Terror in the Tribes

Shortly after al Qaeda’s attacks on New York’s World Trade Center towers and the US Pentagon I sounded an alert to a deeper, long-term problem that will undermine states around the world. I argued that al Qaeda’s Saudi leader, Osama bin Ladin will seek to advantage his non-governmental, non-state organization by intimidating indigenous nations into providing safe haven. That is precisely what is happening in the tribal areas between Pakistan and Afghanistan, in Somalia, in Indonesia and in Iraq.

Harpers contributor Ken Silverstein quotes Doug Frantz (Washington Independent) who explains how al Qaeda intimidation, threats of violence and outright murder have become common practice in the eastern Pashtun territory where the organization maintains its headquarters. Frantz describes a campaign to kill and otherwise terrorize Pashtun declared to be spies. Taliban and al Qaeda cannot command support on the basis of ideas or public benefit. They must force compliance with their view of the world. Success at terrorizing Americans so they become adherents to authoritarianism (spying, torture, denial of civil rights, increased populationa control measures and survelliance) is reflected in the violence al Qaeda and the Taliban impose on Fourth World peoples.

Fourth World nations have a duty to organize counter measures against the violence of a cult like the Taliban and a non-governmental group like al Qaeda. States’ governments have a responsibility to work with Fourth World nations to defeat this profound threat. The Anbar Province example makes some sense. Support Fourth World nations to defend themselves.

(c) 2008 Center for World Indigenous Studies