Global terrorism thread

So with the recent global terrorism alert I realised that we don't have a place to discuss such events as they happen and how they are being dealt with/reacted to.

First however I'd like to lay down a disclaimer, this is not a place to discuss the ethics of the "war on terror" it's for talking about current global threats, if you want to debate the ethics of the war on terror than make a thread for it, this is not the place.

So now I've done that, here's the latest as I'm aware of it. Normally I'd provide sources but I'm on my iPad so it's difficult to do so.

US embassies across the Great Middle East are closed until Saturday due to the current threat, the embassies of other western nations in Yeman have also been closed with staff being evacuated from the county.

Additionally a global travel alert has been issued for all US citizens, with US/UK citizens in Yeman being told to leave immediately.

Yeman's security services have been placing much of the country on lockdown, with the army out in force due to intelligence indicating that a large number of Al-Qa'ida operatives are in the country to work on the expected attack.

They (Yeman's security forces) have also just recently announced that they have foiled an attempt by AQ to blow up several oil pipelines and seize control of costal cities, howev they remain on high alert, so there is obviously more to come.

edited 7th Aug '13 2:40:16 AM by Silasw

The upswing in Al-Qaeda activity in Yemen may be a sign that, as has been suspected, they are shifting focus away from Pakistan and Afghanistan (where they have been well and truly battered over the last 12 years or so) to the Middle East and the Arabian peninsular. Ayman al-Zawahiri is, of course, an Egyptian whose primary links are with the Muslim Brotherhood rather than the Taliban, and his number two man, Nasir al-Wuhayshi, is the senior figure Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsular.

Under the name of "Ansar al-Sharia", AQAP attempted to overthrow the Yemeni government during the 2011 revolution; they have strongholds in Abyan, Al Bayda', Ma'rib, Shabwah and Lahij, and blew up Yemen's main oil pipeline last May.

So this happened:

http://news.yahoo.com/yemens-government-says-foiled-al-qaida-plots-153746717.html

Yemen says it foiled a terrorist plot to attack important oil/natural gas areas in the south of the country.

Don't read the comments unless you won't to be angry, btw.

Is it ok to discuss the effectiveness of US anti-terrorism policies? I've been seeing some news analysis questioning whether or not our drone attacks in Yemen are weakening Al Q or strengthening it.

I suppose that would be on-topic.

Is this thread limited to middle-east terrorism or does it cover terrorism in other parts of the world, say the al-qaeda connected terrorist groups in the Philippines?

Now that you mention it, would non-AQ-linked terrorism around the world be on-topic too? Just curious.

"Is this thread limited to middle-east terrorism"

"would non-AQ-linked terrorism around the world be on-topic too?"

Discussing anything other than AQ-linked middle-east terrorism is obviously completely off-topic.

"Global terrorism thread"

Yep, completely off-topic.

edited 7th Aug '13 8:02:11 PM by Ekuran

Yeah, well, I distinctly remember that the guy who expressed his desire to start this thread used "War on Terror(ism)" instead of "global terrorism" when talking about it. Better safe than sorry.

edited 7th Aug '13 8:05:59 PM by MarqFJA

Terrorism around the globe. Are they terrorist? Are they on this planet? Space terrorists are not on topic. You must keep the terrorism discussions terrestrial.

Alright then so in lieu of discussing terrestial terrorists:

There was already a travel warning for the Philippines a month ago particularly Davao City, Cotabato City, and Zamboanga City. There were also warnings from Australia and the UK but I'm too lazy to find links for them.

Also, there were recent bombings. Also yesterday.

Why are the alleged terrorists interested in the Philippines?

edited 7th Aug '13 8:17:08 PM by Quag15

MILF

Well, obviously it's more than that. Basically, as the other wiki says, Muslim groups in the Philippines want to secede and create their own nation-state. It's been there for a while but it's generally agreed that the trigger for the movement was the Jabidah Massacre. Also, the Philippines is a US ally and is US dependent.

I'll read about them. Thanks for the info.

Hope it's not offtopic to note that its a terrible name for a terrorist organization.

edited 7th Aug '13 8:40:41 PM by nightwyrm_zero

They wanted to be "special"

I don't have much recent news for non-al qaeda affiliated groups, but the Philippines does have communist terrorists. However, there is a movement since 2011 for the group to be delisted as a terrorist group and apparently, according to the other wiki, the Philippine government already delisted the NPA.

A noteworthy one month old news is the question of supplier for the NPA. They do operate in the same area as the Islamist terrorists. There is even speculation that the two groups take turns in harassing the government. One group would start peace talks and then an armistice while the other continues its attacks and when it gets tired, it starts peace talks so then the other group continues its attacks.

I wasn't going to say anything... But... Thanks for doing it for me.

edited 7th Aug '13 8:53:04 PM by Euodiachloris

Any well-organized groups of Western Terrorists that we should be worried about on the global scene?

@Post 13: <Face Palm> It's doubly worse for me since not only do I recognize how horrible it is for a religiously-defined organization (particularly a Muslim one) to unwittingly have such an acronym for their name, but I am a Muslim myself.

edited 8th Aug '13 7:18:56 AM by MarqFJA

Only thing I'm worried is that the MILF is committed to the peace process and yet the Bangsamoro Freedom Fighters are going to finish off where they started by continuing the fight for an independent Mindanao.

Western terrorists? I know in NI, unless I'm wrong, is that there are still splinter factions of the IRA against the peace progress. Same with pro-unionists.

I don't know if I can say a Japanese example. Even though the JRA is gone, the National Police Agency says there is a successor group named Movement Rentai. So far, there's no evidence of any of their terror activities.

The peace talks aren't exactly solving the root of terrorism so there will always be another terrorist group that will appear. It's not like the MILF was born from a vacuum. It splintered off from the MNLF after the MNLF got a peace deal with the government where they get a semi-autonomous government over the Muslim areas in Mindanao becoming the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM). Of course, there's another issue looming over the peace talks with the Muslim groups which is probably not covered in this thread, but more of a political or rather, a territorial issue for the Philippines.

Also, chronologically speaking, the MILF got first dibs on the acronym. They've used it since the formal establishment of the group in 1984.

edited 8th Aug '13 8:25:57 AM by MarquisDev

Not really - the most high-profile I can think of are dissident Irish Republican groups, who could conceivably restart The Troubles (though that seems unlikely), which would in turn be a threat to the UK and the possibility of a United Ireland in the future. It's harder to be a terrorist in the West, because you have far fewer places to hide, far more tooled-up and affluent security services hunting you, and far less weaponry on the market, even in America.

edited 8th Aug '13 2:06:45 PM by Achaemenid

And they've likely been monitored for decades already.

edited 8th Aug '13 10:45:06 PM by Greenmantle

ETA in Spain are still a thing.

United States of America has an assorted of its own extremists who cover a wide spectrum of beliefs.

American Domestic Terrorists

edited 8th Aug '13 8:27:29 PM by TuefelHundenIV

The only thing in the Canadian sense is radical separatists who still believe for fighting for a free Quebec.

In the West, it's only radical individuals that are against Ottawa's influence.

Not really. ETA called for disbandment last year. The Basque resistance is now trying to pursue their goals through democratic means (but, so far, unsuccessfully). They're not a real threat, unless something really bad happens all of a sudden.