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Special US unit can enter Pakistan at will to hunt Osama (Yippie!)
daily times pakistan ^ | 9/11/06 | Khalid hasan

Posted on 09/11/2006 5:29:58 AM PDT by voletti

WASHINGTON: A special US unit now has the authority to go after Osama bin Laden inside Pakistan without having to seek permission first, according to two US officials.

A comprehensive report on the hunt for bin Laden run by the Washington Post on Sunday says that Lieutenant General Stanley A McChrystal, the commander of the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) operates on the understanding with Pakistan that US units will not enter Pakistan, except under extreme circumstances, and that Pakistan will deny giving them permission.

This is what happened in January 2006, when the JSOC troops clandestinely entered the village of Saidgai, two officials familiar with the operation said, and Pakistan protested.

“The authority,” one knowledgeable person said, “follows the target”: if the target is bin Laden, the stakes are high enough for McChrystal to decide any action on his own.

The JSOC has been given more resources from the National Security Agency and other intelligence agencies. President Bush recently directed the team to “flood the zone” or intensify the search for bin Laden. The resources of the special group in terms of personnel and materials were also increased. However, no one is certain where the “zone” is.

Gary Berntsen, the former CIA officer who led the first and last hunt for bin Laden at Tora Bora in December 2001, told the Post, “This could all end tomorrow.” One unsolicited walk-in, one tribesman seeking to collect the $25 million reward, one courier who would rather his kids grow up in the US, one dealmaker, “and this could all change,” he said.

A senior Pakistani intelligence official told the newspaper, “For technical intelligence ISI works hand in hand with the NSA (National Security Agency). The US assistance in building Pakistan’s capabilities for technical intelligence since 9/11 is superb.”

Since early 2002, the US is said to have stationed a small number of NSA and CIA personnel near where bin Laden may be hiding. They are embedded with counter terrorism units of the Pakistan army’s elite Special Services Group, according to senior Pakistani intelligence officials. The NSA and other specialists collect imagery and electronic intercepts that their CIA counterparts then share with the Pakistani units in the tribal areas and with Balochistan. But even with sophisticated technology, the local geography presents formidable obstacles.

The army lost its best source of intelligence in 2004, after it began raids inside the tribal areas. Scouts with blood ties to the tribes ceased sharing information for fear of retaliation. The report says: “Pakistani and US counter terrorism and military officials admit that Pakistan has now all but stopped looking for bin Laden. ‘The dirty little secret is, they have nothing, no operations, without the Pakis,’ one former counter terrorism officer said”.

Last week’s truce with the Taliban that calls on the insurgent Afghan group to end armed attacks inside Pakistan and to stop crossing into Afghanistan to fight the government and international troops has created unease in Washington.

According to the Post, “Pakistan will permit only small numbers of US forces to operate with its troops at times and, because their role is so sensitive politically, it officially denies any US presence. A frequent complaint from US troops is that they have too little to do. The same complaint is also heard from US forces in Afghanistan, where there were few targets to go after.” McChrystal has become the de facto leader of the hunt for bin Laden and developed a good working relationship with the CIA. He asks for targets from the CIA, and it tries to comply.


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Front Page News; Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: cia; fifthanniversary; manhunt; obl; oef
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So, again, why did it take 5 freakin' yrs to dfo this? Why were we 'asking' permission from jihad central that also doubles as a rented client state that depends on our $$$ aid to stave off bankruptcy? And our support to escape the consequences of reckless nuke proliferation to confirmed rogue states? And escape the consequences of clandestine support for taliban and Al qaeda jihadists? etc etc etc
1 posted on 09/11/2006 5:30:00 AM PDT by voletti
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To: voletti

Find him and kill him, no trail.


2 posted on 09/11/2006 5:31:06 AM PDT by bmwcyle (Only stupid people would vote for McCain, Warner, Hagle, Snowe, Graham, or any RINO)
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To: voletti

This is very good news.


3 posted on 09/11/2006 5:34:28 AM PDT by cripplecreek (If stupidity got us into this mess, then why can't it get us out?)
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To: voletti

It took five years for the old gray whore to learn of the operation and expose it. Keep in mind the OGW is our enemy ....not our friend.


4 posted on 09/11/2006 5:34:42 AM PDT by bert (K.E. N.P. Slay Pinch)
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To: voletti

wanna catch UBL? Stop sharing infomation with the ISI


Doogle


5 posted on 09/11/2006 5:36:26 AM PDT by Doogle (USAF 69-73...."never store a threat you should have eliminated")
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To: voletti

Didn't the Gov't of Pakistan just make a peace deal with the tribes that not only prohibits Pakistani troops from entering these areas but the US also?

Need clarification because I'm not so sure what the truth is here.


6 posted on 09/11/2006 5:38:41 AM PDT by submarinerswife
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To: voletti
I am just as frustrated as you that it took 5 years, but I think we have no idea how difficult this is for the Mussharif government. I think the locals, and maybe some of the Pakistani army supports bin Laddan and maintaining control is difficult. I think Mussharif has time and again put his life and his political rule on the line to assist us in the WOT.
7 posted on 09/11/2006 5:42:12 AM PDT by Obadiah
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To: submarinerswife

From what I understand, the exit of the pak army essentially clears the decks for the US army to operate there at will.

Or so I hope.

Pak is known to have perfected the art of running with the Taliban hare and hunt with the American hound (or is it the other way round?).

I do trust Pakistan (where even in the urban areas public sentiment is some 90%+ anti-American) to do anything that would genuinely help America.


8 posted on 09/11/2006 5:42:19 AM PDT by voletti (Awareness and Equanimity.)
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To: voletti

I hear John Kerry will be leading the effort crossing national borders just like he did in Cambodia on Christmas 1968!


9 posted on 09/11/2006 5:42:44 AM PDT by Incorrigible (If I lead, follow me; If I pause, push me; If I retreat, kill me.)
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To: voletti

Git 'er done!


10 posted on 09/11/2006 5:49:55 AM PDT by yldstrk (My heros have always been cowboys-Reagan and Bush)
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To: Obadiah
Musharraf's promise
Western leaders tout Musharraf's speech to Pakistanis a couple of days after September 11, in which he justified his decision to join the US side against jihadis. But few seem to recall that Musharraf made another less publicized speech on September 19, 2001 in Urdu, Pakistan's national language, in which he made it clear that he would do everything within his power to make sure that the Taliban emerged unharmed in the "war on terror". While the English-language speech was for Western consumption, the Urdu speech was meant to assuage his countrymen regarding the Taliban. Whether the US wants to admit it or not, it is patent now that Musharraf has kept that particular promise to protect the Taliban.


http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/GG19Ag03.html

You might want to rethink what youre saying. Musharraf is a double dealer. All he wants is American arms, support for his dictatorship, and money. Hes not putting his rule on the line for the US. If it wasnt for the US, hed have been overthrown long ago anyway.

Else, hes a committed Taleban supporter, at least from all the action that has been taken against the Taleban so far. Indeed, the Pakistani ISI ceratd the Taleban. Hamid Karzai is going blue in the face saying Pakistan is supporting the insurgency in Afghanistan, but noone seems to be listening.
11 posted on 09/11/2006 5:53:04 AM PDT by ketelone
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To: submarinerswife
Didn't the Gov't of Pakistan just make a peace deal with the tribes that not only prohibits Pakistani troops from entering these areas but the US also?

Yes but these troops are NATO troops. The problem was always the Packistani Army. If we get into a fight with them... then cooperation such as the Plane Bombing out of England would be over.

But if the Packistani army is out of the way, with no chance of conflict, then nothing is stopping NATO from going into Packistan. If the terrorists complain to the Packistani government... they just say... we are not allowed in to that area of Packistan so we have no way of knowing if NATO troops are in there are not. In fact the Packistani Army would not even be able to confirm where we got Osama.

Of course the Packistani goverment would say that they have ordered us not to invade Packistani territory... But that doesn't bind NATO.

The Terrorists wanted the Packistani army ouf of that area of Packistan. They were also certain that the NATO forces that replaced the US forces would be just like the UN forces in Lebanon. They are finding out they are not.

12 posted on 09/11/2006 6:06:24 AM PDT by Common Tator
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To: ketelone
And so it is hard to tell. Is Musharraf a double dealer? Or is he playing to both galleries because he walks a fine line? Hard to know. You are persuasive, but I remain not totally convinced. Perhaps I'm a naive optimist.
13 posted on 09/11/2006 6:07:30 AM PDT by Obadiah
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To: bmwcyle
Find him and kill him, no trail.

"No body, no trial, no papers to file."

14 posted on 09/11/2006 6:10:53 AM PDT by P8riot ("You can get more with a kind word and a gun than you can with a kind word alone." - Al Capone)
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To: bmwcyle
Find him and kill him, no trail.

Are you suggesting the Special Ops military version of that southern Good-'Ol-Boy mantra for dealing with predatory varmints??

Shoot... Shovel.. and.. Shut up?

15 posted on 09/11/2006 6:12:24 AM PDT by Wings-n-Wind (All of the answers remain available; Wisdom is gained by asking the right questions!)
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To: voletti

Translation, they know he is in Iran now.


16 posted on 09/11/2006 6:13:47 AM PDT by dangerdoc (dangerdoc (not actually dangerous any more))
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To: voletti
Definitely couldn't happen until Saddam was safely out of power, new government elected and Afghanistan with elected government in place.

These tribal leaders right;y suspect America's commitment to them personally. Money aside, their very lives are on the line each and every time they help as the extremist views of many surrounding them make their very survival tenuous, at best.

America has had a very bad track record with them, as was on display in the 9/11 docu-drama; first we support them, then we're not sure if we can hold up our end of the bargain.

Remember the Shiites and Kurds after Gulf I, they thought that they had our complete support to rise up against the Baathists, then "we" (cowards in high places) backed out of the deal.

17 posted on 09/11/2006 6:14:09 AM PDT by zerosix (Native Sunflower)
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To: voletti
only a "SPECIAL UNIT"???

I would have thought at least an entire Division (3000-6000 men) would be deployed for that job!

18 posted on 09/11/2006 6:20:33 AM PDT by prophetic
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To: All

would be nice that this is a done deal. Bush comes out in some cermony today and says Btw I have just been informed we killed bin laden 3 days ago dna was confirmed just now.


19 posted on 09/11/2006 6:34:07 AM PDT by Kewlhand`tek (Those that can't , Teach. Those that can't teach , Report)
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To: Wings-n-Wind

YES!


20 posted on 09/11/2006 6:35:20 AM PDT by bmwcyle (Only stupid people would vote for McCain, Warner, Hagle, Snowe, Graham, or any RINO)
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