Posted on 05/07/2005 5:33:01 PM PDT by Gondring
Ooopppsss!
LOL
Yeah, that's Clintonesque, ain't it!?
Yeah, whatever, execute him--NEXT!
HOW IN THE HELL did we foul this up. It's one thing to think you have the wrong guy then figure it out but a whole other to ANNOUNCE IT TO THE WORLD AND LOOK LIKE IDIOTS. This makes the admin. look like the 3 stooges which I hope they are not.
It's also rediculious that it was announced to the world so shortly after the arrest that they didn't have time to figure it out. It's far better to get the ducks in a row and then announce it so that you scare the other terrorists into moving. Doesn't look like it was done here. Some political person probably wanted to rush the announcement just like they did with the cooperating computer guy in Pakistan which led to us missing other targets.
Not just Clintonesque unfortunatley. They also blew the lid on the Pakistani Al Qaeda computer guy who was cooperating in sting operations leading to everybody who was still talking to the guy to be tipped off.
I have to give USF credit, though... I was confused and wondering if this was a mixup with the guy on the wanted list, but figured it just couldn't be...til USF expressed the same misgivings.
I will have to say the jury is still out on this capture. This subject did have a notebook on him which he was reportedly trying desperately to destroy when he was taken into custody. He was also reportedly very agitated, and not expecting to be taken at all.
I remember clearly at the outset of the W.O.T. that President Bush statedthat from time to time there would be deliberately misleading information regarding the status of captured enemies, type and location of operations, and many other things.
I'm going to stay out on the same limb I have been on since just after 9/11 - believing that Bush was and is a man of actions, not just words, and that much of what he sketched out is actively being practised. Sun Tzu in his book "The Art of War" extolled the virtue and value of well calculated deceptions in gaining the upper hand in war.
Things like the plywood "tank" mock-ups strategically left where Nazi intel could see them in Northern Great Britain, and assume they knew the Allied plans was an invaluable ruse in the final days prior to the Allied "D-day" invasion, is just on modern example of that art.
I am in favor of sitting back, waiting, and letting the military, intel, and political leaders in charge continue to run that aspect of things as they have - allowing that they have adjusted on the fly.
A.A.C.
How reliable is This story?
"I wonder if the higher-ups realized that this wasn't the same dude, but didn't want to squash the good press. "
Absolutley no way. They had the President come out to praise this. If they knew no way he would have made a statement. It makes him look like a fool.
I am anxious to check out the other threads linked above, but you made a terrific post here......
Well, Pakistan had a personal interest in taking down this guy, and with all the heat that's been flowing in claiming that they aren't helping us enough, I'm sure it was tempting to just ride this wave...and it would be tough to speak out and say, "the Pakistanis are wrong...this guy isn't that important"...
But the wanted list comment was just plain ludicrous.
I agree with you, AAC.
Oh gosh, Gondring.
Your thread shames us.
We will now go and commit mass suicide because The Times says the perp was only a mid-level operative.
What exactly is it about this article has put you into a state of hysterical finger-pinging?
Some French guy has tried to do a number on the Bush Administration and you are jumping for joy?
Some perspective is needed here, don't you think?
Well, you can look into the profiles of the two men, and I checked them out immediately after the capture announcement, before this "mistaken identity" story came out, so it's true that he wasn't on the wanted list even.
You'll also hear stories on FR that contradict the reports in the media, such as "he was singing like a birdie" versus "he didn't say anything--even truth serum hasn't revealed anything"....so I do take it all with a grain of salt.
>>>>According to European intelligence experts, however, Abu Faraj al-Libbi was not the terrorists’ third in command, as claimed, but a middle-ranker derided by one source as “among the flotsam and jetsam” of the organisation.
That is it. No one knows what they are doing. Pack up and come home. This now stopped terrorist had the wrong rank.
All should bow their heads in shame!
::feeling a bit sarcastic this evening::
Mohammed Shehzad is the premier Pakistani reporter on jihadist groups. My firm and many think-tanks and security firm dealing with South Asia in Washington and in the West pay this guy mucho dinero to get weekly/monthly customized updates on jihadist activity in Pakistan and Al Qaeda related tidbits.
Quite credible IMHO.
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