Why don’t radical Islamists go after politicians?

a reply to: Willtell

The whole point of terrorism is to make ordinary people fear for their own lives. Killing politicians would only result in people being happy that someone else did what they were afraid to do themselves.

originally posted by: pikestaff
Just where do all those thousands of virgins come from? (counting up all the jihadists who have died in the last 5 years) makes me wonder, do the virgins have to die as well? male births slightly outnumber female births, so are those virgins imported from a parallel universe?

Well it only says virgins right? They don't necessarily have to be female

Why don’t radical Islamists go after politicians?

Well they do.

This is part of the problem when it comes to terrorism people have quite a short memory.

One politician that comes to mind is Bnazir Bhutto who was assassinated, there have been attacks targeted against lots of Iraqi, Afghani and Israeli politicians as well, even just last year we had the Shootings on parliament Hill in Ottawa.

So contrary to your OP you are totally incorrect to say that they don't attack politicians.

Now if you are asking why do they not attack Obama for instance, then again the answer is quite simple, any direct attack on POTUS would be quite difficult. Also that is not to say that such a attack has not been foiled at some point and we have just not been told about it.

Your thinking OP also seems to be very much in the post-9/11 era, but if you look historically at terrorism there are lots of examples of direct acts of terrorism with high profile public figures being the targets.

dp

a reply to: Willtell

I just made exactly your point on another thread - cut the ones with the vested interests out of the equation and we would all live more securely.

Its can't be hard to find who pulls the puppets strings and islamists need to think in this way, because they are using up their sympathy vote from the Western people.

Just to add to this, there was also a case a few months ago where some terror suspects were arrested and the police found the address of one of Tony Blair's many many homes in their car.

So they were presumably planning to attack Blair.

originally posted by: Painterz

So they were presumably planning to attack Blair.

Shame they didn't let it happen and act AFTER he was dead.....

The world would have been a far far far better place......

You are all coming at this from the wrong direction. Take the royal family first. Britain, though not seemingly fervent royalist (royalists in Britain are a minority) but if they killed a high placed royal the backlash for Muslims in the UK would be severe.
Now take politicians. They value their lives higher than the normal citizen, hence the bodyguards. Think from their perspective if they were killed. Now 2 questions. 1. when civilians are killed who can they call on for retribution? Answer:- the government who cares little about them. OK the politicians appear in the media saying how sorry they are but overall nothing gets done. 2. If a politician gets killed who can they call on for retribution? Answer:- the police, the army, the secret services and other more forceful agencies and make no bones about it that if a member of the royal family or a politician were killed the retribution on the Muslim community would be very,very severe.
The terrorists may be mad but they aren't stupid.

originally posted by: MysterX

originally posted by: TheArrow
Security is too tight.

Why waste resources with a surgical strike when you can get the same reaction with a larger net?

Because murdering people in a shopping centre doesn't create the same reaction as murdering a Government cabinet or group of high profile Politicians.

Which isn't practical, and is why it doesn't happen.

a reply to: TheArrow

You're still looking from a civilians perspective ie. "so what if a politician gets killed they're useless anyway".
Put yourself in the politicians shoes. They think that they are the country not the people. So kill one of them and they would call on ALL their resources to remedy the situation not just go on TV and talk about it. They would act like they should do in the case of civilians killed.

originally posted by: crayzeed
a reply to: TheArrow

You're still looking from a civilians perspective ie. "so what if a politician gets killed they're useless anyway".
Put yourself in the politicians shoes. They think that they are the country not the people. So kill one of them and they would call on ALL their resources to remedy the situation not just go on TV and talk about it. They would act like they should do in the case of civilians killed.

No. I'm looking at it from an attackers position.

Politicians were a target on 9/11, however the plane didn't make it to the White House or the Capitol Building.

a reply to: OtherSideOfTheCoin

I already mentioned that they HAVE GONE AFTER them in Pakistan..
I should have written in the op WESTERN politicians

The ones they suppose to hate so much

a reply to: TheArrow

...and some of them were warned off

a reply to: DJW001

If the terrorist are attacking because of the policies of the west then it would be perfectly sensible to attack them who make that policy.

The fact that the have NEVER attacked a western politician is an anomaly minimally and a provocative fact maximally

originally posted by: Willtell
a reply to: OtherSideOfTheCoin

I already mentioned that they HAVE GONE AFTER them in Pakistan..
I should have written in the op WESTERN politicians

The ones they suppose to hate so much

Well you didn't make it very clear all you wrote on the first page was

"Western politicians?"

In reply to another member with no context.

And yes Western politicians have been targeted, the big heads of state are way to difficult to get to despite the Ottawa attempt last year. There was also a case in the UK of a Muslim women who stabbed a politician in the neck and claimed she had done it after she was influence by Al-Alwaki. So you are technically wrong to say the "NEVER" attacked a western politician.

I am sure there have been loads of others that have been thwarted by the security services over the years, not to mention all the attacks pre-9/11

originally posted by: Willtell
a reply to: TheArrow

...and some of them were warned off

No, all of them were warned off. All of us were warned off. The government had intelligence about threats, but the government always has intelligence about threats. There had been chatter about an impending attack as early as July 2001, and I personally remember discussions about an elevated risk to air traffic during the Clinton Administration on Meet the Press.

You have to remember, pre 9/11 the world was different, and Islamic terrorism wasn't a big deal to the average American. We were warned, and we didn't take the warning seriously. Some in power decided to take it a little more seriously, even though their precautions didn't really affect the outcome.

Hindsight is 20/20.

a reply to: OtherSideOfTheCoin

Okay no problem but your list is pretty flimsy.

Of course I have no agenda but questioning the reality of the anomaly of these terrorists going after the public as opposed to the politicians who make the policy they suppose to despise so much…

I wish the Koch brothers and other billionaires gave money to the public instead of politicians…who they know they can influence.

a reply to: Willtell

The list might be flimsy but its just of the top of my head

I have not actually took any time to go and have a closer look, if I did i am confident i would find other examples from over the last 14 years and that's not to mention the potential attacks that have been disrupted.

I am just wondering if you are trying to make some kind of point with this or are you just saying there are not as many attacks directly against politicians as you would have expected.

a reply to: TheArrow


www.prisonplanet.com...

Who told a number of public officials not to fly into New York on the morning of 9/11 and why didn't the people on the targeted planes get the same warnings? Mayor of San Francisco Willie Brown was set to fly into New York on the morning of September 11. However, he got a call from what he described as his 'airport security' late September 10th advising against flying due to a security threat.

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Top Pentagon officials were warned and cancelled flights on September 10th

NEWSWEEK has learned that the state of alert had been high during the past two weeks, and a particularly urgent warning may have been received the night before the attacks, causing some top Pentagon brass to cancel a trip.

Pentagon officials cancelled September 11 flying plans day before On Sept. 10, NEWSWEEK has learned, a group of top Pentagon officials suddenly canceled travel plans for the next morning, apparently because of security concerns.

Willie Brown got low-key early warning about air travel

For Mayor Willie Brown, the first signs that something was amiss came late Monday when he got a call from what he described as his airport security - - a full eight hours before yesterday's string of terrorist attacks -- advising him that Americans should be cautious about their air travel.

Condoleeza Rice Warned Willie Brown Not To Fly On 9-11 On May 17, 2002, Pacifica Radio reported that Rice was the source of the call to Brown.

Ashcroft Stops Flying Commercial July 2001

In response to inquiries from CBS News over why Ashcroft was traveling exclusively by leased jet aircraft instead of commercial airlines, the Justice Department cited what it called a "threat assessment" by the FBI, and said Ashcroft has been advised to travel only by private jet for the remainder of his term.

Bin Laden's Trail - Rushdie Air Ban (banned from flying from September 3rd) THE author Salman Rushdie believes that US authorities knew of an imminent terrorist strike when they banned him from taking internal flights in Canada and the US only a week before the attacks.

Some Got Warning: Don't Go Downtown on Sept. 11 Federal investigators have received evidence that some Middle Easterners in the New York area were warned ahead of time to stay out of lower Manhattan the morning of Sept. 11, the Daily News has learned. Transcript: Actor James Woods on O'Reilly 9/11 hijackers (government role players) do a dry run - FBI warned - nothing happens.
This page focuses on warnings given to individuals. There are many more articles about warnings prior to the attack given by intelligence agencies and others in our 9/11 archive

."

www.prisonplanet.com...

a reply to: Willtell

yeah you are going to need a better source than "prisionplanet" or anything else run by Alex Jones who is know to pretty much lie through his teeth about everything.