Farrukh Khan Pitafi’s Official Website

Recently yet another senior al Qaeda leader spoke up on television and took responsibility for all crimes done. Yet if you take special pains to read any Western work on al Qaeda or Osama you will essentially notice a clear attempt at mystification. An organised group of devoted fundamentalists that is so accomplished in the knowledge of technical advancement that it can hoodwink perhaps the most skilled and well paid intelligence agencies. Yet existence and continued survival of such a force despite all odds defies logic. If al Qaeda is good at coded communication, does its skill surpass that of the US National Security Agency (NSA) which owing to its scope of activities and widespread suspicion is often called no such agency? Can you believe it? A ragtag group of fanatics with such overwhelming skill to match the prowess of the world’s most well equipped surveillance system. I do not doubt that a group of accomplished software engineers can wreak havoc but that is possible for a small group operating in a vacuum of power and attention, not the enemy number one of the world’s sole superpower. The NSA is indeed well-versed in code breaking and global surveillance operation. In presence of this and uncountable other agencies it is very difficult to misuse the internet and related technologies, especially because the net is essentially a Western invention.

I mean anyone who has the slightest experience of code breaking knows it is not child’s play. In contrast to this the NSA, perhaps the biggest US agency and most equipped too, has to its service the most stunning supercomputers you can imagine of. If al Qaeda were to communicate on the net through unbreakable codes that would take it even more powerful computers to do so. Ask yourself: can a group of sneaks accomplish that bit in the presence of the big brother watching? Again we should remember that there is a reason why there exists a digital divide with concentration of resources in the West preventing digital democracy. The US has never allowed the control or the surveillance of the net slip off its hands. Then why is it that al Qaeda’s audio-visual messages keep popping up on the net like rabbits in a hutch without giving away the location of their source? Folks, this is not fiction. It is pure fact. The internet as we know it today is an evolved form of the ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network), which was employed by the US Department of Defence during the Cold War for fear of a debilitating attack. There can hardly ever be any potentially malicious activity on the net which can pass without the big brother’s nose twitching.

Likewise, there are other powerful surveillance means available to the US. There is the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) with its extensive network of digital surveillance around the world and then there is the newly reconstituted National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (formerly National Imagery and Mapping Agency or NIMA). Just google these organisations and see the extent of funds and resources available to them. If the American government cannot get only a couple of facts right about its enemies despite this much expenditure then with due respect these institutions should be scrapped and the work outsourced to better foreign agencies.

Those who think that suspecting some complacence by a segment of American political class and the bureaucracy is a conspiracy theory should try to see the inadequacy of their own argument. A group of extremists who does not have the IQ level to interpret the Holy Quran in a non-violent and moderate fashion can wreak this much havoc despite its serious lack of resources and yet the world’s most powerful agencies, in spite of all their resources, fail to stop it. That is quite an astonishing proposition.

Unfortunately, there has been quite a serious attempt to craft a convincing tale about Osama’s life for there is hardly any prima facie evidence to prove that he ever took an active part in the Afghan jihad as is often suggested. No matter how convincing, do you know what this is called in the world of espionage? Legend building. Yes, legend building is the process in which a spy is given multiple histories to use as a cover when facing a probe. A simple process of reverse engineering. This essentially works to further mystify rather than clarify the matter.

Another attempt to mystify the terror group is visible from the amount of noise added to the discussion. When you want to get rid of some serious allegation it is quite convenient to let this allegation spin a bit and get ridiculously fictionalised. Will it then not be easy for you to laugh your way out of these allegations? Hence, a lot of trash on Osama and the mysterious group he commands. For instance, it is said to be a Jewish conspiracy because 4,000 Jews who worked at the World Trade Centre were on leave on the day of the attack. First, it is incorrect to believe that as many Jews ever worked in the building and then of course there was no such noticeable or dramatic absence for we know several Jewish men and women also died in the attack. What actually happened was that at the time of the attack some 4,000 Israeli citizens lived in the entire area of Manhattan. When the attacks came there was utter pandemonium all around and no one had a clue. In this situation the Israeli Consulate issued a note to all Israelis in the area to contact the mission. This note was picked by an Arab channel and misconstrued as a proof of complacence. This trend of blaming everything on the Jews is again an anti-Semitic gift of the West. But that is not all. We have inherited some other foreign prejudices too. There is a trend in the half-educated circles of the country to blame Freemasonry for everything. Unfortunately, no one realises that these groups are so big in size that to blame them en masse is to undermine the very faith in human virtue. Such noises only further work to impeach the credibility of genuine dissent. I believe that there is need for the mainstreaming of genuine concern and further investigation and demystification of al Qaeda through perhaps reopening of the 9/11 Commission probe. Otherwise, the world will remain bitterly polarised.

Posted on July 24th, 2008 under General •  Print This Post •  Email This Post • RSS 2.0 feed • Leave a response, or trackback