Monday, July 11, 2005

Who's Minding the U.S. Universities?

The blogosphere is aroil with articles about the July 7, 2005 London bombings. This day of atrocity happened "across the pond," but signs points to the strong possibility that another 9/11 will happen here in the United States.

According to the following excerpts from an article in the U.K.'s Times Online, univerisites are fertile ground for the recruitment of terrorists:

"AL-QAEDA is secretly recruiting affluent, middle-class Muslims in British universities and colleges to carry out terrorist attacks in this country, leaked Whitehall documents reveal.

"A network of 'extremist recruiters' is circulating on campuses targeting people with 'technical and professional qualifications', particularly engineering and IT degrees....

"Most of the Al-Qaeda recruits tend to be loners 'attracted to university clubs based on ethnicity or religion' because of 'disillusionment with their current existence'. British-based terrorists are made up of different ethnic groups, according to the documents.

“They range from foreign nationals now naturalised and resident in the UK, arriving mainly from north Africa and the Middle East, to second and third generation British citizens whose forebears mainly originate from Pakistan or Kashmir.

“In addition . . . a significant number come from liberal, non-religious Muslim backgrounds or (are) only converted to Islam in adulthood. These converts include white British nationals and those of West Indian extraction.”...

"The former Scotland Yard chief, who retired earlier this year, said that on one weekend more than 1,000 undercover officers had been deployed, monitoring a group of suspected terrorists. He said that he believed last week’s attackers were almost certainly British-born, 'brought up here and totally aware of British life and values'.

“'There’s a sufficient number of people in this country willing to be Islamic terrorists that they don’t have to be drafted in from abroad,' he said."

Take the above excerpts and selectively substitute American for British. Then think about all the universities in the D.C. Metro area.

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