Posted on 11/14/2008 5:16:38 AM PST by Red in Blue PA
WASHINGTON — Usama bin Laden is isolated from the day-to-day operations of Al Qaeda, but the terrorist organization he built is spreading its influence in Africa and the Middle East, CIA Director Michael Hayden said Thursday.
Al Qaeda remains the single greatest threat to the United States, Hayden said in a speech to the Atlantic Council. "If there is a major strike on this country, it will bear the fingerprints of Al Qaeda."
"He is putting a lot of energy into his own survival — a lot of energy into his own security," Hayden said in a speech at the Atlantic Council in Washington.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Sorry mods, I didn’t see the thread in the sidebar!
Aren’t we all sorta isolated (after the election) and fighting to survive? The title of this article doesn’t do it for me.
The CIA has been right on top of Al Qaeda all along so I completely trust this assessment. /sarc
Why should we believe anything the CIA director says?
When someone says one thing but does another, always believe what they do: The CIA disbanded their Bin Laden unit (Alec Station) in 2005. If they truly believed he was still alive, they wouldn't have decided that those resources were better used elsewhere.
Secondly, I've yet to see a tape that is in any way convincing. A 12 minute freeze up? Why not just re-shoot the tape if it wasn't impossible?
Why not have a tape of OBL holding up a copy of yesterday's Hyderabad Times saying "I'd like to congratulate the Pittsburgh Penguins on their 5-4 shoot out victory over the Philadelphia Flyers. We may or may not be about to unleash a wave of suicide bombings in U.S. shopping malls during the Christmas shopping season."
So long as you don't have absolute proof that he's dead, it makes sense to continue to function (at least publicly) as if he's still alive, but I believe they pretty well know he's dead.
Owl_Eagle
“When the stock market crashed,
Franklin Roosevelt got on the television
and didn’t just talk about
the princes of greed, he said,
‘Look, here’s what happened.’"
-Slow Joe Biden
Hayden is talking through his hat. How the H does he know anything about OBL ?
Even if he is alive, his name is being thrown around to cause a sense of fear.
These guys pretty much gave’er all she had on 911. From then on, the so called Al Queda terrorist have attacked primarily small scale and on a regional basis.
In other words...they've had the sh@t kicked outta them.
True, there is always a nut job ready to blow up a bus, but for the most part, I don't think these terror groups were ready for the response they received after 911.
I think there always looking skyward with paranoia constantly anticipating visitors from the heavens.
Peering out of the hut or cave opening keeping a sharp eye out for America's best comin for a lil payback.
It's a beautiful thing.
He only has to hold out until January 21st, then he’s home free.
Why do I bet that Obama will gut the military and CIA, yet some operative will get lucky, kill Bin Laden and Obama will get the historical credit by sheer accident?
I agree with your assessment. Tora Bora.
Hey Owl_Eagle, I hope all is well. I so hope you’re right!
I have no idea if he is dead or alive, and I am not sure it makes that much difference. Al Qaida was initially an Afgan and Arab group, but now it has spread throughout the Islamic world. It is not clear that there is a central head, but rather a group of empowered cells. My real concern is that they have spread to East Africa, especially in Somalia. We have numerous East African populations in the US that probably contain many sleeper cells. Without a central head calling the shots, it makes it much more difficult to detect (through chatter) when these cells may decide to become "active".
I completely agree. OBL was more or less a figurehead and his real value was as a rainmaker. I'd rather have KSM or even Ayman al-Zawahiri, as far as making any kind of significant dent in that org.
My real concern is that they have spread to East Africa, especially in Somalia. We have numerous East African populations in the US that probably contain many sleeper cells.
Exactly.
Without getting into exactly what I do, there's tens of thousands of Somalians in this country as "asylees" "living in fear for their safety if they went back to Somalia". Routinely, they spend 9 months a year in "Dijibouti", definitely never crossing into Somalia to work with, train, and fund Islamic Courts and al Shabab.
The State Department, the fifth column of the U.S. Government.
Owl_Eagle
“When the stock market crashed,
Franklin Roosevelt got on the television
and didn’t just talk about
the princes of greed, he said,
‘Look, here’s what happened.’"
-Slow Joe Biden
Yes he would and then the press would scream for him to have two more terms because he ‘earned’ it.
OBL is a hockey fan? Who woulda guessed.
I think I agree with you. How does the CIA know that OBL is spending a lot of resources on his own security? This would certainly suggest that they know his location...in which case he would be dead.
I have beating the same drum as you for more than six years — ever since 2002 when a Bin Laden tape was found to be bogus by a reputable firm. Bin Laden alive means much more to CIA funding than Bin Laden dead.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnychOXj9Tg
It's possible that she was killed because of this. A number of people have an interest in keeping up the appearence that he is alive...
It is a mistake to consider al Qaeda to be any sort of "command and control" operation. Rather, think of them as a Venture Capital firm which nurtures jihad cells.
The role of Osama was not to be a commander as much as a trusted conduit between wealthy Middle Eastern money men (see Golden Chain) and the actual jihadis. Al-Qaeda provided funding and training to groups that showed promise of successfully mounting operations.
Osama is very replaceable. The money men just recruit another cutout to stand between them and the jihadis and maintain deniability.
Thanks for fleshing out the specifics. Well put.
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