Posted on 11/13/2008 7:52:48 PM PST by 82ndABNOfficer
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- U.S. intelligence agencies believe Osama bin Laden is isolated from al Qaeda and spending much of his energy merely surviving, the head of the CIA said on Thursday.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
Or the CIA doesn’t want it’s budget cut.
If I were Bin Laden (and who’s to say I’m not?) I’d be cleaning out my cave, packing up my tent and camcorder, and moving to an undisclosed location that not even my camel knows about. Because the CIA is going to want to wrap him up with a bow for Obama, and I’d say Bin Laden is toast by the middle of February.
Thank you for your service. I will always honor that.
As for the main effort in the WOT, I look at this as though I am playing a game of RISK. Have you ever played that game? The objective is to use positioning to overtake the enemy. The game board is a map of the world.
Now, if you believe that the enemy is AQ and if you believe that AQ survives only by the resources they obtain in Afghanistan and Pakistan you make a very good point. But, I believe there is much more to it than that.
If we look at the funding for AQ we cannot help but see Iran. We know they are involved. To what extent? maybe more than the news media understands or reports. If so, the current strategy makes a lot of sense for the long run. Creating a democratic style government in each country that surrounds Iran would benefit us greatly.
If I wanted to take down the core of the enemy in RISK and that enemy is Iran I will want to position myself so that I have a strategic advantage. This allows me two options. I can wait patiently for the pressure of isolation to inject itself into the people and let them change the positions of their geovernment internally. Or, I am set to go to war as a last result.
This is just my opinion and may not mean much to anyone else. It’s just how I see it from where I sit.
If Bush has him he could have paraded him just before the election too.
Osama is preparing himself for the 2012 democratic presidential candidate nomination...
The slogan will be : “EXPLOSIVE CHANGE”
Does you mother know you are on the computer sending trash to American veterans?
You're more optimistic than I am. I'm not sure he's going to leave me the empty wallet, by the time he's done. The people he's redistributing my money to are going to need something to keep it in.
I think it was because Saddam tried to kill Bush senior. BTW, the term is RINO, Republican in name only.
Because Iraq has been the center front of the war on terror as Al Qaeda chose it be as such and according to what Bin Laden, Zawahiri, and other Al Qaeda terrorist leader said it to be so. Now that we crushed Al Qaeda in Iraq we can finish them everywhere else.
Yeah, maybe there is a place for Osama in Obamas administration? Perhaps head of Homeland security?
Good question. It must at least mean that they (the CIA) know more than they are admitting.
I still ask anybody spouting anti-war babble I run into this question:
Terrorists including al Qaeda have been flocking to Iraq to fight the U.S. Military. Is that a bad thing?
I have yet to hear a rational response. They usually just change the subject toot sweet.
That's their job -
And there is a reason why our hunter-killer teams demanded their own Intel gathering Ops (and to move away risk adverse OGAs). Credit this, with much of our success in Iraq, more so than anything the Agency provided (and we are speaking of/to Intel operations within here, not SAD Ops).
French anarchists linked to New York bombing
TELEGRAPH | Last Updated: 1:48AM GMT 14 Nov 2008 | Henry Samuel in Paris
Posted on 11/14/2008 2:46:09 AM PST by Cindy
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2131947/posts
Here is what I believe, and I hope it answers your question. Yes, we took out the taliban and al qeada in Afghanistan. We had to work with Pakistan in the process. We set up supply lines that run through Pakistan to feed and supply the Troops in Afghanistan. Well, everyone knew that alqeada and the taliban fled Afghanistan for Pakistan. We did not want to upset Mysherrif in Pakistan by bombing his Country because it would destabilize the President of Pakistan and could cause a major problem with our supply lines. Pakistan could tell us to remove our supply lines from their country. Yes, there could be other ways to supply the Troops, but it is not as secure and safe as the lines we have been using in Pakistan.
So, with nothing to do at the moment in Afghanistan, the US went to Iraq and created another front. Now, we were legally at war with Hussein. He would not comply with the UN resolutions, and we were going to have problems with him as long as he was alive. We embarrassed him in Kuwait and he was going to pay us back for it (I truly believe that, because these people don't forget). Immediately after we pulled Hussein from a rat hole, people in that region took notice. Syria pulled out of Lebanon, after twelve years of sanctions that did not work. Libya gave us all their WMDs (we had sanctions on them too). People saw that the US was mad and we were coming. So, Afghanistan didn't send the message that Iraq did. We got everybody's attention, after we went into Iraq.
The good thing now is, we are killing al qeada in Iraq and Afghanistan. We are killing them in their front and back yard. They don't have the time and energy to plan attacks here at home. They are planning their attacks in Iraq and Afghanistan now.
I am glad we went to Iraq. It sent a message (Iran has not received the message yet. They are about the only people who didn't get it). Syria and Libya got the message though. And don't forget that Hussein had murals of the Trade Centers getting hit by planes in one of his palaces. He was no friend of ours and I am glad he is no longer a threat.
Remember that Taliban funeral that a Predator Drone filmed in 2006? Only Osama merited such a large gathering. Of course they knew our rules of engagement would prohibit us from attacking a cemetary. I say get the coordinates and dig up the body. We’ve got bin Ladin DNA on hand.
So am I. I was hoping that this would have led efforts to destablize Iran instead of Iran destabilizing Iraq.
My biggest fear is having Obama and the shiite leaders of Iraq agree to a rapid draw down of US forces out of Iraq, leaving Iraq open to Iranian influence and an eventual alliance.
I had read a very good analysis some time ago in the WSJ about what the exact rational was for going into Iraq ( from the military experts and intel guys). At that moment , if all had been as known then, and we would have done nothing to move forward, Bush would have been negligent.
There is a lot that we may never know, like were the WMD’ s spiriited out of Iraq, etc. What has saddened me the most, is that the true stories of good work by the CIA, our military, Bush has never got the PR they deserved.
It is tough when you have a 5th column media that distorts and lies about every effort America makes. I stand by Bush, he did phenomenal when you consider that he had so much against him.
Your post was one of the most accurate, succinct and eloquent posts on this issue. Bravo!
It is pretty tough to fight a global war when you have leftists and Maroons in a 5th column at home.
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