Al-Qaida Threatens World Cup

by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700

Copyright April 10, 2010
All Rights Reserved.                                

               Threatening to bomb a World Cup soccer game between the Britain and the U.S., a Mali-based al-Qaida group warned of massive bloodshed when the world picks a new champion this summer.  Since Osama bin Laden was chased by U.S. Special Forces out of Tora Bora on motor scooters Dec. 12, 2001, the whereabouts of the 53-year-old Saudi-born terrorist has been subject of endless speculation.  Best guestimates place Bin Laden somewhere in the ungoverned mountainous region along the Afghan-Pakistan border.  No one knows for sure whether Bin Laden continues to orchestrate al-Qaida activity from his lair or whether indigenous groups in Africa, South Asia or the Middle East operate independently.  Former President George W. Bush diverted U.S. resources to Iraq March 20, 2003, leaving the Taliban, al-Qaida and Bin Laden untouched in Afghan’s tribal lands.

            Al-Qaida in North Africa and South Asia has been a thorn in the U.S. side since Bin Laden ordered the Aug. 7, 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and Nairobi, Kenya.  While CIA director George J. Tenet promptly declared war on al-Qaida, former President Bill Clinton only gave a feckless Cruise Missile attack on Bin Laden’s terrorist camps in Afghanistan.  Two short years later, Bin Laden struck again in Yemen’s Gulf of Aden, suicide-boat-bombing the guided missile frigate U.S.S. Cole Oct. 12, 2000, killing 17 U.S. sailors.  “How beautiful would the game between England and the USA be when broadcast live from a stadium full of spectators—when the sound of an explosion rumbles through the stands.  The resulting death toll is in the dozens and hundreds—Allah willing,” read an al-Qaida affiliated Web site, threatening to attack the World Cup.

            U.S. terrorism policy under former President George W. Bush and now President Barack Obama officially goes after terrorists in Afghanistan.  While Bush and former Vice President Dick Cheney saw Iraq as the “central front in the war on terror,” Obama shifted U.S. assets to Afghanistan, nine years after Bin Laden fled Tora Bora.  Neither Bush nor Obama have directed U.S. assets to neutralize al-Qaida in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Africa.  Clinton’s attempts to battle al-Qaida in Mogadishu, Somalia Oct. 1-3, 1993 went badly, with 19 U.S. soldiers killed. That was the same year Bin Laden first tried to bomb the World Trade Center.  Instead of relentlessly pursuing the renegade Saudi-born terrorist, the U.S. sat idly by while al-Qaida plotted the eventual destruction of the World Trade Center and Pentagon.  When Bin Laden struck Sept. 11, the White House no longer trusted the CIA. 

            Obama’s decision in March ’09 to add 20,000 and Dec. ’09 to add 30,000 troops to Afghanistan confirmed his commitment to shift the war on terror to away from what Bush and Cheney called “the central front in the war on terror” in Iraq.  Yet when Afghan President Hamid Karazi rigged the Aug. 24 election, it became clear that the U.S. was not pursuing Bin Laden or remnants of the Taliban but supporting a corrupt regime.  Karzai’s recent public remarks blaming the U.S. and U.K for past election fraud, and, more recently, threatening to join the Taliban, indicate that the U.S. has lost its mission in Afghanistan.  While predator drone attacks have hit some al-Qaida and Taliban insurgents in Pakistan, Bin Laden and his chief planner Egyptian-born physician Ayman al-Zawahiri continue to plan more brazen terror attacks on key Western targets, now threatening the World Cup.

            When the World Cup shifts to Cape Town this summer, the South African government doesn’t have the capability of managing security.  U.S. officials must act now to neutralize al-Qaida on the African continent or face possible terrorist acts at the World Cup.  Since the U.S. failed in Somalia in 1993, no president has been willing to take preemptive action on the African continent.  Al-Qaida in Somalia, Yemen and now Malia continue to run amok while the world sits idly by unwilling to take decisive action.  “They have a track record for violence,” said London-based journalist and terrorism expert Neil Doyle, an specialist in cyber-terrorism.   Obama must reconfigure CIA and Special Forces to address provocative al-Qaida threats from South Asia and Africa.  Failure to do so leaves venues like Cape Town vulnerable to attack when the World Cup convenes this summer.

            Al-Qaida’s continued threats on the African continent date back to 1998 when the U.S. failed to mount an effective response to the East African bombings of U.S. embassies and attack of the U.S.S. Cole two years later.  Predator drone attacks along the Afghan-Pakistan frontier are not enough to disrupt terrorist plans on the African continent.  While the U.S. is slated to exit Afghanistan and Iraq in 2011, Obama must recalculate the current Afghan mission and deploy U.S. assets to deal with ongoing al-Qaida threats.  Afghan President Hamid Karzai has proven to be a corrupt leader, paying lip service to the White House while, simultaneously, supporting the Taliban and the lucrative opium trade.  No U.S. soldier—or NATO for that matter—should be asked to make the ultimate sacrifice to support a two-faced ruler, showing more loyalty to the enemy than the allies.

John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He's editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.