Al Qaeda and the Disruption of Global Commerce

When the latest bomb plot involving cargo planes from Yemen first came up, I said to my wife, "Hmm. That doesn't sound like al Qaeda." Why?

Al Qaeda's targets have had two characteristics: they are either state/military targets or what could be called commerce-disruptive targets. That is, they either attack the state apparatus of the nations they dislike directly (as in, the USS Cole, the Embassy bombings, or the Pentagon), or they attack indirectly by disrupting flows of commerce (London and Madrid bombings, WTC, etc.). But two Jewish Community Centers? That doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

But the characterizations of the attempt appearing in Monday's New York Times starts to make more sense. The attempt, experts are beginning to claim, wasn't on the Jewish Centers at all, but on the cargo planes - and, by extension, the cargo system - itself. If they're seeking to slow down flows of imports by attacking cargo planes, then the attempt is directly in line with what al Qaeda generally tries to do. The brilliance of this particular plot is that it's a "no lose" proposition. If their goal is to be disruptive of the global flows of goods, then it doesn't much matter if the plot is successful or unsuccessful - either way, the processes involved in those flows will have to be examined and adjusted, and, for the most part, slowed.

The nasty little fact - and we can remember when this was an issue for the Kerry campaign - is that global capitalism trumps national security when it comes to the global flows of commodities. Cargo is not checked at anything near the level of passengers; indeed, despite some flailing moves at ramping up cargo security, it doesn't appear to be very secure at all. Goods must move. That is the imperative of the globalized capitalist economy; anything that slows down or disrupts global flows of goods (and particularly imports into the capitalist consumption centers in Europe and the US) is poison to the system. But the system itself, now configured as a global just-in-time economy, cannot slow down enough to check for that poison.

psychopaths al Qaeda has diminished the world one more time.

So I think you make an excellent point.