al-Qaeda and the UN

Articles: The New York Times and CNN

The articles above report about a 90-minute clip released by the second-in-command of al-Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahiri, defending the suicide bombings of UN offices in Algiers. It reminded me of Tuesday's lecture on just war theory, especially in regards to the shifting international environment, where the validity of the standards being applied to state actors is being called into question in light of the increased importance of non-state actors.

However, at least in this particular case, al-Qaeda seems intent on presenting its efforts in a traditionally legitimate sense. For example, al-Zawahiri accuses the UN of taking away Muslim territory through the creation of Israel and other means (righting a wrong). He then claims that they have never taken an innocent life (discrimination). As he is quoted in the article, any killing of innocents was due to "'unintentional error'" (necessity/utility).

As a tie-in to the terrorism lecture/reading, al-Zawahiri also shifts the blame for deaths in the conflict to al-Qaeda's opponents. This reflects the idea presented by Hoffman that terrorists will never identify themselves as terrorists--that in fact "terrorist" is often a relative term to be applied to one's enemies.

This is taken even further by al-Qaeda's openly-declared antagonism against the "collective authority" of the UN. This suggests that despite whatever pretty words and "just" reasons they may give, al-Qaeda recognizes no higher authority than its own judgments. While the ideas of a "just war" can be used in theory to determine whether it is right for a war to be fought or not, those same justifications can often be reduced to mere propaganda. This is how I see the case with al-Qaeda to be, although there is always the possibility of severe self-delusion. (The implication that enemies of al-Qaeda hide among Muslims only to use them as "'human shields'" gives credence to this, and I'm being at least half-serious.)