måndag, januari 24, 2011

Allt om julens svenska terrorhändelser i en text

Den bästa sammanfattningen hittills av de svenska terrorhistorierna i julas, och hur de påverkar bilden av Sverige, publicerades nyligen i CTC Sentinel. Artikeln har rubriken Terrorist Awakening in Sweden och är skriven av Magnus Ranstorp. Det är den amerikanska krigsakademin West Points kontraterrorismforskningsenhet, Combating Terrorism Center, som ger ut tidskriften.


Ingressen:
For decades, Sweden has been regarded as the relative backwater of international terrorism. Even Usama bin Ladin had mentioned Sweden as immune from terrorism in an al-Jazira broadcast in October 2004. This sense of immunity was shattered twice in December 2010.

First, a suicide bomber struck in the Nordic countries for the first time ever on December 11. The Swedish security service, Säkerhetspolisen (SÄPO), had no record of the bomber before the attack, as he had studied and lived for a decade in the United Kingdom. At the same time, he admitted he had traveled to Iraq to perform jihad. Second, four Swedes were arrested later that month for planning to conduct a protracted Mumbai-style attack on the Jyllands-Posten newspaper in Copenhagen, Denmark. The men were arrested after driving from Sweden to Copenhagen to execute the attack. Third, SÄPO produced a report on violent Islamist extremism which outlined that it had identified about 200 extremists in Sweden; more than 80% were socially connected, and most lived inside the three major cities of Sweden, with more than half residing in Stockholm.

This article examines the circumstances behind these developments and their implications for the evolution of terrorism in Sweden. It illustrates the interconnectivity of terrorist social networks, and it underscores the importance of terrorist travelers to Pakistan and Somalia and the potential for a boomerang effect. To some extent, this article argues that the events in Sweden are a microcosm or reflection of broader terrorism trends.
Texten redogör sedan detaljerat för alla viktiga bitar i terrorhistorierna. Och kreddar denna blogg.

Förresten. Missa inte texten efter Ranstorps i CTC Sentinel. Den har också viss bäring på svenske självmordsbombaren Taimour Abdelwahab al-Abdaly. Rubriken är British Universities Continue to Breed Extremists.