Posted on 05/14/2005 7:18:23 PM PDT by ekidsohbelaas
WASHINGTON: The United States has netted another al-Qaeda No.3, the sixth No.3 to be downed dead or alive in its war on terrorism.
The latest "senior" al-Qaeda operative to fall in the U S cross hairs is Haitham al-Yemeni, who was killed by a CIA Predator plane on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border last week, according to American TV networks, quoting unnamed US officials.
The officials said Al-Yemeni has been tracked for some time in the hope that he would lead them to Osama bin Laden but the drone took him out amid doubts that he may go disappear after the capture last week of the previous No.3, Al Faraj Al Libbi.
Although, no one officially described Al-Yemeni as a No.3, the joke in media circles here is that will be the nomenclature for any al-Qaeda suspect besides Osama bin Laden and Ayman Al Zawahiri, the one-two who have evaded capture for more than three years.
Previous al-Qaeda No.3s who have been captured or killed include, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Mohammed Atef, Ramzi bin Al-Shibh, and Abu Zubaida. There has been no sign of the al-Qaeda No 1 or 2, or, for that matter, an al-Qaeda No.4 or 5.
Skeptics are also wondering now that Washington has felled Al Libbi and Al Yemeni when it will lower the boom on Al Pakistani, a thinly veiled reference to the Bush administration's frontman, General Pervez Musharraf, who they say is playing a double-game.
Amid a raging controversy over a cartoon ridiculing Pakistan as an obedient dog how, some analysts are suggesting that Pakistan is using captive al-Qaeda operatives as a bargaining chip.
"It is as if the Pakistani powers-that-be have had, ever since al-Qaeda's retreat from Afghanistan and their withdrawal into Karachi, Lahore and Rawalpindi, a precise idea of where al-Qaeda could be found. It is as if Pakistan's formidable intelligence service, the ISI, had not only localised but kept these public enemies of the US under observation, handy for periodic cullin," the French commentator Bernard Henri-Levy wrote in an article that was reprinted from the French in LA Times this weekend.
Levy, author of the book Who Killed Daniel Pearl?, also reminded Washington Pakistan produced al-Qaeda terrorists when it wanted to cadge F-16s from the US, and the fighter planes were also on the top of the list of demands made by Pearl's kidnappers.
B.Raman, a former Indian intelligence official-turned-commentator, made an even more direct allusion to Pakistan's patronage of al-Qaeda by writing an open letter in the Asia Times addressed to Osama bin Laden care/of General Pervez Musharraf.
Many American analysts have also questioned the Bush administration's patronage of Pakistan's military regime -- saying it is the problem, not the solution to terrorism and nuclear proliferation.
In a recent article titled "It's Pakistan, Stupid," that is circulating on the Internet and various blogs, the author Paul Sperry reveals that US Homeland Security and border officials are under special instruction to increase scrutiny of Pakistani visitors to the US because they believe some young men have been trained in terrorist camps in Pakistan to carry out attacks in the US.
Pakistanis dismiss commentators such as Bernard-Levi and Sperry as Islamophones and point to repeated testimonials from the Bush administration of its heroic role in the war on terrorism.
Certainly, there is no sign that the US is anywhere close to leaning on Pakistan for its patronage of extremism or its nuclear proliferation, both of which Islamabad claims to have abjured. In fact, with the growing crescendo over reports about the desecration of the Koran by US interrogators, Washington is set to become even more deferential to its faithful ally, which analysts such as Levy and Raman suggest is milking the US for all it is worth.
They got a promotion.
bump
One would think that they would not want to move up on the ladder so quik.
LOL.
Love the 'toon. LOL.
What happened to Nos 4, 5 and 6?
Fast track, man. Promotions galore.
Overheard: "I don't want that promotion! Don't make me No. 3."
Latest arrival of #3s.
Last minute arrivals of #3s.
I think you left a line out of that joke. The doctor said he was uncertain of the time, but that it would be on an American holiday.
Here is a joke I received a few weeks ago.
Two things Navy SEALS are always taught
1: Keep your priorities in order
2: Know when to act without hesitation
A college professor, an avowed atheist and active in the ACLU, was teaching his class. He shocked several of his students when he flatly stated that for once and for all he was going to prove there was no God. Addressing the ceiling he shouted:
"GOD, if you are real, then I want you to knock me off this platform. I'll give you exactly 15 minutes!!!!!"
The lecture room fell silent. You could hear a pin drop.
Ten minutes went by. "I'm waiting God, if you're real, knock me off this platform!!!!" Again after a few more minutes, the professor taunted God saying, "Here I am, God!!!! I'm still waiting!!!"
His count down got down to the last couple of minutes when a NAVY SEAL, just released from the Navy after serving in Afghanistan and Iraq and newly registered in the class, walked right up to the Professor.
The SEAL hit him full force in the face, and sent the Professor tumbling from his lofty platform. The professor was out cold!!
The students were stunned and shocked. They began to babble in confusion.
The SEAL nonchalantly took his seat in the front row and sat silent. The class looked at him and fell silent.....waiting.
Eventually, the professor came to and was noticeably shaken. He looked at the SEAL in the front row. When the professor had regained his senses and could speak he asked: "What the hell is the matter with you?!? Why did you do that?!?"
"God was really busy protecting America's soldiers, who are protecting your right to say stupid things and act like an idiot!!! So he sent me!!"
Seems logical to me... when #3 is taken out, #6 becomes #5, #5 become #4, and #4 becomes #3.
We took out #3, and then decided to take out #4 before he got promoted to #3.
What is so hard to understand in that? (putting aside person political opinions)
:-)
That was tongue in cheek i hope.
Any idea where I can get a class-Ranking list of the Al-Q class of 2005? I wanna know in which order we are gonna get them turds.
Or, as I suspect, whoever the pakis handover is ALWAYS the No.3.
Strange na? Think about it.
That deserves a big BTTT.
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