TOP STORY

Lip Service

By Thomas Jeffrey

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Article Posted: Monday July 23, 2007

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This past week’s admonition by our nation’s intelligence services that al Qaeda remains determined to strike against American interests should come as no surprise to anyone who has been following the recently underreported news that the Bush Administration aborted a mission against top al Qaeda leaders in Pakistan back in 2005 — a mission that was deemed “too dangerous” and one that might damage our relationship with President Pervez Musharraf

Details of the aborted “snatch and grab” operation were revealed by the New York Times earlier this month, and involved elements of several special operations forces, including Navy Seals, as well as members of the CIA and other intelligence services.

Porter Goss, then director of the Central Intelligence Agency, learned of a window of opportunity to possibly grab Ayman al-Zawahri, al Qaeda’s number-two man, as well as several other top members of the terrorist organization, as they met in territorial regions of northern Pakistan. However, according to sources, it was eventually scuttled literally on the runway by then Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld after he was informed of the plans by the CIA director.

Mr. Goss resigned his post some months later. He official reasons for doing so may now be viewed in a somewhat different light…

However, the actions by the Bush Administration are eerily similar to those taken by the Clinton Administration with regards to its failure to undergo a similar raid against Usama bin Laden in the late 1990s — a fact the Administration sycophants and other Bush apologists used to smear the former president’s record of terrorism in the years following the events of September 11, 2001.

So it comes as no surprise that this past week US intelligence services, perhaps in an effort to get out ahead of any possible blow-back from a terrorist attack by al Qaeda over the upcoming months, chose to strongly and in no uncertain terms, warn the president and the country of the continued dangers of what some analysts are calling a reconstituted al Qaeda; one that has benefited from being effectively left alone by the political maneuvering of President Musharaff and the hands-off policy of the United States government.

Years ago, this Leftwing Nutjob asserted that the Bush Administration let Usama bin Laden go at the battle of Tora Bora, realizing that a quick and decisive end to the War on Terror only some three months after 9/11 would effectively pull the plug on their plans to flex their military muscle around the globe, to say nothing of using the memories of that day as a crutch for removing Saddam Hussein from power.

Now, in light of recent revelations, this Leftwing Nutjob would like to amend my previous accusations and add that not only do I believe the administration to be incompetent, bumbling, and sophomoric, but that it also lacks the strength of its convictions and that it is putting calculated political considerations ahead of the safety of the citizens of the United States of America. And if those accusations seem familiar to the more seasoned political observers reading this blog, that’s because they are essentially the same charges leveled against President Bill Clinton by Vice President Dick Cheney.

History is often cyclical in nature. Let us hope that the next president our of country learns from the mistakes of their predecessors and has the will to eliminate the threat of Islamic fascism once and for all.

Battle of Tora Bora — Wikipedia
U.S. missiles pound targets in Afghanistan, Sudan — CNN.com
U.S. Aborted Raid on Qaeda Chiefs in Pakistan in ’05 — New York Times
Intelligence Report Reasserts Al-Qaida Threat — National Public Radio

- posted by: Thomas Jeffrey and Jul 23, 07:30 PM in Bush-Administration Terrorism

 

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