Connecting The Dots

On September 3, a UPS plane crashed shortly after takeoff from Dubai International Airport, killing two crew members. This was a Boeing 747-400, a very dependable aircraft with a clean safety record. Initial news reports indicated that fire may have broken out in the aircraft just after take-off.

Then, on Friday October 29, explosive devices were found at the FedEx facility at Dubai airport and on a UPS plane at a UK airport. Now there is talk of re-investigating the September 3rd UPS crash.

One would not be a conspiracy theorist to think that these events were somehow related and something bigger and more devastating is in the works.

As of this writing the explosive devices were linked to Al Qaida on the Arabian Peninsula located in Yemen, a country whose present government seems to be trying to help the USA and other Western governments with anti-terror efforts.

The Islamic Jihad plan to kill Americans in particular and Westerners in general is now in high gear, yet some “politically correct” individuals amongst us do not seem to grasp this reality. It is an absolute mystery to me why members of such an advanced society like ours

would rather blame themselves for these dastardly deeds than to condemn and punish those who perpetrate them on us!

The bomb packages found on Friday the 29th were addressed to a Jewish community center and synagogue in Chicago. They were rigged to be detonated using a cell phone. This event is a game changer and it should worry Americans of all races and religions. In the Middle East, bombs are routinely placed in houses of worship; suicide bombers target Mosques of different sects of Muslims killing hundreds of worshippers at a time. We as Americans believe that any place of worship is off-limits to attacks, no matter what the cause. Events of October 29th now change those long-held beliefs and take us out of our collective comfort zones. Now, we are all potential targets of these monsters with their seventh century beliefs.

The popular targets of the terrorists are no longer tall buildings or population centers. They now target very specific yet smaller institutions where the impact of their criminal actions will have devastating consequences for our peaceful, small communities. This is the definition of terrorism.

The terrorists now want us to be cautious, worried and

intimidated when we attend our respective places of worship. They want us to look around cautiously to spot someone unfamiliar, unseasonably or unfashionably dressed, possibly concealing their suicide bomb vest. Or notice a motorcycle with large side bags “suspiciously parked” in the church lot.

Based on the information we have recently gained as a result of the innocuous devices (toner cartridges) shipped via regular carriers, it now seems that devastation will arrive in small, routinely delivered parcels. More frightening, these parcels could be detonated via cell phone call from Yemen, Iran or Syria by a Muslim terrorist whom we never met, never harmed or never intimidated. As long as we Americans continue to fail to connect the dots, blame the wrong parties for these dastardly deeds and continue to look for “moderates,” the terrorists will get bolder and their actions more brazen. I have news for you… there are no “moderate” terrorists and “moderates” are not found where these bombs come from.

Prior to 9/11 there were many signs that something evil was being planned. Al Qaida was testing the vulnerabilities of our institutions. First, there was an unsuccessful attack by Islamic extremists

on the World Trade Center. On February 26, 1993 a truck bomb was detonated below the North Tower of the World Trade Center. The attack was planned by a group of conspirators including Ramzi Yousef, Mahmoud Abouhalima, Mohammad Salameh, Nidal Ayyad and others. They received financing from Khaled Shaikh Mohammed a.k.a. KSM who later planned and executed the attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon killing thousands of our fellow citizens. Then there was the suicide attack on USS Cole, a US Navy destroyer which was harbored and refueling at the port of Aden in Yemen. Finally, there was the tragedy of 9/11 which came as a total shock to those who were unable to connect the dots and resulted in the deaths of thousands of our innocent citizens.

The explosive devices sent on October 29th are similar probes by the terrorists to test how our security systems and counter-measures work.

This is why I am asking you to forget about your political philosophies and religious beliefs whatever they may be and start connecting the dots to figure out who these would-be attackers are; where they come from and what their goals

are. Ask yourselves why someone who was born in America to immigrant parents who presumably came to this country for a better life, running away from the religious despotism of their homelands would go to a terrorist training camp in Pakistan to learn how to kill his fellow citizens and destroy his adopted country? What is it that we as Americans failed to do to cause such terrible acts to be committed by those who were born and raised here? Or, is this all being caused by the deliberate misinterpretation of a supposedly “peaceful” religion by its uneducated present leaders in order to empower them for world domination?

This is why I think that the two recent incidents which originated in Dubai are related. This is why I think all Americans must start to connect the dots. These events sound and feel like precursors to a much bigger and much more devastating attack on America and the West by Islamic terrorists.

Let us stop being “politically correct” before we are all victims. Be alert, know your enemies and you shall be safe.

Currently a member of Marco Island’s Code Enforcement Board, Tarik Ayasun has given many years of community service to various organizations.