Israel and Proxy Terrorism

[Purveyor]

By Robert Wright
Feb 13 2012, 8:43 AM ET

Should Israel be classified as a state sponsor of terrorism? That question is being debated in the wake of a story that NBC News broke late last week.

Citing unnamed US officials, NBC reported that Israel has used an Iranian opposition group to carry out those much-publicized assassinations of Iranian scientists. The group in question is the M.E.K. (Mojahedin-e Khalq, or People's Mujahedin of Iran), which since 1997 has been designated a terrorist group by the United States because of its alleged assassinations of US citizens.

The argument for considering Israel a supporter of terrorism comes in two varieties:

1) According to NBC, Israel gives the M.E.K. the funding, training, and weapons to carry out the assassinations--and that would seem to constitute support for a terrorist group.

MORE...

http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/02/israel-and-proxy-terrorism/252971/

[Scootaloo]

1. Doesn't Israel also give support to the PKK?

Honest question, I can't recall if they do or not

[leveymg]

2. And, the Saudis. But, it isn't terrorism when "we" do it by proxy

The Saudis have their own terrorists, we used to call them al-Qaeda. Now, we call them "freedom-fighters."

U.S. officials: Al-Qaida behind Syria bombings
By JONATHAN S. LANDAY

By JONATHAN S. LANDAY
McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON -- The Iraqi branch of al-Qaida, seeking to exploit the bloody turmoil in Syria to reassert its potency, carried out two recent bombings in the Syrian capital, Damascus, and likely was behind suicide bombings Friday that killed at least 28 people in the largest city, Aleppo, U.S. officials told McClatchy Newspapers.

The officials cited U.S. intelligence reports on the incidents, which appear to verify Syrian President Bashar Assad's charges of al-Qaida involvement in the 11-month uprising against his rule. The Syrian opposition has claimed that Assad's regime, which has responded with massive force against the uprising, staged the bombings to discredit the pro-democracy movement calling for his ouster.

The international terrorist network's presence in Syria also raises the possibility that Islamic extremists will try to hijack the uprising, which would seriously complicate efforts by the United States and its European and Arab partners to force Assad's regime from power. On Friday, President Barack Obama repeated his call for Assad to step down, accusing his forces of "outrageous bloodshed."

The U.S. intelligence reports indicate that the bombings came on the orders of Ayman al-Zawahiri, the Egyptian extremist who assumed leadership of al-Qaida's Pakistan-based central command after the May 2011 death of Osama bin Laden. They suggest that Zawahiri still wields considerable influence over the network's affiliates despite the losses the Pakistan-based core group has suffered from missile-firing CIA drones and other intensified U.S. counterterrorism operations.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/02/10/2635537/us-officials-al-qaida-behind-syria.html#storylink=cpy

[oberliner]

3. Do you think MEK is a terrorist group? What about Hamas?

Seems that the US/Europe are divided on those questions.