House Intelligence Report: the menacing menace

The House Intelligence Committee just released a new report, al-Qaeda: The Many Faces of an Islamist Extremist Threat.   It's a primarily political document,  unexceptional in every way, offering very little which is either new or interesting, while some of it is actively misleading.    The Democratic response more or less sums up my reaction:

This paper is not a report of the Committee's work.  It is merely an assemblage of press clippings... this "threat assessment" adds no new information to the nation's understanding of the challenges or to the U.S. government's ability to address them.

That's about right.   Some of the sourcing is hilarious.  You'd think that the House Intelligence Committee could do a better job of sourcing a translation of a major statement by Osama bin Laden than the website jihadunspun (footnote 5), wouldn't you? 

But there's one place where the report does go a bit farther:  on the alleged threat of homegrown American Muslim extremism.   I'd go so far as to say that the lazily produced padding about al-Qaeda, Jemaah Islamiya, the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (!), and even Iraq, was just thrown together as a vehicle to deliver a set of rather extreme views about the threat posed by the American Muslim community.   That's why the very first page of the report, in a pull quote which is also printed in boldface so you can't miss it, highlights this quote from bin Laden:   "As for similar operations taking place in America, it is only a matter of time.  They [the terrorists] are in the final stages, and you will see them in the heart of your land as soon as the planning is complete."  (Which, of course, doesn't necessarily mean that it will home grown terrorists or even American-based cells carrying out those operations...)  The whole narrative thrust of the report hypes the threat of homegrown terrorism and the need for more intense scrutiny of the American Muslim community.  It also produces a lot of tension between the urge to promote frightening scenarios ("bin Laden was encouraging Zarqawi and his group to consider plotting terrorist attacks in the United States", based on a footnote to Fox News) and the shortage of actual evidence ("although there is nothing to suggest Zarqawi's supporters currently are preparing attacks within the United States, they eventually may look to target the United States." - both quotes from page 13). 

The only real thing of value in the report is these two maps, both provided by Steven Emerson's Investigative Project. 



The House labels this map "Presence of Radical Islamist Cells, 1996-2006".  How horribly menacing! All of North America is already gone to the Radical Islamists.  New Europe and some parts of sub-Saharan Africa are still free.  But I'm SO confused - how can Latin America be Radical Islamic free?!?!  I thought Hezbollah was openly operating in South America.  Is the House claiming that Hezbollah is not Radical Islamist, or that they didn't have Cells?  It's so hard to keep up.  What does it take to turn a country red, exactly? 

Best of all, check out this map detail:



It inspires a certain amount of confidence, I must say, to  learn that there are no Radical Islamist Cells in Oman or the United Arab Emirates... and even more to discover that Kuwait has evidently migrated a few hundred miles southeast of its usual location (safer from Iraq down there, I suppose).   

What about America itself?  How did it get Red?  Here, again courtesy of the Investigative Project, is the Terrorist Network in America:



It's so scary!   Washington DC has long since fallen to Hamas and Hizballah.  New York has descended into intra-Islamist warfare between al-Gamaa al-Islamiya, Hamas, al-Qaeda, Hizballah, al-Muhajiroun and more.  Los Angeles is torn between Hamas, al-Gamaa, the Algerian Armed Islamic Group, and Steven Spielberg.  San Franciso and Santa Clara, hasta la vista.    But it isn't just the bastions of the Decadent Left, which has long since allied itself with its natural allies in radical Islam. Phoenix (lost to al-Qaeda), Kansas City (occupied by Hamas), Fayettville, Arkansas (gone to Bill Clinton). Even Houston and Dallas have fallen to Hamas.  And can my hometown of Milwaukee reallyi be gone?  And Bridgeview, Illinois too... say it ain't so, not Bridgeview, Illinois.   Reno looks okay for now.   Williamstown, MA, also appears to be safe... but for how much longer?   Please, Homeland Security, protect me! 

Thank you, House Intelligence Committee.  This is the kind of inspired lunacy which has been missing from too much of our great national debate.  We must, indeed, protect our precious bodily fluids. 

Comments

[praktike]

Actually, it's not surprising that Congressional staff work is so terrible when you look at their salaries. They just don't have people with the chops to do good work.

[BGone]

Islamic extremist get their extremism from the same place Christians and Jews get their God. The best new you will ever hear is that source is a proved hoax. Give my handle a click and see what I'm talking about.

[moloch-agonistes]

Can't blame them for being anxious. I hear Walter Reed Hospital is full of men in turbans.

[BGone]

Thank you HR. Now I know where to go to get away from radical Islam. That would be Greenland, south west Africa and south America.

Hey, hey, hey! Mexico is on the list too! An exchange program?

[Nur al-Cubicle]

Whew, at least Venezuela is safe.

[Stacey]

Abu - thanks for the link to the Emerson site. The most interesting thing there was the "Dirty Kuffar" music video. I know this shouldn't be a shock, given my research interest in kufr, but I hadn't seen it. Have you (or others you know of) written anything about this video and its origin/dissemination/legal position?

[Schwa-Schwa]

Just as a matter of interest, this Council on Global Terrorism report (which I happened upon after reading today's New York Times) suggests that there is "little to no evidence of al-Qaeda cells or infrastructure within the US". It's not that they don't think there are any terrorist sympathisers in the US, just that they are not formally linked to al-Qaeda or any other network. Here's the full report - I'd be interested to know what others think.

[Ted]

Actually, Fayetteville, Arkansas wasn't labeled as taken over by Bill Clinton but by "PIJ" (Palestine Islamic Jihad)--if I read the map correctly. A Palestinian grad student was put on trial here over the summer for supposedly wanting to travel to Palestine and join "PIJ," but he was found innocent of the terrorism charges by a jury of regular Arkansans. Unfortunately, he was convicted of some credit card and Social Security charges (which otherwise should have been quite minor offenses) and he may lose his green card status and be deported (he's married to a US citizen). So, Emerson's report was...out of date.