What's So Important About the Abdulmutallab Affair?

• Author: Jones, David

What's So Important About the Abdulmutallab Affair?

www.fpri.org/enotes/201001.galemontanaro.abdulmutallab.html

By Stephen Gale and Gregory Montanaro, Foreign Policy Research Institute

Reviewed by David Jones

Professor Gale and Mr. Montanaro, chair and executive director of FPRI's Center on Terrorism and Counterterrorism, examine the possibility of deeper elements to the Christmas Day attempt by "panty bomber" Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab to blow up Northwest flight 253. They suggest that Abdulmutallab was the equivalent of a "disinformation" exercise to keep the U.S. focused on preventing single action attacks on aircraft while failing to understand the essential nature of Islamic terrorism. As a consequence, we fail to appreciate that terrorists could block the Straits of Hormuz or Malacca--"far more destructive and disruptive to the U.S. and global economy." They argue that Islamist terrorists want a "reckoning" rather than revenge, and that the terrorists seek opportunities for attacks "that could result in a clear decline in the West's ability to continue to influence Islam.

The Gale/Montanaro thesis is interesting, but fails the Occam's razor...