I am surprised that no one has mentioned the terrorist attacks in Kenya, believed to be the work of al-Qaeda. A car bomb attack was made on a hotel in Mombassa, almost simultaneously two missiles were fired at a plane taking off from Mombassa Airport, narrowly missing it. If the missiles had brought the plane down, and if the car bomb had gone off minutes earlier the resulting death toll would be in the hundreds.

You can read the story here, Israeli and American investigators have arrived in Kenya to assist with enquiries.

Would it be really cynical to suggest it might have something to do with the fact that no westerners (americans, brits, australians etc,) were killed .....

Hmm ...maybe. Speaking personally, it isn't that I don't care. I do care deeply about people of any nationality being blown up. It's just that I don't always feel the need to write about it.

I've heard about it here in France, quite extensive coverage in fact, seems as though they hit more Kenyan hotel personnel than they did Israeli tourists in fact, just as they did the last time. THey are aiming at the tourist industries of countries who cater to their "enemies" according to our reports in France. And also industrial targets such as the tanker they bombed outside of Yemen.
The BBC radio programme carried the attacks this morning as well.
I suppose you might find it a lame excuse, but most Americans were occupied with their national holiday, as lots of things are closed down, everyone travels...this is why many didn't comment I suppose. Not of course, if I follow your cynical drift and Westerners only care about their own.

Here in France we saw the film that Israeli passengers of the jet had done, while the missile narrowly missed them.

However, as TW said, we see it, we hear it and yet perhaps we don't always have a comment, not just because there aren't any of "our own" in it, but because we might not have the words!
If you did go along with the cynical argument, and well you might, then no one mentioned the incredibly sad Italian crisis with an entire school collapsing in an earthquake on a classfull of children killing them all, and all due to faulty construction and nefarious business deals according to some. I know it was carried in the British papers as I read them...I followed it here in my border town coverage as I get the Italian channels.
I think that perhaps no one had the words to describe the horror.

In fact, I'd wager that the Israeli bombings and Palestine has got to the point that it's very hard to know how to react at all...there seems to be no end.
But we had a similar thread in CI.

I particulary felt for the Kenyans just trying to find a decent job who they interviewed and they were wondering how on earth they'd manage to live without the tourism jobs. Of course the deaths touch me, but the aftermath of people employed in that industry who had relatively decent jobs, and now they don't.
Just additional damage to the world economy by the terrorist attacks that we didn't need.

There was extensive live coverage of these two events yesterday, and it was what I was watching for the three hours as I get ready for work.

About the two missiles just missing the Israeli plane, I was very relieved and also impressed with the pilot (who was interviewed) and the process and procedures followed. But I just shook my head and said, "Again?". Oh, no.

Then there was more coverage of the hotel bombing. And I thought, "Again?". Oh, no. And I watched and listened to the conjecture and for the arrest of suspects and whatever was to come.

I pay attention, and I care, and there was much coverage on this side of the pond. My lack of comment had nothing to do with the fact that there were no westerners involved. Sometimes I just get so saddened and/or frustrated at the almost daily horrors that I want to talk about something else in the forums because I don't know what to say.

I could say it's "horrible". I could say "what is going to be done to make sure this doesn't happen again to innocents". I could say "I hope we don't have to see an incident like this again."

But we will, and it's just plain sad.

Yes, I commend the pilot also. They were all very lucky indeed.

It seems the terrorists are striking very vunerable targets presently. The Australian government had to evacuate it's embassy in the Philippines this week. They received a fair amount of flak for the decision to evacuate and give in to terrorism. Based on the solid intelligence they had received that they would be targeted, the Aussie government said it was the responsible thing to do.

How's all this going to end. It's bloody frightening. It would be good if these suicide bombers would start taking practice runs on the training grounds.....

Very good idea Bertho! I think they should set up training grounds out in the middle of nowhere, and each suicide bomber should be required to take a minimum of 4 practice runs before being allowed to try their skills out on the rest of us. I suggest 4 practice runs in case the first one or two don't work out right and they survive.

I think we tend to ignore events in Africa in this Forum. For instance, the violence in Nigeria surrounding the Miss World pageant--in which over 200 people were killed--and which caused the pageant to be moved to London--was not mentioned here either.

http://www.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/africa/11/27/nigeria.fatwa/index.html

There are fierce religious conflicts between Christians and Muslims going on in Africa. In 2000 several thousand people were killed were killed in clashes and demonstrations. The recent Miss World situation again touched off religious conflicts.
This sort of atmosphere is conducive to promoting terrorist activity of all sorts. I think that if we ignore what is happening in Africa we are making a big mistake. It will wind up affecting everyone. It has already directly affected the U.S. with the bombing of our embassies. I think we have to be aware that Al Qaeda and other Muslim extremist groups are quite active in Africa.

The attacks in Kenya may signal a new move by Al Qaeda to directly target Israel and Israeli interests. Apparently a major strike against Israel was planned for last year, but was averted by intelligence information. Some believe that the 9/11 attack on the U.S. occurred because the Israeli plan had been foiled and the U.S. was a secondary option. If we go to war in Iraq I think we will see more such attempts to directly strike at Israel.

Apparently the use of these shoulder missiles--such as the one fired at the plane in Kenya--may be Al Qaeda's next weapon of choice. That's truly frightening. These weapons are inexpensive--they cost only about $1000--and there is no way of protecting planes from such attacks. Virtually every airport in the world could be very vulnerable to such attacks since single terrorists can easily hide on the ground surrounding an airport. Planes gain altitude slowly and, during takeoffs, it is fairly easy to strike a plane with such a missile. Everyone on board the plane would be killed. The missile fired in Kenya came within a foot or so of the plane--it was a very narrow miss.

The prospects are very frightening.

Apparently there was advance intelligence information about a possible attack in Kenya

http://www.cnn.com/2002/US/11/30/kenya.us.intelligence/index.html

Australian intelligence had info which it shared with it's allies.

Problem is, it's very difficult to know exactly what to do in the face of information which may not be all that specific.

That's terrible. I see this as an ongoing problem like yourself Chelseabelle. What do you listen to and what should be monitored and not passed on to the people. There is always going to be a grey area in this regard and I have no doubt that governments will get it wrong on occasions and people will die.

Government has a big responsibility on their hands on how they treat this 'intelligent information,' not wanting to create undue concern and give in to terrorism and still let people get on with their everyday activities. I think it's just something that we are all going to have to learn to live with. The times they are a changing.

I wonder if this intelligence was passed onto Israel by the Aussie government?