Posted on 06/19/2004 4:06:19 AM PDT by RobFromGa
Bush told he is playing into Bin Laden's hands Imperial Hubris: Why the West is Losing the War on Terror, due out next month, dismisses two of the most frequent boasts of the Bush administration: that Bin Laden and al-Qaida are "on the run" and that the Iraq invasion has made America safer. In an interview with the Guardian the official, who writes as "Anonymous", described al-Qaida as a much more proficient and focused organisation than it was in 2001, and predicted that it would "inevitably" acquire weapons of mass destruction and try to use them. He said Bin Laden was probably "comfortable" commanding his organisation from the mountainous tribal lands along the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan. The Pakistani army claimed a big success in the "war against terror" yesterday with the killing of a tribal leader, Nek Mohammed, who was one of al-Qaida's protectors in Waziristan. But Anonymous, who has been centrally involved in the hunt for Bin Laden, said: "Nek Mohammed is one guy in one small area. We sometimes forget how big the tribal areas are." He believes President Pervez Musharraf cannot advance much further into the tribal areas without endangering his rule by provoking a Pashtun revolt. "He walks a very fine line," he said yesterday. Imperial Hubris is the latest in a relentless stream of books attacking the administration in election year. Most of the earlier ones, however, were written by embittered former officials. This one is unprecedented in being the work of a serving official with nearly 20 years experience in counter-terrorism who is still part of the intelligence establishment. The fact that he has been allowed to publish, albeit anonymously and without naming which agency he works for, may reflect the increasing frustration of senior intelligence officials at the course the administration has taken. Peter Bergen, the author of two books on Bin Laden and al-Qaida, said: "His views represent an amped-up version of what is emerging as a consensus among intelligence counter-terrorist professionals." Anonymous does not try to veil his contempt for the Bush White House and its policies. His book describes the Iraq invasion as "an avaricious, premeditated, unprovoked war against a foe who posed no immediate threat but whose defeat did offer economic advantage. "Our choice of timing, moreover, shows an abject, even wilful failure to recognise the ideological power, lethality and growth potential of the threat personified by Bin Laden, as well as the impetus that threat has been given by the US-led invasion and occupation of Muslim Iraq." In his view, the US missed its biggest chance to capture the al-Qaida leader at Tora Bora in the Afghan mountains in December 2001. Instead of sending large numbers of his own troops, General Tommy Franks relied on surrogates who proved to be unreliable. "For my money, the game was over at Tora Bora," Anonymous said. Yesterday President Bush repeated his assertion that Bin Laden was cornered and that there was "no hole or cave deep enough to hide from American justice". Anonymous said: "I think we overestimate significantly the stress [Bin Laden's] under. Our media and sometimes our policymakers suggest he's hiding from rock to rock and hill to hill and cave to cave. My own hunch is that he's fairly comfortable where he is." The death and arrest of experienced operatives might have set back Bin Laden's plans to some degree but when it came to his long-term capacity to threaten the US, he said, "I don't think we've laid a glove on him". "What I think we're seeing in al-Qaida is a change of generation," he said."The people who are leading al-Qaida now seem a lot more professional group. "They are more bureaucratic, more management competent, certainly more literate. Certainly, this generation is more computer literate, more comfortable with the tools of modernity. I also think they're much less prone to being the Errol Flynns of al-Qaida. They're just much more careful across the board in the way they operate." As for weapons of mass destruction, he thinks that if al-Qaida does not have them already, it will inevitably acquire them. The most likely source of a nuclear device would be the former Soviet Union, he believes. Dirty bombs, chemical and biological weapons, could be home-made by al-Qaida's own experts, many of them trained in the US and Britain. Anonymous, who published an analysis of al-Qaida last year called Through Our Enemies' Eyes, thinks it quite possible that another devastating strike against the US could come during the election campaign, not with the intention of changing the administration, as was the case in the Madrid bombing, but of keeping the same one in place. "I'm very sure they can't have a better administration for them than the one they have now," he said. "One way to keep the Republicans in power is to mount an attack that would rally the country around the president." The White House has yet to comment publicly on Imperial Hubris, which is due to be published on July 4, but intelligence experts say it may try to portray him as a professionally embittered maverick. The tone of Imperial Hubris is certainly angry and urgent, and the stridency of his warnings about al-Qaida led him to be moved from a highly sensitive job in the late 90s. But Vincent Cannistraro, a former chief of operations at the CIA counter-terrorism centre, said he had been vindicated by events. "He is very well respected, and looked on as a serious student of the subject." Anonymous believes Mr Bush is taking the US in exactly the direction Bin Laden wants, towards all-out confrontation with Islam under the banner of spreading democracy. He said: "It's going to take 10,000-15,000 dead Americans before we say to ourselves: 'What is going on'?"
Al-Qaida may 'reward' American president with strike aimed at keeping him in office, senior intelligence man says
Julian Borger in Washington
Saturday June 19, 2004
The Guardian
A senior US intelligence official is about to publish a bitter condemnation of America's counter-terrorism policy, arguing that the west is losing the war against al-Qaida and that an "avaricious, premeditated, unprovoked" war in Iraq has played into Osama bin Laden's hands.
Democratic talking point.
Tenet will not write a book.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1156482/posts
U.S. targets al-Zarqawi network, kills 16
AP | 6/19/04 | JIM KRANE
Posted on 06/19/2004 8:34:25 AM PDT by kattracks
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) — A U.S. military plane fired missiles Saturday into a residential neighborhood in Fallujah, killing at least 16 people and leveling houses there, police and residents said. A U.S. official said the target was a known hideout of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's terror network.
It was the first significant U.S. military action in the city since Marines ended a bloody three-week siege against insurgents. Since the U.S. forces left, residents have said that extremist influence in the Sunni Muslim city, west of Baghdad, has only grown.
Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, coalition deputy operations chief, said the attack struck a known hideout of al-Zarqawi and that the blast caused "multiple secondary explosions" of ammunition and roadside bomb materials stored there. There was no way to confirm the U.S. claim.
U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said several members of the al-Zarqawi network were believed in the house at the time of the attack but they did not know if the terrorist mastermind himself was inside. The officials did not dispute Iraqi casualty figures.
Al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian-born militant believed to have ties to al-Qaida, has been blamed for the string of car bombs across Iraq, including the Thursday that killed 35 people and wounded 145 at an Iraqi military recruiting center in Baghdad.
President George W. Bush has cited al-Zarqawi's presence in Iraq before the April 2003 collapse of Saddam Hussein's regime as evidence of contacts between al-Qaida and the former Iraqi regime.
Elsewhere, U.S. troops battled insurgents for a fourth day near the city of Baqouba, northeast of Baghdad, in fighting that has killed at least six Iraqis and one American soldier, the U.S. military and witnesses said. In southern Iraq, a roadside bomb killed at least two people, including a Portuguese security officer.
In the Fallujah strike, at least two houses were destroyed and six others were damaged in the poor neighborhood.
The Iraqi Health Ministry said 16 people were killed, though they expected the number to rise. Residents said 20 bodies — including at least three women and five children — were taken for immediate burial, in accordance with Islamic custom, while hospitals reported at least two more dead.
"At 9:30 a.m., a U.S. plane shot two missiles on this residential area," said the Fallujah police chief, Sabbar al-Janabi, as he surveyed the wreckage. "Scores were killed and injured. This picture speaks for itself."
In Fallujah, rescue workers combed the scene, searching the rubble for other victims. Slabs of concrete and steel reinforcing bars were upended and twisted, Associated Press Television News footage showed.
Water pooled from a 20-foot crater in front of one of the destroyed houses, apparently from where one of the missiles struck. One man displayed several Qurans burned in the strikes.
Outraged residents accused the Americans of trying to inflict maximum damaged by firing two strikes — one first to attack and another to kill the rescuers.
"The number of casualties is so high because after the first missile we jumped to rescue the victims," said Wissam Ali Hamad. "The second missile killed those trying to carry out the rescue."
U.S. Marines besieged Fallujah in April after four American security contractors were killed in an ambush in the city and their bodies mutilated.
Ten Marines and hundreds of Iraqis, many of them civilians, died before the siege was lifted and security was handed over to an Iraqi volunteer force, the Fallujah Brigade.
The clashes northeast of the capital began Wednesday in Buhriz when insurgents fired on U.S. troops after they met with the mayor to discuss reconstruction projects, 1st Infantry Division spokesman Maj. Neal O'Brien said.
Buhriz is located on the outskirts of Baqouba, about 35 miles northeast of Baghdad,
Clashes have continued intermittently in the Baqouba area ever since. One American soldier died of wounds suffered Friday in Buhriz, O'Brien said.
The clashes spread Saturday to nearby Tahrir, where insurgents fired rocket-propelled grenades at a U.S. patrol, wounding two U.S. soldiers, O'Brien said. The soldiers were evacuated to the 31st Combat Support Hospital.
Dr. Nassir Jawad of the Baqouba General Hospital said at least six Iraqis were killed and 54 were wounded in the Buhriz fighting. Municipal officials had said 13 Iraqis died. U.S. officials put the Iraqi death toll at 10 in the Thursday fighting and five on Friday.
In southern Iraq, a roadside bomb killed at least two people, including a Portuguese security official working for the state-run Oil Products Co. and an Iraqi policeman guarding him, police Capt. Diaa Hussein said. The Portugese Foreign Ministry confirmed the death of the Portuguese citizen, Antonio Jose Monteiro Abelha, 36.
The two were driving on a road from the southern city of Basra to nearby Zubayr when the blast destroyed their vehicle. One civilian driving behind them was also injured, Hussein said.
It was the second attack in four days against people involved in protecting Iraq's oil industry. On Wednesday, gunmen killed the security chief of the state-run Northern Oil Company, Ghazi Talabani, in Kirkuk.
Insurgents have also targeted Iraq's strategic pipeline system, cutting off all exports from the southern oilfields in bombings this week. Iraq hopes to resume partial exports this weekend.
Exports from Iraq's other field near Kirkuk were halted last month due to sabotage on the pipeline to the Mediterranean port of Ceyhan, Turkey.
Iraq had been exporting about 1.5 million barrels of crude oil a day through two southern pipelines, both of which were damaged. A coalition spokesman said Friday the smaller pipeline had nearly been repaired but full exports would probably not resume before Wednesday.
The pipeline attacks are part of a stepped up campaign of violence in the run-up to the June 30 transfer of sovereignty to the interim Iraqi government.
Meanwhile, New York-based Human Rights Watch said in a statement it would be unlawful for the United States to hold detainees, including Saddam Hussein, after the June 30 power transfer without charging them with crimes.
The U.S. military has said it will continue to hold thousands of prisoners detained since it invaded Iraq last year and that it could do so legally until a "cessation of hostilities."
"The Bush Administration can't have its cake and it too. If the occupation is over, so is the U.S. authority to detain Iraqis without criminal charges," said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch.
I was thinking about McCain yesterday, after some cable reported that he would be a likely candidate for DOD in a Kerry administration.
Obviously they don't realize that McCain doesn't like to BE criticized, he likes to criticize; both parties. He'll never do it.
If I recall correctly, he's a leftover from the Clinton Administration. Nothing is beneath that gaggle of criminals.
Regards, Ivan
He's also a Bush family friend.
But then nothing surprises me anymore.
Imperial Hubris sounds like a DU screen name to me.
This moron's name is known. He would have to submit this book for vetting for classified info, and he could not do that under the nome de plume 'Anonymous'.
And if he/she/it is an intel puke and didn't send it in, some serious jail time is in its future.
"Aren't there laws to prevent current employees from doing this- selling inside secrets. "
===
I think there are. Current employees need to have any books reviewed precisely to make sure that they are not giving away secrets.
I guess you could say that this book is not giving away secrets, because it's full of lies.
But current government employees shouldn't be allowed to publish books full of lies, claiming them as facts.
The government is able to prevent someone who is still in active employment from publishing such books. This guy's BOSS, who authorized this book should be fired, along with him. They should also be charged with sedition -- aiding the enemy. This encourages and helps the enemy.
Tenet may have his faults, but he would never, never write such a book.
It's more likely another Clarke type nobody, who was passed over in a promotion.
I read this article too, and I think this book and the recent one by Bamford are CIA disinformation. I think the CIA is dragging its wing--getting people to write what dopes they are to mislead the enemy about our insights and capabilities. 9-11 was a huge disaster, but we are still on the offensive.
Both of these books present the CIA as morons and Al Qaeda as brilliant operatives. Now how do these authors get these insights about Al Qaeda brilliance from such a stupid CIA? Do they have planted their own operatives in Al Qaeda and in the CIA.
Bamford "reveals" that the CIA has an "Alec Program" devoted to Bin laden. Actually, this is not such a big secret, because I had heard of it from casual gossip.
Bamford claims that the CIA has never penetrated Al Qaeda in spite of their expensive and much vaunted but supposedly crummy "Alec Program" (the name of the CIA's al-Qaeda-tracking department). Bamford mocks the CIA and claims they never planted an agent inside Al Qaeda even though American kids managed to join.
Now really. If some moronic kids got into Al Qaeda, it stands to reason the CIA and other intelligence organizations have penetrated Al Qaeda. Certainly the Russians, who probably have mafia organizations selling them weapons, will have some insights.
The author Annonymous writes: "I'm very sure they can't have a better administration for them than the one they have now."
"One way to keep the Republicans in power is to mount an attack that would rally the country around the president."
Let's say some Al Qaeda cell leader reads these books. He is being pandered to, told how smart and sophisticated he is and how the organizational structures that support him have evolved into something sophisticated while the CIA are Keystone Cops. But what if there is really not that much supporting him?
Please, Al Qaeda is not Superman once we are spending money on this and paying attention 24-7. They can kill some Americans in terrorist attacks, but they can't win unless we decide not to fight.
No matter how great our intelligence agencies are, they can't always uncover closely-held conspiracies. Since we are fighting an asymetrical terrorist war, some of our citizens are being murdered. We may have to suck it up and accept that reality, but it doesn't mean we are failing. The terrorists want us to turn on our government.
The key is to turn the fight, as much as possible, into the kind of war we have the advantage in---an expensive conventional one. This keeps Al Qaeda spending their money and somewhat on the move. The biggest thing is that they should not own a country.
I don't think the management of Al Qaeda wants Bush in power--but not every cell may know that. Bush will have four more years to do whatever he wants, and he has damaged Al Qaeda plenty--even tho' the book says this is a lie.
We have wrecked their operation in Afghanistan; we have finally gotten the Saudis on board because Al Qaeda is shocking the Saudis with their brutality.
This book is telling the terrorists that if they want Bush to be re-elected, they should attack America. Conversely, if they want Kerry, they should not attack.
It is hard to believe that any high-level, respected terrorist analyst would be drawn into giving Al Qaeda political advice. I don't think we know how an attack would affect the election.
Perhaps the real agenda is to disuade individual Al Qaeda cells to lay low before the election. This would be nice, but I think that we all have to be a little brave and not blame the government if some terrorists slip through. We are at war.
I know everyone at Free Republic hates Kerry. I don't agree with Kerry about some things, either, but he is being honest when he says that if he wins the terrorists will lose. If he becomes president, he will learn the score.
Up until that point, I thought you were just a bit of a conspiracy nut, but to think that the terrorists are worse off with Kerry than a committed Bush is the ranting of a lunatic.
Utter nonsense.
GW is still paying the price for mot clearing out the Clintonites.
Agreed. This is just another rehash of two of the Dims main talking points: The Iraq war is a distraction from the WOT, and we are only inciting more Jiahdis.
This is a talking point for consumption by the unwashed masses. No serious official in the intelligence community, military, or State department would believe that our efforts against al-queda have been diminished due to the iraq war (even at our current low-level of national monbilization). And most serious students of ME affairs would recognize what is going on in Iraq as establishing a beachhead for democratic government in the center of the region. This is a component of a very ambitious long range strategic plan.
Guardian article here, earlier.
Any one who has to be "anonymous" to vent against this country and the President is not worth listening to in the first place. No one can give unattributed charges credit since one can't vouch for the trustworthiness of the source at hand. "Imperial Hubris" indeed.
IMO, any one who doesn't sign their own name has nothing worse saying. For all I know John Kerry wrote this himself.
So when "Anonymous" slams the Bush Administration, it's extremely important, credible news, and when "Anonymous" reveals the identity of Joe Wilson's wife, it's the worst thing that ever happened in the history of Western Civilization and the biggest scandal since Watergate.
Say no more!
Why are these Liberals always anoymous?
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