Now we are broke and in desperation; so careerists like Petraeus and McChrystal are using men to replace the killing machines they can no longer afford. The Taliban knows that McChrystal set himself up for terrorism because of casualty rates. McChrystal and Petraeus are paper generals more scared of pink slips than Taliban. So, by killing a couple of SFs and Marines, Taliban can terrorize McChrystal and Petraeus both!
During Vietnam War there was a logic to our murderous terrorism of Viet peasants. We bombed them criminally and the survivors ran to the cities as refuges. Thus the guerrilla “fish” were left high and dry as the peasant “sea” went to towns to become, per Hanoi Radio, “la petite bourgeoisie” (small businessmen). It tried to counter-terrorize at Tet but the new city “white mice” cops held out and Hanoi then had to give us two years of peace and security until it again could start terrorizing the remaining peasant villages shooting Katushka rockets into the village marketplaces at 10 AM when most crowded. That too failed because the Mekong Delta was cleared of VCI by Phoenix and the returned peasants stood their ground thanks to the attraction of Honda motorbikes.
We could do that in Afghanistan and could have done it in Iraq. Alas Bush is a war criminal who preferred letting his corporate sponsors rob our effort blind than helping Iraqis rebuild. Imagine that, we had our butts kicked by gangsters on a flat desert Iraq 70% urban because, like Hanoi, we couldn’t send in anymore men. Now we’re repeated the process in Afghanistan because our military leaders are people who should have quit school after a high school GD degree and not go to West Point to become sergeants disguised as generals.
The world not only hates us as heartless killers. But it sees that we only kill when we are terrorized. As a result, our generals having broadcast our tactical reactiveness, they figured out how to dry up our logistics. They all know that Wall Street did far more damage to America than binLaden would have ever dreamed. America is a nation of “ME-ISTS” and the world knows that such men only kill to stay alive and are helpless in the face of an enemy who lives only to avenge our victims. They respect us less than they respected the Soviets. They know that it was our toys, not their mujahedeens, that beat Moscow. They have Vietnamese Vietnam vets teaching them how to rip us apart and we are so dumb we don’t even recognize strategic repeats because, unlike the Vietnam generals, our “war on terror generals” are sergeants with phony BS degrees who rose in the ranks “yes-sir-ing.”
As refugees we were terrorized as subjugated and people, victims of Stalin because we never knew where Stalin’s men were. People in North Vietnam always knew at what time and on what flight path the McCane yahoos were coming from and they knew that the Haiphong to Hanoi railroad was off limits because the Soviets and Chicoms TERRORIZED LBJ. Now we are led by generals who are terrorized that the Taliban will get them pink slipped. We are the terrorists who ran out of bombs and are no match for even Zawahiri in our Terrorizing TV Shows. We have been conditioned to fear a kid with explosive around his balls because we don’t want war anymore, because we don’t have too many 50+ year old vets to send in. We’re losing our capacity to scare just as we lost the capacity to scare by showing “presence” in our armored vehicles blown to bits by IEDs. “Our” Afghans know this so they just want to empty our pockets as much as possible before they run off to their Mediterranean villas. We’re not scary anymore because we showed that we want to live and insist on living well while Taliban are willing to only to live to see us blow to bits as they blow themselves to bits blowing us to bits. We are on a ship of fools that the Israelis gave us free tickets for the cruise so we do their killing of Muslims for them. But as we go broke, they exsanguinate. As a result, only the Chinese are smiling for they took the Maoist “one, two, three…many revolutions” concept and turned into “one, two three…many nuclear states” in order to paralyze us in fear. So who is terrorizing whom?
PAYING OUR DEBT:Chinese mine copper while American fight Taliban to protect miners:
Spending Big In Afghan Commerce
The foot soldiers in a bowl-shaped valley about 20 miles southeast of Kabul are not fighting the Taliban, or even carrying guns.
They are preparing to extract copper from one of the richest untapped deposits on earth. And they are Chinese, undertaking by far the largest foreign investment project in war-torn Afghanistan, reported The New York Times.
Mining Rights
Two years ago, the China Metallurgical Group Corporation, a Chinese state-owned conglomerate, bid $3.4 billion–$1 billion more than any of its competitors from Canada, Europe, Russia, the United States and Kazakhstan –for the rights to mine deposits near the village of Aynak.
Over the next 25 years, it plans to extract about 11 million tons of copper–an amount equal to one-third of all the known copper reserves in China.
While the United States spends hundreds of billions of dollars fighting the Taliban and Al-Qaeda here, China is securing raw material for its voracious economy. The world’s superpower is focused on security while its fastest rising competitor concentrates on commerce.
S. Frederick Starr, the chairman of the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute, an independent research organization in Washington, said that skeptics might wonder whether Washington and NATO had conducted “an unacknowledged preparatory phase for the Chinese economic penetration of Afghanistan”.
“We do the heavy lifting,” he said. “And they pick the fruit.”
The reality is more complicated than that. The Chinese bid far more for the mining rights to the Aynak project and promised to invest hundreds of millions more in associated infrastructure projects than other bidders.
It is a risky venture that has not yet proved to be economical, and it has already been dogged by allegations of bribery.
But the Aynak investment underscores how China’s leaders, flush with money and in control of both the government and major industries, meld strategy, business and statecraft into a seamless whole.
In a single move, Beijing strengthened its hold on a vital resource, engineered the single largest investment in Afghan history, promised to create thousands of new Afghan jobs and established itself as the Afghan government’s preeminent business partner and single largest source of tax payments.
An Odd Global Pairing
Afghanistan is not the only place where the United States and China find themselves so oddly juxtaposed in the post-9/11 world.
China is investing more in extracting Iraqi oil than American companies are. It has reached long-term arrangements to buy gas from Iran, even as the government there comes under the threat of Western sanctions for its nuclear program. China has also become a dominant investor in Pakistan and volatile parts of Africa.
But it is in Afghanistan where China’s willingness to take risks for commercial and diplomatic gain are most striking.
China Metallurgical Group, often called M.C.C., will build a 400-megawatt generating plant to power both the copper mine and blackout-prone Kabul. M.C.C. will dig a new coal mine to feed the plant’s generators. It will build a smelter to refine copper ore, and a railroad to carry coal to the power plant and copper back to China. If the terms of its contract are to be believed, M.C.C. will also build schools, roads and even mosques for the Afghans.
The sweeping agreement has some experts rubbing their eyes in disbelief. “It’s almost as if the Chinese promised too much,” said one international expert who, like some others interviewed, refused to be identified for fear of alienating the Afghans or the Chinese.
But even if elements of the agreement fall through, the Chinese have already positioned themselves as generous, eager partners of the Afghan government and long-term players in the country’s future. All without firing a single shot.
Nurzaman Stanikzai was a warrior in the 1980s, using American-supplied arms to help drive the Soviet Red Army from his homeland. Today he is a contractor for M.C.C., building the Aynak mine’s electric fence, blast wall, workers’ dormitories and a road to Kabul.
American troops do not, in a narrow sense, protect the Chinese. The United States Army stations about 2,000 troops in Logar province, where Aynak is located.
But an Army spokesman said they generally patrolled well south of the mine area and had not provided direct security for Chinese investors or mine workers.
The Afghan National Police, which does protect the mine, was largely built and trained with American money. The 1,500 guards the police have posted in and around Aynak are special recruits not drawn from the main force, according to Maj. Gen. Sayed Kamal, who heads the National Police.
But the conclusion is inescapable: American troops have helped make Afghanistan safe for Chinese investment. And there is no sense that either government objects to that reality.
As diplomats and soldiers alike stress, the war in Afghanistan was never motivated by commercial prospects. Had an American company won Aynak, some Afghans noted wryly, critics inevitably would have accused the United States of waging war to seize the country’s mineral wealth.
Moreover, if China succeeds in developing Aynak and generating revenue for the Kabul government, that helps achieve the American goal of boosting Afghan development and stability.
Consumer Electronics Market Worth $7.3b
Iran’s domestic consumer electronics market, including computing devices, mobile handsets and video audio and gaming products, was estimated to be worth around $7.3 billion in 2008.
According to the Business Monitor International (BMI), the significant parallel imports factor complicates forecasting. However, demand is expected to increase to $10.3 billion by 2013, driven by growing popularity of LCD TV sets, notebook computers and other key product groups, and by ongoing development of the retail sector.
Computer hardware accounted for around 47 percent of Iranian consumer electronics spending in 2008. BMI projects Iranian domestic market computer sales (including notebooks and accessories) of $3.7 billion in 2009, up from $3.5 billion in 2008.
Computer hardware CAGR for 2008-13 is forecast at about 6 percent, with notebooks accounting for about 50 percent of sales. AV devices accounted for around 28 percent of Iranian consumer electronics spending in 2008. Iran’s domestic AV device market was estimated at $2.0 billion. The market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 6 percent during 2008-13 to $2.7 billion in that year.
Mobile handset sales accounted for around 25 percent of Iranian consumer electronics spending in 2008. Iranian market handset sales are expected to grow to $2.9 billion in 2013, as mobile subscriber penetration reaches 156 percent. The replacement market will be very important, with growing demand for PDAs, smart phones and 3G handsets.
Asia-Pacific Exhibition Underway
If you are looking for a one-stop shopping that sells quality merchandise with a mixture of Indian, Pakistani and Iranian flavors, then head down to the Asia-Pacific & Local End of Year Trade Exhibition at the Atrium of The Mall in Gadong.
According to Brunei.fm, the trade exhibition that will be held until January 3 is organized by ANR Fatabarak Enterprise. It showcases quality products ranging from kitchen utensils, home decoration, to the latest Islamic clothing and accessories for both men and women.
Aboo Saleh Kasbati from Kasbati Trading, a Pakistani businessman, who is also the group leader, told the Bulletin that there are 20 international traders participating in the exhibition.
“Most of the participants are from India, Pakistan and Iran that have come together to promote their local products in Brunei. Our last visit here was in early 2000 and due to the overwhelming response we have again to explore the market,” he said.
When asked about their mission to Brunei, Aboo Saleh said, “This is an opportunity for us to meet local entrepreneurs and sit down with them to discuss for any business prospects that are available for both markets.”
He added that it was a perfect timing for them to come during end of the year where the festive season can still be felt and with the school reopening soon, it just comes as an extra bonus.
Petronet Eyes More LNG
Petronet LNG Ltd., India’s largest liquefied natural gas importer, is in talks to secure LNG from Iran and Qatar for its upcoming project in southern India and existing terminal in western India, its finance director said.
“We require around 2 million tons of LNG at Kochi and 1 million-1.5 million tons at Dahej,” A. Sengupta told Dow Jones Newswires.
Petronet, which has a 10 million-ton-a-year LNG terminal in Dahej in the western state of Gujarat, gets 5 million tons a year of LNG from Qatar’s Ras Laffan Liquefied Natural Gas Co., better known as RasGas, under an existing long-term contract. RasGas will also be supplying an additional 2.5 million tons a year of LNG from January, under a contract signed earlier.
Petronet is building another LNG receiving and regassification terminal with a 2.5-million-tons-a-year capacity in Kochi.
An Indian delegation led by Oil Minister Murli Deora and including officials from state-run oil and gas companies met Qatar Energy Minister Abdullah bin Hamad Al-Attiyah in Doha Dec. 16 to explore possibilities of additional LNG supplies.
“We have started negotiations. The quantity is available and now all other terms and conditions have to meet aspirations of both the parties,” he said.
India joins its neighbor China in seeking LNG supplies overseas to meet energy demand for its economy, which is expected to grow nearly 8 percent in the current financial year that began April 1.
The South Asian nation’s gas demand is expected to rise to 275 million standard cubic meters a day by the financial year ending March 2012 from 223 MMSCMD in the current financial year, Goldman Sachs said in a Nov. 30 note. India is currently producing 131.68 MMSCMD of gas.
Pak Trade Promising
An Iranian diplomat said on Tuesday trade ties between Tehran and Pakistan would witness a jump in the near future. “The future of trade ties between Iran and Pakistan is very bright and, in the near future, we will witness an extensive development in the economic, trade, commercial, technical and engineering ties between the two countries,” Iran’s Trade Counselor in Pakistan Ahmad Fasihi said at a meeting in the southeastern city of Zahedan attended by Pakistan’s consul general and local officials of Sistan-Baluchestan province.
“Right now, grounds have been prepared for the expansion of trade and economic ties between the two countries and the volume of these trade exchanges will reach $3 billion,” Fasihi told the meeting also attended by the head of Sistan-Baluchestan’s provincial Commerce Organization, Iraj Hassanpour.
According to Fars News Agency, the counselor viewed the lack of credit lines and bank relations between the two neighboring countries as a major impediment to their trade ties.
Construction of SP Phase 12 Underway
The offshore section of South Pars gas field’s Phase 12 is now 41 percent complete, said the project manager on Monday.
Shana.ir quoted Gholamhossein Taqipour as saying Phase 12 will come on stream by 2012 at a cost of $1.4 billion.
According to the official, Petropars Company will finance part of the project and the rest will come from foreign partners.
Phase 12 is the southeastern block of South Pars, which borders Qatar, covering an area of 150 square kilometers. With 35 trillion cubic feet of gas deposit, the block contains t 7 percent of South Pars field’s estimated reserves.
Located in the Persian Gulf, South Pars is the world’s largest gas field, shared by Iran and Qatar. It covers an area of 9,700 square kilometers, of which 3,700 square kilometers (South Pars) is in the Iranian territorial waters and 6,000 square kilometers (North Dome) is in the Qatari territorial waters.
According to International Energy Agency, the field holds an estimated 50.97 trillion cubic meters (1,800 trillion cubic feet) of in-situ gas and some 50 billion barrels of condensates.
World Oil Demand Down
World oil production demand has dropped for the first time since the early 1980s for the second successive year, as the world economy remains confronted with the deepest and most widespread contraction sin since the 1940s, the Namibian Press Agency (Nampa) reported.
This observation was made at the 155th extraordinary meeting of the conference of the Organization of Petroleum and Oil Exporting Countries (OPEC) that took place in the Angolan capital, Luanda, last week.
In a media statement issued after the end of the conference, OPEC member-states said that although asset market prices have rebounded and economic growth has resumed in some parts of the world, it is not yet clear how strong or durable the recovery might be.
“With the world still faced by shrinking industrial production, low private consumption and high unemployment, the conference once again decided to maintain current oil production levels unchanged for the time being,” the media release said.
Mineral Exports Top $10b
Iran has exported $10.86 billion worth of industrial and mineral products since March 21, announced the Ministry of Industries and Mines.
PAYING OUR DEBT:Chinese mine copper while American fight Taliban to protect miners:
IRAN TIMES
Spending Big In Afghan Commerce
The foot soldiers in a bowl-shaped valley about 20 miles southeast of Kabul are not fighting the Taliban, or even carrying guns.
They are preparing to extract copper from one of the richest untapped deposits on earth. And they are Chinese, undertaking by far the largest foreign investment project in war-torn Afghanistan, reported The New York Times.
Mining Rights
Two years ago, the China Metallurgical Group Corporation, a Chinese state-owned conglomerate, bid $3.4 billion–$1 billion more than any of its competitors from Canada, Europe, Russia, the United States and Kazakhstan –for the rights to mine deposits near the village of Aynak.
Over the next 25 years, it plans to extract about 11 million tons of copper–an amount equal to one-third of all the known copper reserves in China.
While the United States spends hundreds of billions of dollars fighting the Taliban and Al-Qaeda here, China is securing raw material for its voracious economy. The world’s superpower is focused on security while its fastest rising competitor concentrates on commerce.
S. Frederick Starr, the chairman of the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute, an independent research organization in Washington, said that skeptics might wonder whether Washington and NATO had conducted “an unacknowledged preparatory phase for the Chinese economic penetration of Afghanistan”.
“We do the heavy lifting,” he said. “And they pick the fruit.”
The reality is more complicated than that. The Chinese bid far more for the mining rights to the Aynak project and promised to invest hundreds of millions more in associated infrastructure projects than other bidders.
It is a risky venture that has not yet proved to be economical, and it has already been dogged by allegations of bribery.
But the Aynak investment underscores how China’s leaders, flush with money and in control of both the government and major industries, meld strategy, business and statecraft into a seamless whole.
In a single move, Beijing strengthened its hold on a vital resource, engineered the single largest investment in Afghan history, promised to create thousands of new Afghan jobs and established itself as the Afghan government’s preeminent business partner and single largest source of tax payments.
An Odd Global Pairing
Afghanistan is not the only place where the United States and China find themselves so oddly juxtaposed in the post-9/11 world.
China is investing more in extracting Iraqi oil than American companies are. It has reached long-term arrangements to buy gas from Iran, even as the government there comes under the threat of Western sanctions for its nuclear program. China has also become a dominant investor in Pakistan and volatile parts of Africa.
But it is in Afghanistan where China’s willingness to take risks for commercial and diplomatic gain are most striking.
China Metallurgical Group, often called M.C.C., will build a 400-megawatt generating plant to power both the copper mine and blackout-prone Kabul. M.C.C. will dig a new coal mine to feed the plant’s generators. It will build a smelter to refine copper ore, and a railroad to carry coal to the power plant and copper back to China. If the terms of its contract are to be believed, M.C.C. will also build schools, roads and even mosques for the Afghans.
The sweeping agreement has some experts rubbing their eyes in disbelief. “It’s almost as if the Chinese promised too much,” said one international expert who, like some others interviewed, refused to be identified for fear of alienating the Afghans or the Chinese.
But even if elements of the agreement fall through, the Chinese have already positioned themselves as generous, eager partners of the Afghan government and long-term players in the country’s future. All without firing a single shot.
Nurzaman Stanikzai was a warrior in the 1980s, using American-supplied arms to help drive the Soviet Red Army from his homeland. Today he is a contractor for M.C.C., building the Aynak mine’s electric fence, blast wall, workers’ dormitories and a road to Kabul.
American troops do not, in a narrow sense, protect the Chinese. The United States Army stations about 2,000 troops in Logar province, where Aynak is located.
But an Army spokesman said they generally patrolled well south of the mine area and had not provided direct security for Chinese investors or mine workers.
The Afghan National Police, which does protect the mine, was largely built and trained with American money. The 1,500 guards the police have posted in and around Aynak are special recruits not drawn from the main force, according to Maj. Gen. Sayed Kamal, who heads the National Police.
But the conclusion is inescapable: American troops have helped make Afghanistan safe for Chinese investment. And there is no sense that either government objects to that reality.
As diplomats and soldiers alike stress, the war in Afghanistan was never motivated by commercial prospects. Had an American company won Aynak, some Afghans noted wryly, critics inevitably would have accused the United States of waging war to seize the country’s mineral wealth.
Moreover, if China succeeds in developing Aynak and generating revenue for the Kabul government, that helps achieve the American goal of boosting Afghan development and stability.
Consumer Electronics Market Worth $7.3b
Iran’s domestic consumer electronics market, including computing devices, mobile handsets and video audio and gaming products, was estimated to be worth around $7.3 billion in 2008.
According to the Business Monitor International (BMI), the significant parallel imports factor complicates forecasting. However, demand is expected to increase to $10.3 billion by 2013, driven by growing popularity of LCD TV sets, notebook computers and other key product groups, and by ongoing development of the retail sector.
Computer hardware accounted for around 47 percent of Iranian consumer electronics spending in 2008. BMI projects Iranian domestic market computer sales (including notebooks and accessories) of $3.7 billion in 2009, up from $3.5 billion in 2008.
Computer hardware CAGR for 2008-13 is forecast at about 6 percent, with notebooks accounting for about 50 percent of sales. AV devices accounted for around 28 percent of Iranian consumer electronics spending in 2008. Iran’s domestic AV device market was estimated at $2.0 billion. The market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 6 percent during 2008-13 to $2.7 billion in that year.
Mobile handset sales accounted for around 25 percent of Iranian consumer electronics spending in 2008. Iranian market handset sales are expected to grow to $2.9 billion in 2013, as mobile subscriber penetration reaches 156 percent. The replacement market will be very important, with growing demand for PDAs, smart phones and 3G handsets.
Asia-Pacific Exhibition Underway
If you are looking for a one-stop shopping that sells quality merchandise with a mixture of Indian, Pakistani and Iranian flavors, then head down to the Asia-Pacific & Local End of Year Trade Exhibition at the Atrium of The Mall in Gadong.
According to Brunei.fm, the trade exhibition that will be held until January 3 is organized by ANR Fatabarak Enterprise. It showcases quality products ranging from kitchen utensils, home decoration, to the latest Islamic clothing and accessories for both men and women.
Aboo Saleh Kasbati from Kasbati Trading, a Pakistani businessman, who is also the group leader, told the Bulletin that there are 20 international traders participating in the exhibition.
“Most of the participants are from India, Pakistan and Iran that have come together to promote their local products in Brunei. Our last visit here was in early 2000 and due to the overwhelming response we have again to explore the market,” he said.
When asked about their mission to Brunei, Aboo Saleh said, “This is an opportunity for us to meet local entrepreneurs and sit down with them to discuss for any business prospects that are available for both markets.”
He added that it was a perfect timing for them to come during end of the year where the festive season can still be felt and with the school reopening soon, it just comes as an extra bonus.
Petronet Eyes More LNG
Petronet LNG Ltd., India’s largest liquefied natural gas importer, is in talks to secure LNG from Iran and Qatar for its upcoming project in southern India and existing terminal in western India, its finance director said.
“We require around 2 million tons of LNG at Kochi and 1 million-1.5 million tons at Dahej,” A. Sengupta told Dow Jones Newswires.
Petronet, which has a 10 million-ton-a-year LNG terminal in Dahej in the western state of Gujarat, gets 5 million tons a year of LNG from Qatar’s Ras Laffan Liquefied Natural Gas Co., better known as RasGas, under an existing long-term contract. RasGas will also be supplying an additional 2.5 million tons a year of LNG from January, under a contract signed earlier.
Petronet is building another LNG receiving and regassification terminal with a 2.5-million-tons-a-year capacity in Kochi.
An Indian delegation led by Oil Minister Murli Deora and including officials from state-run oil and gas companies met Qatar Energy Minister Abdullah bin Hamad Al-Attiyah in Doha Dec. 16 to explore possibilities of additional LNG supplies.
“We have started negotiations. The quantity is available and now all other terms and conditions have to meet aspirations of both the parties,” he said.
India joins its neighbor China in seeking LNG supplies overseas to meet energy demand for its economy, which is expected to grow nearly 8 percent in the current financial year that began April 1.
The South Asian nation’s gas demand is expected to rise to 275 million standard cubic meters a day by the financial year ending March 2012 from 223 MMSCMD in the current financial year, Goldman Sachs said in a Nov. 30 note. India is currently producing 131.68 MMSCMD of gas.
Pak Trade Promising
An Iranian diplomat said on Tuesday trade ties between Tehran and Pakistan would witness a jump in the near future. “The future of trade ties between Iran and Pakistan is very bright and, in the near future, we will witness an extensive development in the economic, trade, commercial, technical and engineering ties between the two countries,” Iran’s Trade Counselor in Pakistan Ahmad Fasihi said at a meeting in the southeastern city of Zahedan attended by Pakistan’s consul general and local officials of Sistan-Baluchestan province.
“Right now, grounds have been prepared for the expansion of trade and economic ties between the two countries and the volume of these trade exchanges will reach $3 billion,” Fasihi told the meeting also attended by the head of Sistan-Baluchestan’s provincial Commerce Organization, Iraj Hassanpour.
According to Fars News Agency, the counselor viewed the lack of credit lines and bank relations between the two neighboring countries as a major impediment to their trade ties.
Construction of SP Phase 12 Underway
The offshore section of South Pars gas field’s Phase 12 is now 41 percent complete, said the project manager on Monday.
Shana.ir quoted Gholamhossein Taqipour as saying Phase 12 will come on stream by 2012 at a cost of $1.4 billion.
According to the official, Petropars Company will finance part of the project and the rest will come from foreign partners.
Phase 12 is the southeastern block of South Pars, which borders Qatar, covering an area of 150 square kilometers. With 35 trillion cubic feet of gas deposit, the block contains t 7 percent of South Pars field’s estimated reserves.
Located in the Persian Gulf, South Pars is the world’s largest gas field, shared by Iran and Qatar. It covers an area of 9,700 square kilometers, of which 3,700 square kilometers (South Pars) is in the Iranian territorial waters and 6,000 square kilometers (North Dome) is in the Qatari territorial waters.
According to International Energy Agency, the field holds an estimated 50.97 trillion cubic meters (1,800 trillion cubic feet) of in-situ gas and some 50 billion barrels of condensates.
World Oil Demand Down
World oil production demand has dropped for the first time since the early 1980s for the second successive year, as the world economy remains confronted with the deepest and most widespread contraction sin since the 1940s, the Namibian Press Agency (Nampa) reported.
This observation was made at the 155th extraordinary meeting of the conference of the Organization of Petroleum and Oil Exporting Countries (OPEC) that took place in the Angolan capital, Luanda, last week.
In a media statement issued after the end of the conference, OPEC member-states said that although asset market prices have rebounded and economic growth has resumed in some parts of the world, it is not yet clear how strong or durable the recovery might be.
“With the world still faced by shrinking industrial production, low private consumption and high unemployment, the conference once again decided to maintain current oil production levels unchanged for the time being,” the media release said.
Mineral Exports Top $10b
Iran has exported $10.86 billion worth of industrial and mineral products since March 21, announced the Ministry of Industries and Mines.