Terror expert: Recent attacks message to US voters

Head of Counter-Terror Institute says terrorists trying to prove they have not lost ability to carry out attacks

Reuters | Published: 11.03.10, 08:21

Dozens of people were killed and hundreds were wounded in 13 terror attacks that took place in Baghdad in the space of a single hour – using explosive devices, mortar shells, suicide attacks, and car bombs.

The director of the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism at Herzliya's Interdisciplinary Center, Dr. Boaz Ganor, told Ynet on Tuesday that "such a large number of terror attacks carry a message".

"There is a message here aiming to show that worldwide Jihad agents and al-Qaeda in Iraq have not lost their abilities, and this message is intended for the entire world but first and foremost for Americans – President Obama and the American voter – on voting day," says Ganor.

Aftermath of Baghdad car bomb attack (Photo: AP)

"The big question was and still is what will happen in Iraq after the American soldiers leave. Terror organizations are able to carry out attacks on such a scale within a short time period, and this doesn't portend well. It casts great doubt on the control of the Iraqi government and their ability to stabilize things."

In contrast, Yoram Schweitzer, a terror expert at the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS), believes attacks carried out all over the world lately have nothing to do with the US elections.

"When there are elections for the presidency there they can try to affect them, but the issue of the midterm elections does not constitute a central consideration for al-Qaeda's attack planners," says Schweitzer.

Ganor adds that the potentially harmful package sent to German Chancellor Angela Merkel Tuesday and the two suspicious packages destroyed by Greece have to do with the country's economic turmoil.

"The Greek government announced it was a leftist Marxist organization," he says. 'We must remember that Marxist terror has existed in Greece for the past 30 years."

Ganor explains that many Greek people blame Germany for their country's economic troubles, or for refusing to help them out of these troubles. "When the Germans finally offered to help Greece they did so with many strings attached, which is exactly what these elements oppose," he says.