Naming Names
Naming Names
A GAO report unabashedly names America's foe in the war on terrorism: Islamic extremism.
by Stephen Schwartz,Weekly Standard
FOUR YEARS AFTER September 11, 2001, the United States government has passed a significant turning point in the war on Islamist terror. In an official report the federal authorities have directly and identified the enemy as "Islamic extremism"--one of the few instances in which they have dared to commit to print this term, to which apologists for radical Islam so heartily object. More, the document forthrightly identifies the main threat: the Wahhabi cult that is the state religion in Saudi Arabia.
This breakthrough in policy nomenclature comes after four years of waffling about the Saudi problem.
The GAO's report, Information on U.S. Agencies' Efforts to Address Islamic Extremism, is dated this month and was submitted to intelligence agencies, the Departments of Defense, State, and Treasury, and the U.S. Agency for International Development. The document is paired with a classified report on the same topic, to be released later.
These works originated with a congressional request to GAO and so far, the results are sobering. The non-classified report begins by admitting that
"U.S. agencies do not know the extent of the Saudi government's efforts to limit the activities of Saudi sources that have allegedly propagated Islamic extremism outside of Saudi Arabia."
The inclusion of the word "alleged" in this sentence seems perfunctory since the GAO report reads like a criminal indictment of the kingdom's government. Echoing last year's 9/11 Commission Report, the GAO emphasizes,
"Saudi Arabia has been a problematic ally in combating Islamic extremism." [...]
Posted by Ted Belman at September 23, 2005 08:02 AM
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Naming Names
A GAO report unabashedly names America's foe in the war on terrorism: Islamic extremism.
by Stephen Schwartz,Weekly Standard
FOUR YEARS AFTER September 11, 2001, the United States government has passed a significant turning point in the war on Islamist terror. In an official report the federal authorities have directly and identified the enemy as "Islamic extremism"--one of the few instances in which they have dared to commit to print this term, to which apologists for radical Islam so heartily object. More, the document forthrightly identifies the main threat: the Wahhabi cult that is the state religion in Saudi Arabia.
This breakthrough in policy nomenclature comes after four years of waffling about the Saudi problem.
The GAO's report, Information on U.S. Agencies' Efforts to Address Islamic Extremism, is dated this month and was submitted to intelligence agencies, the Departments of Defense, State, and Treasury, and the U.S. Agency for International Development. The document is paired with a classified report on the same topic, to be released later.
These works originated with a congressional request to GAO and so far, the results are sobering. The non-classified report begins by admitting that
The inclusion of the word "alleged" in this sentence seems perfunctory since the GAO report reads like a criminal indictment of the kingdom's government. Echoing last year's 9/11 Commission Report, the GAO emphasizes, "Saudi Arabia has been a problematic ally in combating Islamic extremism." [...]Posted by Ted Belman at September 23, 2005 08:02 AM