Well, this is a good sign. We're operating within Pakistan's borders now (like, above-board). Eeeeexcellent. The noose is tightening around ol' OBL.
I think Pakistan will be better off for this action in the long run, however.
President Pervez Musharraf IS a true believer in the war on terror, but many of the senior officers and even the rank-and-file in his armed forces have loyalties to the terrorists. Joint operations are ALWAYS just a little too late, due to advanced warnings. Therefore, the US does what it must and the Pakistani Government officially complains about it.
Good timing. I am certain he had another late night dinner to go to.
We're to the point of reading Zawahiri's social calendar . . .
Take the baklava, leave the high explosives.
I wish they had waited just a little longer and gotten Zawahiri while he was on the crapper.
So, was the "intended target" just a cover to justify a bombing requested by the Pakistani's?
Could someone take a look at the photo on the left of the
article. The caption is:
"Pakistani men with the remains of a missile fired at a house in the Bajur tribal zone near the Afghan border."
Does this look like a missile? If they were targetted by Predators, then I would have thought they'd have been hit by Hellfire missiles. This doesn't look like a Hellfire.
There have been a number of incidents of civilian deaths in failed or misdirected American attacks in Afghanistan and along the border with Pakistan. In July 2002, dozens of Afghans at a wedding party were killed in an American bombing raid.... In December 2003, nine children and a 25-year-old man were killed in a strike from a Predator in Hutala, a village in a remote area of southern Ghazni Province....
The writers sure like to bang the drum about civilian casualties -- but only when they're caused by us, not by terrorists.
let me get this straight:
- there was a planned dinner with AZ, and US intel found out about it
- this cleric had a dinner invite with AZ
- he attended the dinner, left at midnight, then returned immediately after the airstrike
I think there might be some cleric who is $25 million dollars richer tonight.
That is definitely an artillery round...probably 152 or 155mm. Just popped over from some good commentary at American Thinker on this issue. Link: http://www.americanthinker.com/articles.php?article_id=5163
I've spent 18 years in the U.S. Army Field Artillery and am still serving in a MA National Guard FA battalion. I knew in an instant what it was. A 19-year old private fresh out of training could tell you in one glance, it is that obvious.
The expert quoted at Amer Thinker believes that it is fused, but I disagree...it looks more like the flat-topped "storage plugs" we use here. Artillery fuses are either black or brass in color and a good 4 to 5 inches in length, and cone-shaped. The only other device fitted to the "nose" of an arty round is a "lifting plug" (which looks like an eye-bolt) so that a small crane or hoist can lift and move the round onto trucks for transport.
Some might say that the newspaper made a legitimate mistake in regards to describing the ordnance, but even a cursory look through a book on military hardware would yield the correct results.
If this was "just a mistake", then it speaks volumes of the sloppiness of the New York Times and its reporting.
That is definitely an artillery round...probably 152 or 155mm. Just popped over from some good commentary at American Thinker on this issue. Link: http://www.americanthinker.com/articles.php?article_id=5163
I've spent 18 years in the U.S. Army Field Artillery and am still serving in a MA National Guard FA battalion. I knew in an instant what it was. A 19-year old private fresh out of training could tell you in one glance, it is that obvious.
The expert quoted at Amer Thinker believes that it is fused, but I disagree...it looks more like the flat-topped "storage plugs" we use here. Artillery fuses are either black or brass in color and a good 4 to 5 inches in length, and cone-shaped. The only other device fitted to the "nose" of an arty round is a "lifting plug" (which looks like an eye-bolt) so that a small crane or hoist can lift and move the round onto trucks for transport.
Some might say that the newspaper made a legitimate mistake in regards to describing the ordnance, but even a cursory look through a book on military hardware would yield the correct results.
If this was "just a mistake", then it speaks volumes of the sloppiness of the New York Times and its reporting.
hmmm.. Faked Photo, a Predator Drone would not be able to take off, much less be able to launch an Artillary Shell..
We'll never know for sure if we got anyone because, they took the bodies away. Sounds like the military and the CIA had good targets.
There are some other interesting things about this picture. The caption says house? Those walls appear to be about 10 feet tall and at least 18" thick. No windows? And the door seems strange for a home also. Where is the furniture? Roof appears to have collapsed without damaging the walls without leaving any debris hanging...