Carlos

Watched this 6 hour movie at the Egyptian on Saturday about the famous Venezuelan terrorist from the 70s known as Carlos "the Jackel." I enjoyed the experience overall as a sort of anti-Avatar epic. Plus, I'm a sucker for political intrigue, terrorism, spy, kind of stuff. The biggest takeaway from a subject matter standpoint was how much these terrorist organizations were puppets in the greater Cold War. They were tools of various organizations - radical offshoots of the PLO, the Syrians, later the Iraqis, who in turn were being used by the Russians to counter-balance American and Israeli power. The best sequence was an airline hijacking gone awry when his state supporters abandon him and the Saudis use their diplomatic muscle to force Carlos to "sell out." It really goes to show how terrorist organizations need sponsorship - a place to kick back and relax and plan. A way to eat and get weapons. A way to meet and train with like minded people.

It still surprises me that we can't roll up Al Queda. It means they still have supporters and sponsors. What I don't understand is how we don't know who these supporters and sponsors are. Why they aren't named. We know tens of millions of dollars from Saudi Arabia go to training these dudes in camps in Afghanistan and Pakistan. How can we not figure out a way to stop it?

It has to do with leverage. Clearly, the spy services all over the Middle East and Muslim world have ties and are linked with these terrorist organizations. They don't always have full control, but they know what is going on. And they don't a reason to roll them up, only to keep them in a box, and unleash them "just in case."

Call me paranoid, but some of these fuck-faces we call allies knew about 9/11 and kept their mouths shut. Or looked the other way. Or, I suppose it is possible, they tried to warn us, but we ignored them or didn't have a way for the information to get to the right places. It is pretty impossible to believe that a terrorist organization can operate without some state support or at the very least, states choosing to ignore.