Global terrorism thread

So apparently, shit just hit the fan in Southern Philippines specifically Zamboanga in Mindanao where MNLF troops just invaded. As mentioned in the previous page, there was supposedly ongoing peace talks but now, well... I personally hope it won't get worse.

edited 9th Sep '13 1:13:32 AM by MarquisDev

What's a "barangay" I wonder?

Barangay:

So they took over whole neighborhoods?

Sounds like it. With a few hundred fighters.

Frankly speaking, they took over a majority of Zamboanga City.

A lot of the military's forces in Mindanao are moving in. The Special Action Force of the Philippine National Police are also moving it. Local netizens, as far as I know, are calling for swift action by going in guns blazing. Although hostages are involved.

I hope this ends well for the hostages.

... Honest question: What exactly is stopping the Philippine central government from imposing a naval blockade/siege on the MNLF's HQ in Sulu in retaliation, and forcing them to choose between peaceful surrender or death by starvation? Just a hypothetical question irrespective of the morality of the acts involved.

It's an open rebellion... I don't see why they don't just do a complete mop-up operation that involves going in and rounding up every motherfucker there.

The simple answer is resources. The Philippines isn't exactly one of the richest countries in the world so there isn't that many ships neither is there that many troops. Actually, there was a time when there was massive operation to combat all rebels, but well... it's not exactly looked highly upon. In fact, the military has been weakened overtime due to those events but also due to the coups following the EDSA Revolution of '86.

This. If we were like Singapore, a blockade would have been in the works.

In local TV, there's been suggestion by Senator Grace Poe to resolve the situation with less corpses.

"lets REWARD them for violence after we already tried to make peace"?

....I'm gonna agree with barkey and say they should shoot them.

Only if you dont care about the hostages.

Speaking of hostages...

Whatever sympathy I had left for the MNLF went down after reading that.

^^

Pussyfooting around isn't going to solve anything. Deploy your special teams as quickly and efficiently as possible to try and rescue the hostages, but you can't be crippled into inaction and indecision in the face of such a threat because of hostages.

It sets a precedent. If you bargain with hostage takers, they will continue to take hostages. One such precedent of this I like to cite is Operation Entebbe. The Israeli's went to massive pains to get their people out using force, and essentially showing that they wouldn't be bullied. As a result, there has been very little in the way of Israeli hostage taking on the same scale since. They set the precedent of "We won't sit idly by and give in to threats when you take hostages. We will come for you and get our people back."

I might argue that the Israelis had little choice since their hostages were being held in another country that was sympathetic to the terrorists. The Philippine government has other options. Plus, no one having taken Israeli hostages on the same scale has as much or more to do with their extensive security precautions, not so much that Hamas or Hezbollah are afraid to try (they aren't afraid to fire missiles at population centers).

The point I was trying to make is that the Israeli's showed that hostage taking isn't going to extract any major deals or political traction from them due to their storied history of not giving a fuck.

"Shoot 'em all" or "Give 'em what they want" aren't the only two options are they?

They aren't, but in this particular case I don't think they should be given what they want, I think they need to be destroyed.

They raised an army and marched on their own country. Not cool.

By the time a situation has escalated to the point of a hostage situation, that's usually what it boils down to. Negotiate or fight. Negotiation can be better for the lives of the hostages in the short term, but can also encourage terrorists to utilize this tactic more in the future. Fighting has a higher likelihood of getting the hostages killed, but demonstrates a resolute stance of zero tolerance that will encourage terrorists to find a different tactic to employ.

People tend to use what works, because things that work...work. If a strategy has proven to get results, people will use it more. If all it does is get your ass shot, people will look for something else to try.

What TD said.

'Sides, the only time that a president uses force was IIRC Joseph Estrada. Others used negotiators 'cause they don't see the wisdom in using force. That and probably the Roman Catholic Church would probably have left an impression on them that force isn't good.

Guns, clans, rogue Muslim rebels undermine south Philippine peace.

The leader of a Muslim rebel group whose members are fighting Philippine troops in Zamboanga city has agreed to ceasefire talks, officials say.

I'm surprised how little media coverage this has garnered in America. Even the Right-wing outlets aren't touching it, and they normally love talking about stories that involve Muslims doing bad things.

edited 15th Sep '13 1:23:40 AM by DeviantBraeburn

Apparently the ceasefire collapsed for a while now. Netizens are praising it since the VP appeared to be acting on his own, but he's trying to shift blame.

http://www.npa.go.jp/archive/keibi/syouten/syouten271/english/pdf/sec03.pdf

Here's an official document released by the National Police Agency that says new generation Japanese Red Army veterans who aren't arrested have recreated themselves as "Movement Rentai".

Going to double post that al-Shabaab struck again in Kenya with a massive shooting in downtown Kenya in a shopping mall. I wonder if they're trying to rival Mumbai.

Also trying to look for documentation on the JRA or other leftist terror groups in Japan, since they're the norm there lately aside from the lone wolves.