Schmoozing With Terrorists: From Hollywood to the Holy Land, Jihadists Reveal Their Global Plans-To a Jew!

by Aaron Klein

  "A cease fire was imposed after heavy fighting. If Syria does the same thing, if we wage a war against Israel, we'll get the Golan back in the cease fire," said the Baath official.

  To that effect, he explained to us elements in Syria formed a new guerilla group, the Committees for the Liberation of the Golan Heights, which he said will initiate Hezbollah-like attacks against Israel in hopes of eventually provoking a conflict or generating leftist domestic Israeli pressure for Israel to vacate the Golan.

  Syria is completely state-controlled. It quickly squashes any major opposition. No terror group can possibly be formed there without the sanctioning of the government. Indeed, I was told if I wanted to interview the overall leader of the new Committees, who resides in Damascus, I'd have to first be approved by the Syrian government.

  After we finished our tea, the official hopped in my now crowded car and escorted us on a tour of the Golan. Only this wasn't your ordinary sightseeing tour. We were brought to particular areas the official told us were possible points at which the Committees may initiate attacks.

  He directed us to the very top of the Golan, to a strategic outlook center at which one can see deep inside Syria, Lebanon, and Israel.

  "You see that Jewish community down there?" the official asked, pointing in the direction of a visible Jewish town. "It's one of several that we can infiltrate and attack."

  The official said there are multiple points of vulnerability along the Syria-Israel border that can be exploited. A lot of the Golan is situated much higher than Syria, but some sections are at level.

  According to the official, the Committees is training for attacks in Syria.

  "We know from history guerilla resistance works against Israel," said the official.

  Syria accepted a United Nations ceasefire in October 1973, it waged a sporadic guerilla campaign against Israeli troops in the Golan until a disengagement agreement was reached March 31, 1974, that saw Israel withdraw from some sections of the territory.

  "War is coming," said the Baath official. "It's inevitable."

  The Baath official said Damascus is preparing for a larger war with the Jewish state in the "very near future."

  "More and more of our units have undergone intensive trainings starting at 6 a.m. and finishing late into the evening. If the need arises, we are ready for a war," said the official.

  The official said Syria "learned from the Hezbollah experience last summer and we can have hundreds of missiles hitting Tel Aviv that will overwhelm Israel's anti-missile batteries."

  Whether the Committees for the Liberation of the Golan Heights launches attacks, whether Syria provokes Israel into war, these players are part of a larger picture that greatly affects the U.S. and could potentially drastically change the landscape of the Middle East and the larger geopolitical map.

  If one takes a step back, if one observes the momentum in the Middle East, particularly coming from Iran's proxies in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, the West Bank and Gaza, and from Iran itself, the picture that is painted is one of a region inching closer to a possible major confrontation with the West.

  According to security officials, politicians and even militant leaders I spoke to-including senior terrorists backed by Iranwar may be around the corner.

  And if we want to win, if we want to be victorious in Iraq and in the greater war on terror, there are certain lessons the terrorists taught to me that we must quickly incorporate into our battle plan. Here are a few important ones:

  Lesson #1: Cease fires: 'chance to reload'

  In a briefing with reporters in May, 2007, Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno, one of the top American commanders in Iraq, announced that U.S. commanders at all levels are being empowered to reach out for truce talks with Iraqi insurgents, militants, tribes, thieves, religious leaders and sectarian rivals in a bid to end attacks against our troops.

  "We are talking about cease-fires and maybe signing some things that say they won't conduct operations against the government of Iraq or against coalition forces," Odierno told reporters in a video conference from Baghdad.

  "[Iraqi] Prime Minister Maliki and the government of Iraq have to continue to reach out to all these groups... bringing these groups into the political process so we can deal with their differences in a peaceful way instead of in violent ways," Odierno said.

  The belief terrorists are interested in cease fires is commonly held by the West. Top senators and congressmen regularly urge truce talks with Iraqi insurgents, terror groups and the world's top state sponsors of terrorism. Some members of the European Union believe Hamas, which seeks the destruction of Israel, is interested in serious negotiations and in moderation. France recently invited the Lebanese Hezbollah terror group to join in the political discourse with regard to the future of Lebanon.

  I asked the terrorists what they thought of the concept of a truce in which one side agrees to cease hostilities and anti-terror operations in exchange for an end to terrorism.

  The militant leaders were overjoyed when they heard Od- ierno's announcement of American willingness to reach a cease fire in Iraq: Muhammad Abdel-Al, spokesman and a leader of the Popular Resistance Committees terror group, called truce talks with insurgents "a big victory for the resistance."

  "Americans are recognizing the resistance, the same resistance that they before called terrorism; now they are dealing with these groups, and this (Odierno announcement) is the recognition of the Iraqi resistance and recognition by the Americans of their own losses in Iraq," said Abdel-Al.

  "This [talk of a cease fire] is a great achievement for the resistance in Iraq and this achievement will be complimented by more and more dead American soldiers they will carry in coffins to the U.S.," Abdel-Al said.

  Nasser Abu Aziz, the deputy commander of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades in the northern West Bank, said talks with Iraqi militants "shows America is recognizing its failure in Iraq and that the invasion of Iraq was judged by Allah to be a failure. This is a great victory for the resistance."

  Abu Abdullah, a leader of Hamas's so-called military wing in the Gaza Strip, said the negotiation of a cease-fire in Iraq "is proof that Iraq will be the end of America."

  "The Americans didn't achieve anything with this invasion but to bring about their downfall."

  Abu Abdullah said violence in Iraq will continue regardless of a cease-fire.

  "Of course the resistance will continue," he said.

  Still, according to the terrorists, a cease fire has great value. They explained to me Islam doesn't believe in cease fires. The Arabic word for truce is hudna, which in the Quran is a temporary respite to prepare for the continuation of attacks so the enemy can be destroyed.

  The terrorists told me a truce with a non-Muslim enemy can extend up to ten years, but usually no more, and that in the end the enemy must be defeated.

  In the Quran, the terrorists explained, Muhammad in the seventh century agreed to a famous cease fire-the Truce of Hudaybiyah -with the attacking Quraysh tribe of Mecca for ten years.

  Hudaybiyah is a small oasis between Mecca and Medina where Muhammad fought a battle in the early years of Islam. When he saw he was losing, Muhammad signed a strategic tenyear peace agreement with the Quraish tribe living in Mecca. Two years later, when his forces were stronger and the Meccans were living securely and off their guard, Muhammad marched into the city and captured it.

  The terrorists explained in Islam there is a principle known as Takiya, the right to "fake" peace when you are weak for the purposes of defeating your enemy when you are stronger.

  This religious doctrine is applied all the time by our enemies.

  In November 2006, for example, Israel agreed to a cease-fire with terrorists in the Gaza Strip. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert an nounced the cessation of all Israeli military operation in Gaza in exchange for vows of quiet from terror groups. The terror leaders were overjoyed. They needed a brief respite from Israeli ops. They told me they would use the time off to smuggle weapons; reinforce and train "figh
ters;" and produce rockets, mortars and all kinds of munitions for a future confrontation.

  "The cease-fire offers a period of calm for our fighters to recover and prepare for our final goal of evacuating Palestine," said the Committees's Abdel-Al.

  "We will keep fighting [Israel], but for the moment we will postpone certain parts of the military struggle. We will reinforce very quickly and rush what we are doing to prepare [for attacks]."

  Hamas' Abu Abdullah said his terror group agreed to the cease-fire "because we need a period of calm to recuperate. This lull in fighting will not bring us to speak about peace."

  Abu Luay, a leader of Islamic Jihad in Gaza, told me his terror group's attacks against Israel would resume "at a time of our choosing."

  Indeed, it has resumed with a vengeance.

  Lesson #2: Unilateral withdrawal means victory for terror. Evacuated territory will be used to attack you.

  "The jihadists [are] in Iraq. But that doesn't mean we stay there. They'll stay there as long as we're there," said then-House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi in a 2006 60 Minutes interview.

  Sen. John F. Kerry and many of his colleagues in 2007 called for the withdrawal of twenty thousand troops from Iraq before year's end and a timetable for a complete retreat from the territory, stating an evacuation would enhance U.S. security. And why not? Al-Qaida constantly states one of its main gripes is the U.S. occupation of Iraq, even though the terror group repeatedly attacked us long before Baghdad was a glimmer in George W. Bush's eye; even though the invasion of Iraq was in stated response to the global jihad group's mega-terror attacks on September 11.

  Reacting to the withdrawal talk, Muhammad Saadi, a senior leader of Islamic Jihad in the northern West Bank town of Jenin, said calls for an American evacuation from Iraq makes him feel "proud."

  "As Arabs and Muslims we feel proud of this talk. Very proud from the great successes of the Iraqi resistance. This success that brought the big superpower of the world to discuss a possible withdrawal."

  I asked Saadi whether a unilateral withdrawal from Iraq would end worldwide terrorism. Laughing, he responded, "There is no chance that the resistance will stop."

  He said an American withdrawal from Iraq would "prove the resistance is the most important tool and that this tool works. The victory of the Iraqi revolution will mark an important step in the history of the region and in the attitude regarding the United States."

  Former Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades chieftain in Bethlehem Jihad Jaara said an American withdrawal from Iraq would "mark the beginning of the collapse of this tyrant empire [America]."

  For anyone believing unilateral pullouts work, take a long look at the Gaza Strip. Prior to Israel's historic evacuation of Gaza in August 2005, terror leaders there announced their groups would build armies in Gaza and use the territory to attack Israel and further their goal of destroying the Jewish state.

  Still, Israel retreated. Boasting of victory, Hamas was immediately elected to power and now launches regular rocket attacks against nearby Jewish population centers. Palestinian groups reportedly smuggled hundreds of tons of weaponry into Gaza, formed advanced armies, built military fortifications, and now are poised to launch a major confrontation with Israel.

  Most of the terrorists I talked to were convinced the U.S. would shortly pull out of Iraq.

  Ramadan Adassi, leader of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades in the Asqar refugee camp in the West Bank, commented, "The Americans are losing and they will keep losing and very soon will be compelled to retreat. We can see that America failed at imposing its hegemony in Iraq."

  Abu Mosaab, a commander of Islamic Jihad's Al Quds Brigades in the West Bank, said, "At the end of the day, the U.S. will leave and the Islamic resistance will win. It is very obvious that this is happening now and will be accelerated in the coming months."

  Lesson #3: Rename the "war on terror"

  Okay, so the terrorists say cease-fires don't work and withdrawals will be used to further war. How then can we defeat terrorism? I actually asked the terrorists to explain how we can destroy them. They pointed out something I believe we must take into account.

  Speaking to a panel of terror leaders assembled for this book, I petitioned each individually: "I know that this is crazy to ask you, but let's say our goal is the destruction of al-Qaida and all groups like it. How should America beat al-Qaida? How should we beat them militarily? Give us advice. How can we win our war on terror?"

  Hamas's Abu Abdullah responded, "About your so-called war on terrorism, how can you fight an idea? Of course your government is the biggest terrorist gang in the world, Israel is the second, and Great Britain is the third. But if you insist on calling us terrorists and waging a war against us, then say so. Don't be cowards and say you are fighting an idea."

  Islamic Jihad's Abu Mosaab agreed: "What you Americans are stupid about and don't understand is that you can't fight a military war on your stupid term terrorism. It's impossible."

  Continued Mosaab: "Anyway, you are fighting Al Qaida, which represents Allah's will. You fight for your own materialistic reasons. But Al-Qaida and insurgents and the Palestinian resistance is fighting for Allah and is looking to die, to be killed as a shaheed. How can you use your military might to defeat somebody that goes out from a hole, launches a mortar against a tank, and disappears among millions? Don't you see, we won't stop fighting until victory."

  Al Aqsa's Adassi said much the same thing.

  "After we put aside that you are the terrorists and we are resistance movements leading a legitimate religious war that will not accept any compromise, I must say how foolish it is of Bush to launch a war against something called terror," said Adassi.

  Lesson #4: Islamic terror groups share the same goal

  Terrorism in Israel is different from terrorism in London or New York. Terrorists in Iraq have a completely different agenda from those bombing Lebanon or Egypt or Jordan. Sunni terror and Shiah terror are totally different.

  I cannot tell you the number of times I've heard these arguments from American columnists, television news panelists, politicians, so-called terror experts, or even some of my friends. There is a predominant belief that terrorism is regional and that various terror groups don't share the same goals.

  The terrorists scoffed at this argument.

  "It's really ridiculous," Islamic Jihad's Abu Mosaab told me. "Yes, we all need to fight the jihad locally. Yes, there is Shia Hezbollah and Sunni Hamas. My goal for now is to liberate Palestine. In Iraq, the mujaheedeen [fighters] must rid the region of American occupation. There is the fight against traitor governments, like Egypt and Saudi Arabia, but it's the same fight. The defeat of the anti-Muslim world."

  "We are in World War Three," he said. "The Americans are doing everything to prevent Islam to emerge as the world superpower and you are carrying out a policy of injustice against Muslims. But there is one basic fact and that is all groups have the same goal and we know that Allah will bring victory to the believers, and I am telling you that you are fighting Allah, not Islam. And Allah is invincible."

  Al Aqsa Brigades leader Adassi said "there is one fight for all Islamic resistance and that is the fight for Islamic rule and all the signs prove that we are going towards a comprehensive confrontation."

  Adassi warned, "For the moment, the Americans are enjoying the fact that only a minority of fighters are fighting them, but this is changing, and once the change is deep and the Muslims will wake up from their indifference, the victory will no doubt be to Islam and the defeat to the U.S. and its allies. This is a world war."

  Meir Amit, legendary former director of Israel's Mossad intelligence agency, is one of the few major analysts to acknowledge the state of affairs of which the terrorists say they are extremely aware.

  "We are on the eve of war with the Islamic world, which will wage a war and all kinds of actions and attacks against the Western world. We already noticed the terrorists in the world hit Spain, England, France. I call it World War III. You mu
st look at it from this angle and treat it wider, not as a problem of terrorism here and there," Amit told me during a radio interview.

  The former intelligence chief, who directed some of the most notorious Mossad operations of the 1960s and pioneered many of the tactics currently used by intelligence agencies worldwide, referenced recent terror attacks against Israel, Europe, and the United States; Iran's alleged nuclear ambitions; the insurgency in Iraq and Afghanistan; and worldwide Muslim riots.

  "It looks to me like it is a kind of coordinated or contemplated problem to somehow impose the Islamic idea all over the world," Amit said.

  Lesson #5: Land-for-peace formula is really a terrorist rouse

  "The illegal Israeli occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem is the basis for the entire conflict. Once a peace agreement is signed and Israel gets out of our land, there will be peace," said a Palestinian official during a live segment on the Al Jazeera television network for which I was a guest commentator.

  On air, I retorted Israel didn't recapture the West Bank or eastern sections of Jerusalem until the 1967 Six Day War, when Arab countries used those territories to launch an invasion into the Jewish state. Arab nations were initiating wars against Israel long before the West Bank and eastern Jerusalem fell into the Jewish state's hands. It's ridiculous to claim the basis of the Arab gripe with Israel is about particular pieces of territory.

  I explained that when Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad states he wants to wipe Israel off the map, he doesn't single out any specific land but talks of the entire Jewish state. I explained how the Oslo Accords, in which Israel gave PLO Leader Yasser Arafat a fiefdom within rocket range of Israeli cities in ex change for promises of peace was an obvious total failure. Arafat used the territory gained to launch his intifada aimed at liberating Palestine by force.