A Martyr's Death?
By Thomas JeffreyArticle Posted: Sunday August 5, 2007
Kafeel Ahmed, the man behind the wheel of a flaming Jeep Cherokee that slammed into a terminal at Glasgow Airport back in June, succumbed to the burns that he suffered in the attack on Thursday. No one inside the airport was injured.
The 28-year old Indian-born engineer never recovered well enough to be questioned by MI5 and was in intensive care since the attack for suffering burns over 90 percent of his body. His partner in jihad, Bilal Abdulla, Mr. Ahmed’s passenger in the Jeep, remains in custody in Britain and faces terrorism charges alongside of two other men, all doctors, for their roles in the attack.
The four men are also suspected in planning two botched car bombings in London, which were discovered and disarmed by alert police before they could detonate, primarily due to what officals have called incompetent bomb construction.
No word yet on whether or not the ineffectual Mr. Ahmed will receive his requisite 99 virgins upon entering “paradise.”
‘Airport bomber’ is dead — The Sun
Lip Service
By Thomas JeffreyArticle Posted: Monday July 23, 2007
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
9-11 Conspirator Comes Clean, More Gonzales Impropriety, Iraq Timetable Falls Short
By Thomas JeffreyArticle Posted: Sunday March 18, 2007
Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the man whom the Bush Administration had pegged as the mastermind behind the 9/11 attacks, has confessed to that and several other terrorist operations around the globe, closing another chapter in the events surrounding September 11, 2001. Mr. Mohammed admitted his guilt in front of a military tribunal at Guantanamo Bay and stated he was doing so without duress or coercion. However, given his somewhat swaggering and egotistical nature, there are some questions as to what level of participation Mr. Mohammed played in 31 operations he has claimed to have had a hand in.
Officials: Mohammed exaggerated claims — AP via Yahoo News
The House Judiciary Committee has asked Alberto Gonzales to respond to an article published in The National Journal in which it is alleged that the Attorney General implored the Smirking POTUS to pull the plug on a Justice Department inquiry into the president’s beloved domestic spy program when Mr. Gonzales, who was then serving as White House counsel, realized that he may be a target of the probe. Former Attorney General John Ashcroft, now an high-price K-Street hired gun, is also implicated as being complicit in the Journal article. Big surprise there.
Justice Department Probe Foiled — The National Journal
One man’s man’s roadmap to terrorist Armageddon is another man’s timeline. On Thursday the White House admitted that it’s own timetable of government reforms that it had established for Nuri al-Maliki and his fledgling government would not be obtained by the end of this month as originally planned. Officials at the White House admit that somethings like the reversal of de-Baathification laws that have been credited with inciting some much of the anit-Sunni violence in Baghdad and around the country, may remain on the todo list until well into next year.
Iraqis behind schedule on goals, White House says — International Herald Tribune
Forest For The Trees
By Thomas JeffreyArticle Posted: Tuesday June 13, 2006
A covert CIA program aimed at capturing or killing a handful of al-Qaeda operatives within Somalia by financing local warlords has, in the words of one observer, “blow up in our face,” with the very Islamic militias that the US was attempting to marginalize now claiming control of Mogadishu after having routed the US-backed Somalis.
And who says that the Central Intelligence Agency isn’t what it used to be?
The unintentional consequences of secretly funding some of the same Somali warlords who ran the United States out of the East African nation some 12 years ago, to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars, have left some inside the beltway scratching their heads and wondering just who in the hell would have signed off on such an ill-conceived effort.
By all accounts, the operation, which was run by CIA agents based in Nairobi, Kenya, had the blessing of senior US government officials in Washington, but no one, either at the Defense or State Department, claims that were involved in the endeavor. However, during a March 2006 meeting of the National Security Council, anonymous sources claim that ”[the] decision was made to make counterterrorism the top policy priority for Somalia.”
Criticizing the effort as out of touch and out of step with the broader strategic needs of the region, US embassy officials in Kenya and as well as Foreign Service officers stationed in neighboring countries attempted to articulate their growing concerns to Washington. Even Somalia’s interim president, Abdullahi Yusuf, took umbrage with the covert plan back in May when he stated that “we really oppose American aid that goes outside the government,” and argued that straightening governments was the only real way to combat the spread of al-Qaeda in East Africa.
However, US officials have not been receptive to any criticism of their program. In one case, Michael Zorick, the US State Department’s political officer for Somalia, was reassigned to the African nation of Chad after he sent his own cable to Washington, voicing his disapproval of the program.
And as far as what this Leftwing Nutjob believes, this whole affair only serves to illustrate the catastrophic results of the continued adherence to the Bush Administration’s failed and dysfunctional foreign policy. By continuing to put such a high premium on the capture or killing of a relatively few al-Qaeda operatives—at an incredible expense when the rewards are truly negligible—it only serves to perpetuate political instability in countries like Somalia and Iraq. Such monies and efforts would be best served assisting teetering governments so that they won’t fall under the influence of groups like al-Qaeda or the Taliban.
The celebration of the death of al-Zarqawi last week, as well as the Smirking POTUS’ subsequent visit to Iraq yesterday, I believe, only serves to further make this very point.
President Bush truly believes that the death of one man is enough to overcome the months of sectarian violence and civil war that has gripped Iraq. Even when backed into a corner like they now are in Somalia, forced to deal with the Islamic factions that now appear to be in control of the country, the Bush Administration will continue to fail when its chronic myopia prevents them from recognizing that a only a broader view of geopolitics and international relations will be the only true solution to the scourge of Islamic Fundamentalism.
In other words, they can’t see the forest for the trees.
Source:
U.S. to Hold International Meeting on Somalia – Washington Post
Efforts by C.I.A. Fail in Somalia, Officials Charge – NYTimes.com
Bush Makes Surprise Visit to Iraq – Washington Post
"The price of being brown in America"
By Thomas JeffreyArticle Posted: Sunday February 5, 2006
In addition to Cindy Sheehan and Beverly Young, who were both ejected from last week’s State of the Union Address, there apparently was also a third; an India-born American citizen and businessman from the state of Florida.
Attending the President’s address as the personal guest of Florida Democratic Representative Alcee Hastings, the man, who has chosen to remain anonymous, was surrounded by security following the completion of the president’s State of the Union. He was then escorted out of the House chamber and was detained for more than an hour by Capitol police before his credentials, which include security clearance with the Department of Defense, were verified.
Capitol Police Chief Terrance Gainer, who has already eaten his fair share of humble pie this week, once again had to apologize for his overzealous staff, who detained the man ostensibly for his resemblance to someone on the Secret Service’s watch list.
But perhaps more disturbing than the actions by the Capitol Police, the FBI, or the Secret Service that night, are the comments made by the man to his host, Representative Hastings, upon being released later that evening.
“Maybe [it’s] just the the price of being brown in America.”
Has it really come to this?
Source:
The State of the Union’s Mystery Suspect – TIME.com
Podcast #117
By Thomas JeffreyArticle Posted: Tuesday April 15, 2008
Leftwing Nutjob Podcast, Episode 117, for Sunday, April 13, 2008
Penn hits the bricks, Iran in the spotlight again, the Obama money machine, al Qaeda’s rising star and more!