The war on terrorism

[Shapley]

Asia Times: NATO Politics Driving Afghan War

I've said before that NATO is a organization in search of a purpose. It's justification for existence ended with the collapse of the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact but, like most such agencies, it just couldn't pull itself to disband.

[Haggis@wk]

A new report "by a team of journalists working at Georgetown University" presents new evidence that al Qaeda detainee Khalid Sheikh Mohammad personally decapitated Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, as he confessed in 2007. The New York Times reports. The Times quotes from the report's explanation of why some had doubted KSM's confession:

K.S.M.'s culpability was not a sure thing to everyone. His possible role had surfaced in a Jan. 26, 2003, Time magazine story when reporters identified K.S.M. as the man wielding the knife, citing Pakistani police interrogation of a guard, Fazal Karim. Still, could the confession of a top terrorist be believed or was he just eager to boost his own importance by claiming responsibility for a string of high-profile terrorist acts? Further, there was the issue of whether a confession extracted from waterboarding was reliable. Experts say that someone subject to torture will say anything to make it stop.

Here is what KSM actually said: "I decapitated with my blessed right hand the head of the American Jew, Daniel Pearl, in the city of Karachi, Pakistan." For sure, that could be a false boast. But does it really sound to anyone like the kind of thing you'd say if you were being "tortured" and were desperate for it to stop?

[jamiebk]

The woman, dubbed "The Black Widow," who authorities suspect was part of the same militant group that killed 35 people at Moscow's Domodedovo airport on Monday, was at a house preparing for the attack, which would have occurred on New Year's Eve at Red Square. Instead, the woman's mobile phone, which served as the device's detonator, was activated hours early by a spam message wishing her a happy new year. She was killed, while a man and woman also in the house and suspected of being accomplices, escaped.

http://technolog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/20 ... s-hundreds



Maybe that's all we need to do....SPAM them to death!

[Haggis@wk]

Maybe that's all we need to do....SPAM them to death!

Hmmm, this sounds like a job for NSA. identify all the mobile phones in say Afghanistan or Pakistan and them randomly call them every few days.......I am aware that there have been some efforts to create a moblie device to scramble phones for military convoys but rumor has it that the range isn't good enough yet.

[Haggis@wk]

DOJ Memo Confirms Terrorists Have Crossed the Border.

The Mexican border with the U.S., that is.

Like a recent credible death threat against Sarah Palin, if it doesn’t fit the MSM meme you won’t see it reported.

[Shapley]

Holder on KSM Trial: I Know Better Than Congress

"Unfortunately, since I made that decision, Members of Congress have intervened and imposed restrictions blocking the administration from bringing any Guantanamo detainees to trial in the United States, regardless of the venue. As the President has said, those unwise and unwarranted restrictions undermine our counterterrorism efforts and could harm our national security. Decisions about who, where and how to prosecute have always been – and must remain – the responsibility of the executive branch. Members of Congress simply do not have access to the evidence and other information necessary to make prosecution judgments. Yet they have taken one of the nation’s most tested counterterrorism tools off the table and tied our hands in a way that could have serious ramifications. We will continue to seek to repeal those restrictions."

[Trumpetmaster]

US forces kill Osama bin Laden in Pakistan

After 10 long years of searching.... U.S. Troops finally found him and served justice to all those who passed on 9/11 as well as all
other attacks around the world over the years.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42852700/ns ... ?gt1=43001

[Shapley]

That is very good news. I've never believed the war should be about revenge but, since bin Laden had continued to be the face and voice of terrorists, he remained a legitimate target throughout the war. Mission Accomplished.

[Haggis@wk]

I think burial at sea was an incredibly bad decision. Making his body disappear was a deadly blunder that plays straight into the hero myth. Does anyone seriously think that a DNA pronouncement will convince the fever swamps of Islamic extremism?

[Selma in Sandy Eggo]

Concur regarding the stupidity of the burial-at-sea. Me, I think the SEALs would've rather mounted his head on a stick and displayed it at some suitable venue. Ground Zero, the Pentagon strike site, that Pennsylvania field, or maybe their Silver Strand main gate.

On which subject, gate security has been tightened here at NORIS - probably everywhere - and the traffic is reportedly epic. I was ahead of it, as I arrive early because of the cutthroat competition for the few handicap parking spaces by my building. I imagine it's worse at the amphib base.

[Haggis@wk]

Concur regarding the stupidity of the burial-at-sea. Me, I think the SEALs would've rather mounted his head on a stick and displayed it at some suitable venue. Ground Zero, the Pentagon strike site, that Pennsylvania field, or maybe their Silver Strand main gate.

Oh yeah, the DUDE who capped bin Laden will never be ‘one-upped’ anytime he’s in a group of special operators swapping war stories.

[Haggis@wk]

It’s very gratifying to know that Bin Laden spent 10 long years hiding and that, when the moment of truth came, he had to look American SEALs in the eye. It’s better than a happy ending. It’s a just one.

Whether it was Orwell, Kipling, or Churchill who said, “We sleep safe in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would do us harm,” the quote applies to SEALs. It’s appropriate that the last thing bin Laden saw was a rough man with an MP-5.

Al Jazeera is reporting that the intial objective was to take him alive. I'm not sure that would have been a good idea.

[Haggis@wk]

A round-up of the nation’s headlines:

The New York Times: “Bin Laden killed by U.S. forces in Pakistan, Obama says, declaring justice has been done.”

The Washington Post: “U.S. forces kill Osama bin Laden; Obama:‘Justice has been done’”

The Boston Globe: “Bin Laden dead.”

The L.A. Times: “U.S. kills bin Laden”

The New York Post: “Got him! Vengeance at last! US nails the bastard”

The New York Daily News: “Rot in hell!” (And there’s this: “Osama Bin Laden, Adolf Hitler both declared dead on May 1.”

The Guardian: “Osama bin Laden killed in US raid on Pakistan hideout”

The (London) Times: “Bin Laden killed by US special forces”

Der Spiegel: “US Forces Kill Osama bin Laden”

The Jerusalem Post: “Hamas: bin Laden death ‘assassination’ of ‘a holy warrior’”

Al Jazeera: “Osama bin Laden killed in Pakistan.”

Arab News (of Saudi Arabia): “Osama Bin Laden killed in raid.”

[piqaboo]

Burial at sea feeds right into all the conspiracy theorists. If folks still think Obama is not a US citizen, why would they believe that OBL was offed?
I concur that it was a bad decision.

[Haggis@wk]

Why you need to check those security settings on Facebook:




BWAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!

[BigJon]

Oh yeah, the DUDE who capped bin Laden will never be ‘one-upped’ anytime he’s in a group of special operators swapping war stories.

What makes you so sure it was one dude? I think the phrase "hail of bullets" was probably written for this occasion. Good riddance!

[Haggis@wk]

[quote="BigJon" What makes you so sure it was one dude? I think the phrase "hail of bullets" was probably written for this occasion. Good riddance![/quote]


Well, the report I read said he was killed by "a double tap to the head" which implies the person doing the double tap reported it as such.

[Giant Communist Robot]

Financial Times is reporting a large number of computers, USB drives and other equipment was collected from Bin Laden's hideout.

Ten years is a long time--if they had just said he owed taxes the IRS would have found him in no time.

[dai bread]

My newspaper says 2 bullets to the head and one to the chest just to make sure.

The place for his head on a stick is either Pakistan or Afghanistan; preferably Afghanistan. They understand such things there.

For me, bin Laden's death is a matter of quiet satisfaction. Justice took a while, but it got there, and I've never seen the point of war crimes trials. Has anyone ever been found not guilty?

As most commentators have said, bL hasn't done much for years. Not since Tora Bora really. He was yesterday's man.

[Shapley]

The British and others used to divide up the bodies of rebels and other miscreants, such as William Wallace, and scatter their remains so that they could not be claimed by followers, who would rally 'round their corpses. Methinks burial at sea will serve the same purpose, while maintaining the dignity due a corpse. Once he was dead, there was no logical reason to indignify him. We're not barbarians.

It is said that William Wallace and his men butchered Sir Hugh de Cressingham at the Battle of Stirling Bridge, and William Wallace had the hilt of his sword wrapped in a strip of skin peeled from his backside. Whether true or not, this act of indignity heaped upon a corpse was seen as an unforgivable act of barbarism by the English.