Al-Qaida grooming militants who look western: CIA chief

Monday 31st March, 07:18 AM JST

The requested article has expired, and is no longer available. Any related articles, and user comments are shown below.

Latest 15 of 17 Total Comments Show All

Altria at 01:37 PM JST - 31st March

In this month's edition:

Top 10 Al-Quaeda HOT Summer Grooming Tips!!!

You'll blow them away with a manicure and pedicure!!!
skipthesong at 01:45 PM JST - 31st March

I don't know why this is news, they have already been using people from western countries
sabiwabi at 04:30 PM JST - 31st March

The CIA has long hired "Muslim-looking" people to pose as Al-Qaida, so they simply expanded their range for recruitment.
outhousejt at 04:30 PM JST - 31st March

The reason many al Qaidas are western or to be more precice American is because CIA is western and American. CIA created this al Qaida. bin Laden is a CIA agent.
Zaphod at 04:55 PM JST - 31st March

Hello Sabi-Wabi, can you tell us what a "muslim-looking" person is? Do I begin look muslim if I convert to Islam? Looking forward to your expert opinion.
some14some at 05:25 PM JST - 31st March

why this is news? it is finger pointing at failure of Bush-Mush alliance
sabiwabi at 05:25 PM JST - 31st March

Hi Zaphod, The article above is about people who "look Western". Just as someone does not "look Western" when they move to the West, someone does not become "Muslim-looking" upon converting to Islam. One does not need to be an expert to understand this.
skipthesong at 08:30 PM JST - 31st March

sabi, I think Zaphod is more in agreement with you than you think but, "someone does not become “Muslim-looking” upon converting to Islam" no so. I have several friends who converted, granted NOI, but still Muslim. It's more what they wear I think.
paolo27th at 09:57 PM JST - 31st March

So does it mean that so far having dark skin would have automatically made you a suspect terrorist? Like you couldn't walk through an airport without being "detected"? Does it mean that the CIA has been keeping track of the daily activities of all non-western looking people living in the US? How many non-western-looking people does the average western-looking american see everyday? Does he alert the police every time? I would think not. I would think that unless he lives in some semi-segregated mid-western village he probably won't give a damm about the colour of the people around him. So why would the CIA tell us that Al Quaeda is going through the bother of finding agents that can more easily "mix with the crowd" so to say? Is it to frighten us into believing that "evil is amongst us" and no longer just with them arab-looking types? Is it to convince us that we've allowed them to built too many mosques and we've now been infected? Is it to prepare us for when eventually white american citizens will end up in Gitmo, be tortured and so on? Anyways, let the whitchunt begin!
outhousejt at 10:33 PM JST - 31st March

CIA. US needs a bogeyman to make people scared. To shift the attention away from their own crimes.
outhousejt at 10:38 PM JST - 31st March

___Bin Laden has claimed responsibility for the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, which killed nearly 3,000 people and prompted the US-led invasion of Afghanistan.

Bin Laden has never claimed responsibility for the attacks. Repeating the same lies over and over does not make it any more true! Kind of like how the Bush regime was connecting Saddam to 9/11 at one point.
conqueror_of_Uranus at 11:30 PM JST - 31st March

John Walker Lindh.
conqueror_of_Uranus at 12:19 AM JST - 1st April

Nick Berg. How does a White American Jewish boy, meet a known terrorist on a college campus bus and hit it off so well that he decides to give said terrorist his laptop password and database access card. Nevermind that he was already under scrutiny fron the CIA for some shady "tourist trips" to the middle east. Just when the FBI is about to put him on the watchlist, he shows up in Iraq missing his head. Just forget it, no journalist bothered to check up on him, he was a "contractor". Swallow their meaning of life.
Taka313 at 12:59 PM JST - 1st April

Al-Qaida grooming militants who look western: CIA chief

I suppose this will end up in the CIA counter terrorism handbook: http://www.highlightskids.com/Stories/NonFiction/images/NF0900_headtotoeCowboy.jpg
kinniku at 05:05 PM JST - 1st April

The CIA has long hired "Muslim-looking" people to pose as Al-Qaida, so they simply expanded their range for recruitment.

Let's try to keep religion out of it, shall we? There is no such thing as someone being 'Muslim-looking' just as there is no such thing as someone being Buddhist, Catholic, Shinto, Hindu, Jewish (etc) looking. I know you put the term in quotes, but this point needs to be clarified.

As to the article, what is surprising? Of course the CIA (and most other countries' intelligence agencies as well)recruits Middle Eastern-looking people for work in the Middle East, Asian-looking people for work in Asia, African-looking people for work in Africa. So, it should not be a surprise that Al-Qaida would do the same thing. I assume no one would expect them to walk on a plane with an 'I love Al-Qaida' tee-shirt and a 'Bin Laden Fan Club' button pinned to their chests, right?