Mike in Manila - eclectic dreams

10,000 terror attacks in 2005... This thing is far from over

If you thought that this War is waning down - you might be pardon the pun "Dead wrong"

A report be a established and long held credible news agency in the U of A. Knight Ridder- no - not the TV show of David Hasslehoff and there is no "Kit" black Trans Am in the parking lot there either this is serious stuff - so listen up.

" The number of terrorist attacks documented by U. S. intelligence agencies jumped sharply in 2005, crossing the 10,000 mark for the first time, according to U counterterrorism officials and documents obtained by the Knight Ridder news agency."

10,000 Attacks! Typical news director reaction would be - "It's almost as bad a L.A./S. Cal /Vegas gang problem already?" Or typical LA news desk reaction - "Or Compton on the Friday night after a high school football game with Sta.Ana."

Yes- people it is - it is that bad - and if you notice from my analogy - which is the same reaction of most news people in the US you probably not be reading much of it on the web in print or in the papers - save for those who subscribe to the service running - 10,000 attacks - is really bad.

Most People I met in the USA in the news biz - seem to think the war is over and all the extended action in Iraq and elsewhere in Iraq and around the world is the old term of simple "Mopping Up Operations."

Iraq- has become terrorism central "More than half the fatalities from terrorism worldwide last year occurred in Iraq, said a counterterrorism official, " that means all the major attacks the 10K number is found in the theater of operations that is Iraq - also on this point one can clearly see one major thing 85% of all US casualties in the fighting have been there as well.

But closer to home the News Agency report found out something - "There were 3,192 terrorist attacks in 2004..." According to a report by the National Counterterrorism Center.

A new system of looking at the events surrounding the attacks and terrorism changed also hence a higher number - "In the past, intelligence analysts had counted only "international terrorism," defined as attacks involving citizens or territory of more than one country. But officials concluded that the definition was outdated and undercounted terrorism.

The 2004 sinking of a ferry in the Philippines by [Abu Sayyaf] that left 132 people dead was omitted in the tally, but , with the new reporting system the numbers of attacks clearly show a higher level of activity by groups like Al Qaeda and others indicating even when reviewing old data - last year was a marked increase in activity for the groups engaged in violence.

More clear in this reports is this -

"U.S. State Department counterterrorism coordinator Henry Crumpton told Congress earlier this month that the leadership of al Qaida, responsible for the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, "may be isolated and under pressure, unable to communicate effectively. But, Crumpton told a Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee, regional terrorist groups have established their own independent networks, a development that in some ways "poses even more daunting intelligence collection and strategic policy challenges."

Meaning with all the new groups that have sprung up since the start of the conflict- one can almost think the worst case scenario has happened.

The Hornets nest that was Afghanistan then the worlds breeding ground for extremists has not been crushed but spread to the winds - and in 2005 has come up from its Ashes and those groups that were thought destroyed, have been reborn- perhaps not the same - perhaps more complex; those captured leaders have been replaced - and further spread out.

An increase in the number of attacks from 3,000 to 10,000 in a year clearly means - even if most of those new attacks did take place in the main center of the war.

That this war is not anything near being over - and the Jihadi's or Terrorist's depending on your perspective has not nor did not bow out like dust in the wind but instead has spread out to new areas and have focused their energies in places like Iraq and may be ready to start new operations in places like... Well... Here in Asia anew.