Playing Offense: The inside story of how U.S. terrorist hunters are going after al Qaeda

U.S. News ^ | 06/02/03 | David E. Kaplan

[Travis McGee]

Al Stewart, "The Running Man"

***************************

Before the phone hits the receiver

You're halfway to the door

The voice said 'get out while you can,

There's just ten minutes, nothing more.

Time only for the essentials

Better gather them and run

The false name inside the passport,

The gold bars and the gun.

And once again they've come out of the past,

And though your mind is cool your heart is beating fast.

You've been through it all before,

Each time you wish a little more that you could ask,

.

What do you want from me?

What do you need from me?

There's no rest for the running man

Why can't you let him be?

.

It's a long and twisting journey,

From the sweeping northern plains,

To the outcrops of the jungle,

Bowed beneath the tropic rains.

In the customs hall the officer

Takes you to one side.

And his eyes reveal no feeling,

As you hand over the bribe.

And once again you've bought a little time,

And once again you're fading out of sight.

Still the fox is growing older,

As he calls over his shoulder to the night:

.

What do you want from me?

What do you need from me?

There's no rest for the running man,

Why can't you let him be?

.

Here, come over here,

Beneath a sympathetic moon

We'll sit and talk over old times without a fear,

Another beer, from the cafes of the night,

The tumbling rhythms of guitars ring loud and clear.

.

One by one they've nailed the others,

But you always got away.

What it is that keeps you just that step ahead,

No one can say.

In one last raid the agents

Of the dawn break down the door,

Of a house where you were standing

Maybe just an hour before.

And still the thread continues to unwind,

You take the hidden roads that only you can find.

And should they come upon your tracks,

There's just a question hanging back you left behind.

.

What do you want from me?

What do you need from me?

No rest for the running man,

Why can't you let him be?

[WaterDragon]

An incredible and sobering read. Sure makes me determined to work for the election of Republicans for a long time to come.

[Thom Pain]

"Do they think the American people are that stupid?"

YES!

[GrandMoM]

BUMP

[pbear8]

Thanks Pokey, good morning read.

[WaterDragon]

Bump for an excellent read!

[1rudeboy]

"Thank God we've got giant printers."

Not as catchy as "Allah willing, we will prevail," but it'll do.

[Shermy]

The war in Afghanistan caught al Qaeda's leaders off guard. Bin Laden's top people were convinced the United States would respond to 9/11 with merely a volley of cruise missiles, interrogations later showed.

If this is true, that is, a belief held by all AQ leaders, it undermines a theory that the 9/11 attacks were a "first strike" against a perceived threat that in the months before America was organizing an attack on the Taliban, via perhaps the 6 + 2 group.

T-ban probably saw the American threats as empty. Still doesn't explain how the assassination of Massood fits in.

[mafree]

Thanks for the flag- good article.

[STOCKHRSE]

Bump

[FairOpinion]

"Still doesn't explain how the assassination of Massood fits in. "

They were more worried about Massoud using the American attack on the Taliban to mount an offensive against the T, than they were of the few missiles they thought the Americans will launch. After all, that's all Clinton did.

I think the T were more afraid of Massoud, than they were of the US.

I read in a number of places that what emboldened the terrorists was that they saw that the US was not responding forcefully to attacks under Clinton, Bin Laden and Saddam studies Somalia and came to the conclutions that all it takes to intimidate Americans is to kill a few of them dramatically and the Americans turn tail and run. Bin Laden talked about the strong horse and a weak horse.

They didn't figure out that Bush is NOT the same as Clinton.

They are learning the hard way.

[pettifogger]

Bump

[marron]

I had read, don't remember where, that the T's were planning an offensive, possibly hoping to push all the way into Tajikistan. They figured that without Massoud, the Northern Alliance would shatter into its constituent parts. Without us, it very well might have.

It is plain to me that OBL did not expect an effective response from us. Of course, he may not have expected his own attack to be as successful as it was, an airliner into a building should have been very dramatic, great television, it would have attracted a lot of followers and a lot of bady needed donations, but I question if he knew the buildings would collapse the way they did? They were, after all, designed to withstand an airliner impact. Supposedly.

An attack on the US seems counter-productive if you are on the edge of successfully conquering Central Asia, he had rebellions going on all over the region, and until GW we had looked the other way or even supported them. Attacking us was insane. But thats the thing about being guru to your own cult, sometimes you start to believe your own sermons.

And, its just possible, that one of his donors was another megalomaniac with a taste for payback, living in Baghdad, who wanted something dramatic and was willing to pay for it, as long as his own fingerprints were not too evident.

That I can understand. But otherwise the attack on the US was irrational, completely counterproductive in terms of his other insurgencies.

[Shermy]

Here's the article. LATimes link still good, better print it out though if you want to keep it.

Officials Reveal Bin Laden Plan: Terror leader hoped to create Islamic empire 3/18/02

Plans are often criticized as unreal because they seem "dumb" in retrospect. But that doesn't mean they were plans.

Osama was blinded by his need for the large gesture, belief in American weakness, that congress would have been wiped out to and who knows what else. Plus he was a terrorist, not a military strategist. The T-Ban offensive was a failure in the Panshir valley. Then he worried that Pakistan might be a problem.

I forget when Johnny Taliban was positioned in the north...but many were before 9/11 - aimed at an easterly attack north of the Hindu Kush, and maybe at Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

[spodefly]

BTTT

[ApesForEvolution]

But...Syria's Bashar Assad said there is no AQ. We made it all up.

[aculeus]

So much for the Democrat lie that we forgot about OBL.

Great post, great article.

[DoctorMichael]

Bump for later reading.

[FairOpinion]

Thanks for the article.

Just think, Bin Laden may have succeeded in extending his influence if we had Gore as president, not Bush. And this is not a joke.

::::shudder::::

[Coop]

They were, after all, designed to withstand an airliner impact. Supposedly.

And both towers did withstand the impacts.