Posted on 02/24/2005 3:32:38 AM PST by Coop
Edited on 02/24/2005 3:33:59 AM PST by Admin Moderator. [history]
[World News]: New York, Feb 24 : US and Saudi intelligence played key roles in helping Kuwait's recent efforts to destroy its Al Qaeda cells, reports UPI.
This was even as the terrorist group intensified its efforts to infiltrate Kuwait and other Persian Gulf states...
[snip]
A former Pentagon official confirmed this view: "The Saudis have basically won their war against Al Qaeda. The performance of Saudi forces was magnificent and has been devastating to the extremists. We are very impressed."
US intelligence assistance to the Saudis had played a major role in that victory, the former Pentagon official said.
David Long, a former State Department official and Saudi expert, agreed, saying that in Saudi Arabia "Al Qaeda is in retreat and disarray".
Saudi Arabian extremists have moved into Iraq to fight as part of the growing anti-US insurgency. Or its members have gone back to Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman to drive ice cream trucks packed with explosives to attack US military convoys, said US officials who spoke on condition of anonymity...
[snip]
Perhaps the most unsettling aspect of the latest raids is that interrogation by Kuwaiti officials had revealed that terrorist accomplices had penetrated Kuwaiti police and security forces. "To what extent is really not known yet," a US official said.
Thanks to a tip last year from Syrian intelligence to the CIA, the US was able to foil a planned Al Qaeda attack on US installations in Bahrain, using an explosives-laden glider that would be invisible to radar, according to these US government officials.
--Indo-Asian News Service
Foolish comment to make, in my view. Maybe that's why the source is a former official.
Not so sure of the source (though it does credit UPI), but there's some interesting reading here.
The Saudi's would have to eliminate a large group of their own radical state sponsored clerics and close their wahabbi madrasas for this to happen and I have not heard of it, the breeding ground there is ripe and elimination of several cells does not a victory make.
I agree completely.
Ping
Sure are a lot of extremist clerics on that list. (Shocking!) The good news is all but one of them has been accounted for.
Thanks for the ping...gliders laden with explosives....no way to detect them other than air patrols 24/7...
Sounds like the video game, Twisted Metal. A psycho killer clown in a ice cream truck.
Pakistani forces have destroyed al-Qaida-linked militants’ sanctuaries and communication systems along the Afghan border, but still have no clue as to Osama bin Laden’s whereabouts. President General Pervez Musharraf said today.
Musharraf said Pakistan had captured 700 terror suspects in cities, and “eliminated” hundreds in military campaigns in tribal regions on the border.
“We have broken their communication system. We have destroyed their sanctuaries,” Musharraf said of militants fighting in the lawless South Waziristan region. “Now some of them are hiding in mountains. They are not in a position to move in vehicles and go to Lahore or Karachi,” he said...
In addition to the comment you pointed out, this article seems to have many examples of why I don't find UPI a credible source...
"the growing anti-US insurgency [in Iraq]"
"a tip last year from Syrian intelligence to the CIA"
"a planned Al Qaeda attack...using an explosives-laden glider"
--Boot Hill
Yes, I do give it a higher entertainment score than news score.
Whenever you have a terrorist organization on the run, the last thing you do is let up on the pursuit.
When you have them on the run, that is exactly the time to step it up and destroy them completely.
Many a terrorist group has been given extra life by some cease-fire or negotiation process instituted because people thought they were a spent force and ready to negotiate. They just regroup, rearm, find more followers and find other safe havens.
Defeating terrorists means jailing and/or killing all of them.
This smells weird.
I am under the impression that the Kuwaiti security forces, their country being pretty damn small, are not all that numerous.
Why not polygraph every swinging Ibrahim in the outfit?
It would be a tremendous contract opportunity.
According to public statements by Kuwaiti Interior Minister Nawaf al Ahmed al Sabah, thanks to raids by Kuwaiti security forces since the first of the year, eight Al Qaeda operatives have been killed and another 40 detained.
I think some of those vicious gun battles were reported here on FR. Plus eight DEAD and 40 DETAINED = good news.
The first gliders were built out of wood and canvas...substances that absorb radar waves (that's why cell phone towers are *above* tree tops).
But the foiled "glider attack" that was being discussed in this article was against the Sharm al Sheik elite luxury resort some 3 years ago, not "last year."
What a bizarre article. Syrian intel and a 3 year old glider attack labeled as "last year." Weird.
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