Militants will try to hit Scandinavia

[Jay]

http://www.aftenposten.no/english/local/article1179062.ece

"A top Norwegian authority says that Islamist militants are operating in the Nordic countries, exploiting their open, liberal societies and will sooner or later launch an attack in Scandinavia.

"It's only a matter of time before we have a terrorist attack in Scandinavia; in Norway or Denmark or Sweden," Jørn Holme, head of the Police Security Service (PST), Norway's domestic intelligence service, told Reuters.

Al Qaeda named Norway as a potential target, alongside the United States, Britain, Australia and other countries, in 2003.

Norway, the world's third largest oil exporter, is a member of NATO and has troops and fighter jets in Afghanistan but did not back the US-led invasion of Iraq. In 1993 Norway brokered a peace deal between the Palestinians and Israel.

 

[Blackleaf]

That's what Canadians and the French were thinking before the war: we won't invade Iraq therefore we'll be safe from terrorism.

But it wasn't to be.

 

[Jay]

Thanks Blackleaf....my thoughts exactly, but I don't want to be the only one here with great ideas....I wanted to see if anyone else would pick up on that.

I think France had "other" reasons to stay out of it too though.

 

[mabudon]

RE: Militants will try to

How wrong exactly was the (not universally shared OBVIOUSLY) notion that we up in Canada weren't "safe from terrorism"???
Other than the fairly common utterances from certain factios in our government (my fave being last years "Canadians must prepare themselves for an attack" BS, famous propagandists from history would be proud of such an intellectually transparent, emotional suckerpunch MO) I really can't see "terrorism" being much of a concern here in the country- I have yet to phone in a single "suspicious middle easterners" tip ....

I think that not exacerbating the situation by jumping into the flames may be, while not the most bold stance, a fairly prudent one when one considers the actual roots of the phenomenon so casually referred to as "terrorism"

 

[tracy]

I don't think anyone thought not invading Iraq would make us immune to Al Qaeda's anger. We were already in Afghanistan.

 

[Jay]

Re: RE: Militants will try to hit Scandinavia

I don't think anyone thought not invading Iraq would make us immune to Al Qaeda's anger. We were already in Afghanistan.

I will have to do some digging on this one, and get back to you.

 

[tracy]

What? Weren't we in Afghanistan by then? I thought we went there in 2001? And the Iraqi invasion started in 2003 right?

 

[Jay]

Yes, sorry...I meant the argument used to stay out of Iraq was in part the fear of retaliation on the part of terror networks.

Sorry for being unclear.

 

[tracy]

Oh ok Sorry, I got confused there. My friends all make fun of me because I have a very messed up concept of time (meaning no concept of time at all), so for a second I thought it was completely possible that I had mixed those two events up

 

[Jersay]

Did a bomb go off somewhere in Canada or France? Because from what I know they haven't been attacked by a terrorist?