WALTER LAQUEUR
337
The enemy was not just Washington, but the American people in its
majority, because they were either too stupid or too lazy to share Nazi
ideas. The primary loyalty of these people was no longer to their coun–
try (which was no longer theirs), certainly not to places like Washington
and New York. All this would be of limited interest except for the fact
that some neo-Nazis have been dabbling in terrorism. In their book–
shops they sell things such as the
Militiaman's Handbook
and hand–
books by pseudonymous authors such as "Macaba," and some of them
have been trying to obtain biological agents and chemical poisons. This
opens perturbing perspectives on homeland defense against future ter–
rorist attacks, at a time when such attacks can be carried out by very
small groups of people. The publications of these circles are neither in
Arabic nor in Pushtu, and there is a distinct paper trail. The question is
whether anyone is paying attention, even though it may amount to
group profiling and a violation of human rights.
The European extreme Right and the neo-Nazis reacted similarly.
Horst Mahler, once upon a time a pillar of Baader-Meinhof, today the
most prominent spokesman of the German extreme Right, congratu–
lated the terrorists and expressed solidarity. So did the Russian neo-fas–
cists-they believed it served the Americans right for having brought
about the downfall of the Soviet Union, for interfering in Chechnya, Ser–
bia, and Central Asia. A few European neo-Nazis came out in favor of
neutralism-let imperialist America and the crazy Arabs fight it out
somewhere. But the consensus of the overwhelming majority of neo–
Nazis from Sweden to Italy was solidarity with the terrorists.
Why has so little attention been paid to the reaction of the extreme
Right and the neo-fascists? They have little access to the mass media, to be
sure, and their numbers are not that great (nor are they as small as often
believed). But in the age of easy access to weapons of mass destruction,
large armies are not needed to launch deadly attacks. Could it be that there
is an uncomfortable resemblance between anti-globalization, anti–
Americanism, and anti-Zionism? The Italian Red Brigades also welcomed
the attacks. In a long ptogrammatic statement published a day after their
murder of a Labour Ministry official they warmly welcomed September
I!.
If
one were to delete certain words such as "armed struggle," "revo–
lutionary strategy," and "permanent offensive," this could have been writ–
ten by someone on the extreme Right or even one of the jihadists.
What follows from all this? At the very least someone ought to care–
fully read certain literatures even if they cannot be ordered through Ama–
zon.com or Barnes&Noble.com. They were overlooked before September
I I,
and the price was paid.
