Alerts

The terrorist threats which have pushed the American-led Westerners to evacuate several embassies in the Middle East and Africa, in particular Yemen, cannot be taken lightly. History is full of attacks which could have been thwarted but were not for various reasons (e.g. lack of vigilance, interdepartmental wrangling and wrong interpretation of data). Caution is obviously essential. However, we can also ask ourselves who benefits the most from these alerts. Al-Qaida, which is said to be losing momentum and which has found a cheap means of existing? Or the Americans, who were accused by Edward Snowden of spying on the entire world and see the alerts as a way of justifying their surveillance systems? One thing is for sure: These threats are taking place just when American drone attacks are intensifying in Yemen. Including yesterday’s attack, which wiped out seven al-Qaida militants, these offensives have killed a total of 24 people in the Sana’a region since July 28. If it is legitimate to want to incapacitate jihadists who are prepared to do absolutely anything, the drone is the worst weapon there is. Piloted from the comfort of bases in Virginia, they kill without judgement or warning in the style of extrajudicial executions. And yet, as the philosopher Grégoire Chamayou explained recently on our pages, “by imposing indiscriminate terror, paradoxically the drones are feeding the threat which we are claiming to eradicate.” We can therefore wonder about Obama’s anti-terrorist doctrine, of which the drone is the instrument par excellence. Yes, he has won on one point: This pilotless plane means that it is possible to kill rather than capture. A handy way of not repopulating Guantanamo.