After bin Laden, the "Lone Wolf"

After bin Laden, the "Lone Wolf"

By Erick San Juan

At the Al Jazeera TV the other night, Osama bin Laden's story is again featured together with his allies in Afghanistan and Pakistan. His closeness to the Pashtun's made him a folk hero. What was alarming was the interview and information coming from Osama's former aide that although most of his trusted lieutenants were already killed, there are still remnants of Al Qaeda who can create terrorism with impact, moving alone but with precision. Is this the 'lone wolf' that US President Barack Obama exposed during the 911 anniversary?

According to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at her speech at the Global Counterterrorism Forum ministerial meeting at the Conrad Hotel in Istanbul last June 7, 2012, “The core of Al-Qaeda that carried out the 9/11 attacks may be on the path to defeat, but the threat has spread, becoming more geographically diverse and the danger from terrorism remains urgent and undeniable.”

Such a classic example of doublespeak, when the so-called ‘death’ of Osama bin Laden, over a year ago has allegedly weakened the core of al-Qaeda. Then, why the danger from terrorism remains urgent?

It is like saying that the world remains under the strategy of tension, threat and fear and that countries badly need the help of Uncle Sam and the 'scriptwriters' behind the new scenario.

The secretary said the threat of terror has spread to become more geographically diverse, and extremist groups are now “actively encouraging lone-wolf terrorists” to carry out attacks and killing sprees. (Source: MacKenzie C. Babb, Staff Writer, IIP Digital, US Embassy, June 7, 2012)

So the new scheme is “lone-wolf terrorists” that will be conveniently use when such terror attacks will occur.

A lone wolf or lone-wolf fighter is someone who commits violent act in support of some group, movement, or ideology, but does so alone, outside of any command structure. The term "lone wolf" was popularized by white supremacists Alex Curtis and Tom Metzger in the 1990s. (Wikipedia)

But this is just a reiteration of what President Obama said at the 10th anniversary of the attack on the World Trade Center or 9/11, he said that “The risk that we're especially concerned over right now is the lone wolf terrorist, somebody with a single weapon being able to carry out wide-scale massacre of sort that we saw in Norway recently. You know, when you've got one person who is deranged or driven by a hateful ideology, they can do a lot of damage, and it's a lot harder to trace those lone wolf operators." (Source: Foxnews.com, 8/17/2011)

The mere fact that they have given the premise that the it would be a lot harder to trace the so-called lone wolf operators, then the predicate has been laid – the terror threat will go on. And we saw one such act which I wrote in August 2011 (@ericksanjuan.blogspot.com) – the terrorist attack of July 23,2011 launched by a lone right-wing extremist in the peaceful capital city of Oslo, Norway and at the summer camp for children in the island of Utoya, resulted to the death of 77 young people. The whole of Europe and the world were shaken and wondered how such mass murder could have been executed with ease by a lone gunman. During the first few hours, the world was bombarded by the news spin coming from CNN, BBC, etc. that initially thought that the attacks have the 'signature' of Al Qaeda.

We have to be very vigilant here and didn’t we notice the recent kidnappings by the ASG in the south, particularly the Jordanian journalist? That even our PNP has doubts if such kidnapping did happen.

Our case should be treated with analytical mind because the confluence of events is suspect after the US and UK visits of PNoy. Are we seeing a sequel from what happened during the regime of former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo?

The US and UK visits was not about the economy alone, there is much to it than meets the eye from the media people who were there and reported it to the country. Maybe the president has forgotten the word transparency here.

As an observer of events here and abroad, let us brace ourselves for the show has just started after the death of Osama.

The show must go on!