IRAQ

Asia Times: Looking faceless terror in the eye

HONG KONG - Almost before the debris from Tuesday's blast at the United Nations' headquarters in Baghdad had finished falling from the sky, some were blaming it on al-Qaeda. This is the face of faceless terrorism today: whenever a bomb goes off anywhere in the world, images of turbaned clerics appear almost instantly.

And al-Qaeda is not alone in the fraternity of facelessness. Be it Jemaah Islamiya, the now disbanded Laskar Jihad, or the Kumpulan Mujahidden Malaysia, there seems to be a label to go along with any brand of terror.

The fact is, the "enemy" in the "war on terror" is faceless when it needs to be, but when a label or identity suits the current purposes of government, one is quickly found.

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