Kuwait's cyber cafes spawn a new young breed of terrorist (SPOILED BRATS ALERT)

The Daily Telegraph ^ | December 23, 2002 | Jack Fairweather

[MadIvan]

In the pool halls and cyber cafes of Kuwait a new breed of terrorist is emerging, from among the country's young, wealthy and disaffected.

Spoiled brats, in other words. - Ivan

"I always imagine I'm fighting against the Americans," said Jagub, as he played a popular war game that pitches a team of snipers against an invading army.

"I think about what the Americans and Israelis are doing to the Palestinians, and that they are planning a war against Iraq, and it fills me with anger."

No doubt he also uses his indignation to score with the ladies - Ivan

Jagub belongs to a self-styled terrorist group that claims to be in regular internet contact with al-Qa'eda operatives.

"We can get everything from there, instructions, bomb manuals, help and spiritual guidance," said a group member.

"They remind us that if we want to get rid of the Americans we must fight them on our soil."

Such sentiments suggest why Kuwait, America's staunchest ally in the Gulf region, is struggling to cope with a recent surge in Islamic extremism and anti-American violence.

The 10,000 troops who have been stationed in Kuwait since the end of the Gulf war have never before experienced the current levels of hostility which have left one marine dead, and three soldiers wounded in the past six weeks.

The violence has left many Kuwaitis shocked, but others have been less surprised by the attacks, including one Kuwaiti defence official who said that further incidents were "just waiting to happen". The official, added: "These are not isolated incidents but part of a worrying new trend."

But such harmless if disturbing activities disguise what Kuwaiti officials describe as the single "major threat" to internal security: the unpoliced internet.

Two months ago one cyber school graduate tried to launch an attack on a residential complex housing western businessmen with 10 molotov cocktails. He claimed when arrested to have been instructed to do so by al-Qa'eda operatives in Pakistan.

This was clearly an amateurish attempt, but that should not hide the fact that for Jagub and others like him the internet has become the new recruiting ground for al-Qa'eda networks operating in the Gulf, and a gateway to more organised forms of terrorism.

The threat posed by the internet in Kuwait is so serious that the government recently passed a law banning the sale of internet cards that allow unlimited international access, and stricter measures are being considered including the licensing of all internet users.

[MadIvan]

I found this somewhat illuminating - Osama, Saddam, and the rest - we are being threatened by the characteristically hamfisted efforts of some overgrown adolescents. Fortunate that there are adults in charge of the United States and UK.

Regards, Ivan

[MadIvan]

Bump!

[dakine]

Wow, when I was there, they sure liked my $$$$...

[Abcdefg]

Jagub is a loud mouth wuss who needs to quit talking and start killing, if he can. I figure our boys will split his empty brain pan before he gets off a shot.
The reporter, Jack Fairweather, should have killed Jagub (pronounced JagOff?)on the spot.

[Abcdefg]

We oughta kick the reporter's can until he tells who and where this Jagov punk is, then go kill him and all of his friends.

[Hodar]

I do find it amusing that the Kuwaities have already forgotten that it was an Islamic country that invaded their land, raped their women, killed their men, and then set fire to their oil fields as they retreated. Funny that they should forget that it was US oil workers (God Bless the roughnecks) that put the fires out for them. Now, they blame the USA for being 'terroristic'. Are they stupid, or are they simply incapable of basic thought?

[Mr. Silverback]

My wife, the lovely Rambette, has often opined that much of the Islamifascist problem results from masses of middle easterners who have simple not grown up. It's like a Nazi-fied version of little boys reacting to girls around them who have "cooties." More to the point, while their apologists in the U.S. and U.K. try to claim poverty as an excuse for the terrorists, we can see that their membership in general and their leadership to a man were born with silver spoons in their mouths. They are the Islamic equivalent of the Weathermen who operated over here during the Viet Nam era: spoiled brat rich kids who were so coddled they think themselves too important to embrace the same petty worldview as rabble like us. Inflated egos, deflated empathy.

I have a message for Jagub and his friends: You can run, and you can hide, but that just means you'll be tired when we kill you.