Go to 2:40 and see where foreign Islamists are returning from to Somalia: DENMARK
It seems we have more than our share of Somalis here in the good old USA.
The Refugee Act of 1980 required the Office of Refugee Resettlement to begin reporting to Congress annually. In the first ten years 10 years, 4413 Somalis were admitted as refugees to the US.
1983-93: 4413
1994: 3508
1995: 2524
1996: 6440
1997: 4948
1998: 2952
1999: 4321
2000: 6002
2001: 4940
2002: 242
2003: 1708
By 2003 we had admitted a total of 42.017 Somalis to the US. In those 20 years each Somali family was having on average 6 children.
2004: 12,814
2005: 10,101
2006: 10,220
2007: 6958
2008: 2,523
2009: 4,189 Refugee settlement watch
Here is what the Danes got from one of their Somalis:
A Somali axeman who tried to murder the Danish cartoon artist responsible for controversial drawings of the Prophet Mohammed had links to al-Qaeda, police said.
Somali axeman who tried to murder Danish cartoonist 'linked to al-Qaeda'
By Colin Freeman, Chief Foreign Correspondent
Published: 5:12PM GMT 02 Jan 2010
Telegraph
A Somali axeman who tried to murder the Danish cartoon artist responsible for controversial drawings of the Prophet Mohammed had links to al-Qaeda, police said.
Somali axeman who tried to murder Danish cartoonist 'linked to al-Qaeda'
By Colin Freeman, Chief Foreign Correspondent
Published: 5:12PM GMT 02 Jan 2010
Telegraph
The 23-year-old man, who broke into Kurt Westergaard's home late on Friday night, was shot and wounded by armed police called to the scene by Mr Westergaard pressing a panic button.
Yesterday, as he appeared in court charged with two counts of attempted murder, Jakob Scharf, head of Denmark's PET intelligence agency, said the attack had been "terror related".
Judge warns Muslim extremists: 'If you choose to live in this country, you live by its rules.'
"The arrested man has, according to PET's information, close relations to the Somali terrorist group al-Shabab and al-Qaeda leaders in eastern Africa," Mr Scharf said.
"The attack again confirms the terror threat that is directed at Denmark and against the cartoonist Kurt Westergaard in particular."
Mr Westergaard has been the target of numerous death threats since his 2005 illustrations depicting Mohammed wearing a bomb-shaped turban. They sparked anti-Western riots throughout the Muslim world, where images of the Prophet are seen as idolatrous.
Yesterday the 75-year-old artist told how he fled into a specially-made "safe room" after hearing his assailant breaking into his house shouting "Revenge!" and "Blood!"
"I got into the safe room and raised the alarm to the police while he energetically tried to bash down the door with a hammer or something," Mr Westergaard said.
"But he wasn't able to get in. I don't remember what he said, but it was very bad language. He spoke broken Danish and promised that he would come again."
Mr Westergaard's grand-daughter Stephanie, 5, was in the house at the time, and was in the sitting room as Westergaard was forced to take refuge in the safe room.
"I knew he wouldn't hurt her and I wouldn't have been able to do anything if I had tried," he added. "It was terrifying. The most important thing is that I remembered to think and go for safety. But it was close. Really close."
The Somali, whose identity has not been released by the Danish authorities, had previously granted asylum in Denmark, Mr Scharf said.
He added that he was suspected of involvement in terror-related activities in east Africa, and had been under PET monitoring.
He is now being treated for gunshot wounds to the knee and hand, which police said were not life-threatening.
Lovely Africa, the gift to mankind that keeps on giving.
ReplyDeleteKenya is next on the list. Now who do we know that springs from Kenya?
ReplyDeleteGuess I'll post it again here:
ReplyDeleteIt would behoove you to take what's floating out there right now on the FOB Chapman story with a couple of big spoonfuls of salt.
Sat Jan 02, 01:25:00 PM EST
As with the "news" that Abdulmutallab was flying without a passport.
As with the "news" that the Agency did not pass on relevant information to other government functions.
And where's bob, BTW?
I believe that bob is in the in loovely lakeside playground of Coeur d'Alene.
ReplyDeleteOr, any news that the CIA is in any way competent to tie their own shoelaces, much less carry pointed objects, and drive themselves back and forth to work.
ReplyDeleteThe CIA is a bigger joke than the State Dept.
ReplyDeleteMy dick looks serious by comparison.
I guess I can say, "Dick" on This thread. Doug hasn't "linked" it to his fellattioees at the PC, yet.
ReplyDeleteI suppose the suicide bombing in Afghanistan at the CIA station could be part of an elaborate psy-ops operation to confuse the Taliban.
ReplyDeleteThings could not possibly be that FUBAR.
We used to confuse the living shit out of the NVA when their SAM's shot down a B52. That really confused them.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI thought it was respectable to defend the Agency since everyone discovered it gave three guys a bath and that this made the new AG stomping mad.
ReplyDeleteOh, well.
In re Chapman: Statements, none of them official, are conflicting. The "no search" begs credulity as does his rumored status (the Pakistani Taliban and "former intel officials" say he was!) as an informant. An informant would be brought in with a case officer, searched in an intermediate area, and never would have been in the company of or in close proximity to a group of others but rather deliberately secluded. An informant would not have been able to identify seven other Agency employees among the variously associated individuals on that Base, much less the Base Chief. To coincidentally have seven other guys, the latter among them, at the gym at any given time is wildly improbable at this and other FOBs. Rumor has it also that he was wearing an ANA uniform, which is just BDUs. If he was working at the base (they sometimes do and have their own barracks) he would not have been searched as he would have been living there - but then would not likely have been at the gym either (hell sooner freezes over) which would also not be next to the gate.
Current unsourced accounts smell bad. Extremely bad.
FWIW.
That seven Agency personnel, the Base Chief among them, and one DOS employee have been killed by a suicide bomber at FOB Chapman, we know.
ReplyDeleteOccam's Razor says it was an inside job on the part of an ANA infiltrator (plenty of those) who lived and worked on the base.
ReplyDeleteRed or Yellow in 2010
ReplyDeleteIn Mexico, ladies ring in the New Year in brand-new underwear
The jokes are too obvious to bother with.
.
TKS Trish FWIW
ReplyDeleteAn inside job with outside help.
ReplyDeleteA few years ago, the Bad Guys targeted a fuel tank at a similar base on the border. (I imagine such incidents are not uncommon.) Luckily it didn't come off as they hoped, but it was immediately apparent that they knew its location thanks to the assistance of one of the base's Afghan residents.
Sometimes it's money; sometimes it's ideology; sometimes it's an admixture of the two; sometimes it's frothy resentment; sometimes it's (as one person put it) just that you're a complete asshole.
"Supported by American Special Forces troops, and led by Afghan intelligence officials, the effort has been building for six months and is now gaining traction in some rural areas where Afghan and NATO forces are too thinly spread to stop the Taliban’s encroachment.
ReplyDeleteAs security deteriorated here in Kunduz Province, the governor and intelligence chief enlisted the help of former resistance fighters like Mr. Ludin, called mujahedeen, who had fought against Soviet invaders and the Taliban in the past.
Opponents of the plan warn that resurrecting the mujahedeen would give power back to the warlords after long efforts to disarm them.
Although the Americans have said they will not provide weapons to the militias, the Afghans gave them guns. They also provide critical backup when needed, including transportation, communications and medical treatment, Afghan security officials said.
The militias, working alongside Afghan and NATO forces, recently helped clear several areas of insurgents. The gains may not be permanent, but they have dealt a setback to the Taliban, the officials said.
Afghans Answer Call to Fight
.
Classic Krauthammer:
ReplyDelete"Obama may have declared the war over. Unfortunately al-Qaeda has not. Which gives new meaning to the term "asymmetric warfare."
And produces linguistic -- and logical -- oddities that littered Obama's public pronouncements following the Christmas Day attack. In his first statement, Obama referred to Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab as "an isolated extremist." This is the same president who, after the Ford Hood shooting, warned us "against jumping to conclusions" -- code for daring to associate Nidal Hasan's mass murder with his Islamist ideology. Yet, with Abdulmutallab, Obama jumped immediately to the conclusion, against all existing evidence, that the bomber acted alone.
More jarring still were Obama's references to the terrorist as a "suspect" who "allegedly tried to ignite an explosive device." You can hear the echo of FDR: "Yesterday, December 7, 1941 -- a date which will live in infamy -- Japanese naval and air force suspects allegedly bombed Pearl Harbor."
Obama reassured the nation that this "suspect" had been charged. Reassurance? The president should be saying: We have captured an enemy combatant -- an illegal combatant under the laws of war: no uniform, direct attack on civilians -- and now to prevent future attacks, he is being interrogated regarding information he may have about al-Qaeda in Yemen.
ReplyDeleteInstead, Abdulmutallab is dispatched to some Detroit-area jail and immediately lawyered up. At which point -- surprise! -- he stops talking.
This absurdity renders hollow Obama's declaration that "we will not rest until we find all who were involved." Once we've given Abdulmutallab the right to remain silent, we have gratuitously forfeited our right to find out from him precisely who else was involved, namely those who trained, instructed, armed and sent him.
This is all quite mad even in Obama's terms. He sends 30,000 troops to fight terror overseas, yet if any terrorists come to attack us here, they are magically transformed from enemy into defendant.
The logic is perverse. If we find Abdulmutallab in an al-Qaeda training camp in Yemen, where he is merely preparing for a terror attack, we snuff him out with a Predator -- no judge, no jury, no qualms. But if we catch him in the United States in the very act of mass murder, he instantly acquires protection not just from execution by drone but even from interrogation.
Any government can through laxity let someone slip through the cracks. But a government that refuses to admit that we are at war, indeed, refuses even to name the enemy -- jihadist is a word banished from the Obama lexicon -- turns laxity into a governing philosophy.
ReplyDeleteHow is it possible that Obama is an American president? The birthers must have it right.
Pat Buchanan checks in:
ReplyDeleteA question arises after the lackadaisical way the administration first dealt with this potential horror. Are we governed by serious people? A second question is raised by the ideological journey of this 23-year-old from devout Muslim to extremist to terrorist, and by his sojourn from Nigeria to London to Yemen to America.
In Omar Bradley's comment on Korea, are we fighting the wrong war, in the wrong place, at the wrong time, with the wrong enemy?
Obama just ordered 30,000 more troops into Afghanistan. Yet, even if Gens. David Petraeus and Stanley McChrystal pull it off and pacify Kandahar, how does that protect the American homeland from suicide bombers hell-bent on blowing up airliners?
How does turning the tide in Afghanistan stop radical Muslim youth in Africa or Arabia from being trained to board planes with bombs and blow them up over the Atlantic? How do 130,000 U.S. soldiers in Iraq make us more safe from an al-Qaida that has moved into Waziristan, Baluchistan, Yemen, Somalia and North Africa?
The Sept. 11 massacre may have been decided upon in Afghanistan. But the perpetrators were Saudis and Egyptians who plotted, planned and trained in Germany, Boston, Delray Beach and Northern Virginia.
How has occupying two nations at a cost of 5,000 dead, 35,000 wounded and a trillion dollars made us safer from an enemy that more resembles the Apache of Geronimo than the panzers of Rommel?
If protection of the homeland against another Sept. 11 is the goal of this war, how relevant to that goal is the building of clinics and schools in Kabul and keeping the Taliban at bay in Helmand?
Are we fighting other people's wars, rather than our own war?
We Americans are today widely hated in the Arab and Islamic world by scores of millions, out of whom al-Qaida need but recruit a few hundred suicide bombers to wreak havoc on our country.
Does having 200,000 U.S. troops in their part of the world, fighting and killing Muslims, make our country more secure than defending our borders, keeping radicals out, running al-Qaida down, and tracking and killing them where they are?
To win the war we are in, we have to fight the war we are in, not the war we prefer to fight because no one else is so good at it.
"Although the Americans have said they will not provide weapons to the militias, the Afghans gave them guns. They also provide critical backup when needed, including transportation, communications and medical treatment..."
ReplyDelete...and intel. It's like delivering your target packages to a foreign military entity.
We paid the warlords to disarm. They did and got absolutely nothing in return.
Probably the only downside to rearming in this case is that they are not without taint. But then, who in the hell is?
And it's an often easier recruitment job because the fighters know who they're working for and are loyal to *him*. That makes a difference.
This is all quite mad even in Obama's terms. He sends 30,000 troops to fight terror overseas, yet if any terrorists come to attack us here..."
ReplyDeleteThey are a civil not a military matter. That's right.
I thought we hashed this all out under the previous admin. Do we have to roll it out again?
And frankly given not a little ambivalence, expressed here and elsewhere, regarding the current institutional fitness and mission seriousness of the United States Military, I'm surprised that it's believed that transferring prosecutorial authority from one federal department to the other is desirable.
Our entire Government establishment is a Bad Joke. From the State Dept., to the CIA, to the Pentagon. Homeland Security, TSA, the White House. Ludicrous Pretenders to Coherence.
ReplyDeleteIncompetence personified. Surreality bordering on Insanity.
And, now, the Manchurian Candidate becomes President. Jezus.
"Decadal rates of sea level change during the twentieth century." Simon Holgate, Proudman, Oceanographic Laboratory, Liverpool, UK, Natural Environmental Research Council
ReplyDeleteWhich shows that the first half of the century (1904-1953) had a slightly higher rate (1.91±0.14 mm/yr) in comparison with the second half of the century (1.42±0.14 mm/yr 1954-2003).
So we have a small and slowing rate of sea level rise.
Krauthammer does a good job of pointing out the admin's lunacy. I told you these people will make a hash of things. They are clueless and make crap up as they go along.
ReplyDeleteEvery day brings me closer to being and isolationist especially when it comes to us and the Islamic whirled.
And, I repeat myself; The total family debt is this country is equal to the GDP and the national debt is $183K per capita. Tell me we're not running on fumes.
...an iso...
ReplyDeleteWest for Congress
ReplyDeleteCrap!
I thot we had the perfect person to run against BHO in 2012.
Black, articulate, conservative, patriotic LEADER.
(Colonel West is the guy that saved dozens of his men by firing his 45 immediately behind the head of an Iraqi Policemen who then spilled the beans on his friends plans to murder GI's. West was of course punished for that act of leadership.)
Now I go to his website, and in one glance give up hope.
No way we are gonna elect a gap tooth for any post higher than the Late Night Show.
...and he coulda fixed them for a couple of hundred bucks!
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteDeuce,
ReplyDeleteTo follow up on our tiff from the previous thread:
What suggests that racism could be a problem is that you think it is relevant what my race is - somehow, if I were black, it would change what I've written here. How does your view of my objections to the simplistic profiling you've suggested change if I've said it as a black man, a muslim man, a woman, or if it is said as a white male born in the middle of America?
Whit said...
ReplyDelete"And, I repeat myself;
The total family debt is this country is equal to the GDP and the national debt is $183K per capita. Tell me we're not running on fumes."
---
I think that may be the amount added on BHO's watch so far.
At any rate, pay no attention, Rufus will be here to assure us that it can be cured by a sophisticated sounding accounting gimmick.
...just like socialized medicine can fly on a wing and a prayer.
Mr potatoe is becoming boring.
ReplyDeleteI suggest the host begin ignoring.
...and to continue on in the line of Pat Buchanan's thinking in that excerpt posted by Deuce:
ReplyDelete'How does the concept of WAR relate to trying to prevent an individual from blowing up an airliner?'
I would suggest that the appropriate manner is through law enforcement methods (intelligence gathering, interdiction and arrest).
Trish said,
ReplyDelete"it was immediately apparent that they knew its location thanks to the assistance of one of the base's Afghan residents"
---
Why don't we get smart like Dubai and hire Indians and Filopinos?
Filipinos
ReplyDelete"Flips" for short, in paradise.
Trish said...
ReplyDelete"Probably the only downside to rearming in this case is that they are not without taint. But then, who in the hell is?"
---
Uh,
In case you haven't noticed,
here I am.
Signed, sealed, delivered.
Book Review (NY Times)
ReplyDeleteKatie Roiphe asks why today’s male novelists have repudiated the aggressive sexual virility of Bellow, Updike and Roth.
---
Roth strikes me as an embarassing Putz.
GOP’s “Repeal Health Care” Plan Faces High Hurdles
ReplyDelete“You attack the expansion of government,” said Ret. Lt. Col. Allen West, a Republican candidate for Congress in Florida whom the National Republican Congressional Committee views as one of its strongest challengers. “Improving and reforming our health care should not require more levels of government — health care exchanges, health care czars. We make that argument. That’s the way we start to peel the onion back.”
For full article, click here
If the Obama health plan becomes law,” said the Cato Institute’s Cannon, “we will never get rid of it.”
A hat tip to me would have been nice...
ReplyDeleteDoug, let's multiply 300,000,000 (the current pop. of the U.S.) by $183,000.
ReplyDeleteGee, I come up with $54,900,000,000,000.00 That must be about $54 TRILLION, 900 Billion.
The "National Debt" must have grown a bit since last I looked.
Rufus said...
ReplyDelete"Incompetence personified. Surreality bordering on Insanity."
Yeah, but our diversity is our most important product.
That Army guy with all those fancy medals tells me so.
We just agreed that folks like Whit are incompetent, Ruf.
ReplyDelete...I've seen the same figure myself, tho, wonder how they could be that far off?
Nope, it's still $7,857,000,000.00
ReplyDeleteThat's $7.857 T to you, Dougie.
You just missed it by approx. a Factor of 8.
Any other nummers you wanna impress us with?
ReplyDeleteChores to do.
ReplyDeleteHope you two figure that one out by the time I get back.
Oops, left off a coupla zits.
ReplyDelete$7,857,000,000,000.00
"If the Obama health plan becomes law,” said the Cato Institute’s Cannon, “we will never get rid of it.”
ReplyDeleteRemains to be seen.
Is Healthcare Constitutional?
.
Total US Debt
ReplyDelete.
Q, that includes "household, business, etc., etc."
ReplyDeleteAlso note the debt noted above does not include contingent liability for social seccurity, medicare, medicaid, new healthcare programs etc.
ReplyDeleteThat contingent liability has been projected at about $100 trillion (not sure if that was to 2050 or out the usual 75 years that SSA and Medicare use.)
.
I know Rufus. Just sugesting that may have been were the $183,000 per person may have come from.
ReplyDelete.
Roughly equivalent to a family with $100,000.00 income having a $400,000.00 mortgage, at 5%.
ReplyDeleteWhat numbers are you using?
ReplyDeleteU.S. GDP $14 T X 75 years = 1,050 Trillion.
ReplyDeleteOf course, GDP doubles about every 12 years, so . . . . ah hell, you figure it out.
ReplyDeleteNever get your "economics" from Right Wing websites. OR, left wing websites.
ReplyDeleteWe got troubles comin, kiddos. But, they ain't the ones you're looking at.
ReplyDeleteYour more knowledgeable than me on this stuff Rufus but what does the GDP have to do with the debt? Wouldn't it be tax receipts, a percentage of GDP, that matters in paying off our obligations? As for GDP growth, that is factored into the numbers. Also you are also assuming no military or discretionary spending in your numbers aren't you?
ReplyDeleteAt any rate, here is another article from USA Today that lays it out on a family basis.
National Debt
.
Why don't we get smart like Dubai and hire Indians and Filopinos?
ReplyDeleteSat Jan 02, 08:42:00 PM EST
Because we like a good old fashioned counterintelligence nightmare.
We hire third country nationals to cook and provide other non-security support.
Depending on specific location and facility we hire US security contractors who are often working the inner perimeter. Out in the sticks at this type of base it's usually all Afghan security forces - who are all supervised by US personnel, whether on the perimeters or in the towers. Because they're not professional and they're not trustworthy. The Iraqis - you're often uncertain as to loyalty, but professionally they're a crack bunch compared to the Afghans.
It's been a few years; I'm sure a lot has changed. But the problems of infiltration and, perhaps as importantly, everyday blackmail (if it's a choice between you or their family, they're going to sell out you) undoubtedly remain.
Before I forget, a movie recommendation: In Bruges.
ReplyDeleteAnd not primarily for the scenery, though it's lovely, of course.
Q, this:
ReplyDeleteThe 12% rise in red ink in 2008 stems from an explosion of federal borrowing during the recession, plus an aging population driving up the costs of Medicare and Social Security.
is from your link. It's, basically, gibberish. It tells you nothing.
A bad year for the Beltran Leyva Cartel.
ReplyDelete<a href="”http://www.realclearworld.com/news/ap/international/2010/Jan/02/mexico_announces_capture_of_alleged_drug_lord.html”>Cartel Leader Captured</a>
<i>”Mexican police have captured alleged drug lord Carlos Beltran Leyva, just two week after his even more powerful brother was killed in a shootout with troops — back-to-back victories in President Felipe Calderon's drug war…
Two weeks ago, his brother Arturo, reputed chief of the Beltran Leyva Cartel, was killed in a shootout with Mexican marines in the central city of Cuernavaca…
A third brother, Alfredo Beltran Levya, was arrested in January 2008…”</i>
Luckily, for the cartel, they never seem to run out of brothers.
<i>”Another brother, Mario Beltran Leyva, is still at large and listed as one of Mexico's most wanted alleged drug lords.”</i>
.
Guys, I don't mean to downplay the effects of too much debt; however, you can't overlook the advantages of borrowing in your Own currency, and being, somewhat, in control of the amount of inflation that's allowed to take place.
ReplyDeleteAlso, you've got to put the present right-wing hysteria in the perspective of a damn-near depression, and the effect it's had on tax revenues. When "spending" normalizes, and tax revenues rebound in a year, or so, the whole thing starts looking a whole lot different.
There is only One long-term danger, here. And, that is a prolonged, deep recession. This spending, although extreme, is counter-recessionary.
Our Big Danger is Energy. It can destroy tax revenues. A severe "energy" recession could be existential.
"is from your link. It's, basically, gibberish. It tells you nothing."
ReplyDeleteTranslation: I'm tired of talking about this subject.
:)
No problem, Ruf. The only reason I got involved in the discussion was that you guys seemed to be wondering where the $183,000 number came from.
It's a long-term problem and I won't be here in the long term. (Of course I do worry about the grandkids.)
.
.
Oh, my. Mymymymymy.
ReplyDeleteABC News has fleshed out a bit of the story - and it's hair-raisingly bad.
Where the fuck did these guys think they were working? Oslo?
That wasn't just waiting to happen. It was begging to happen.
Goes without saying I was wrong.
YOu're kinda right, Q. I'm finishing off the New Years bottle of Beam, and watching an NCIS marathon.
ReplyDeleteSuffice it to say. "Unfunded Liabilities" is the Scam of the Century. Anyone who has a mortgage, has kids to put through college, or just has a few years to live, in general, has an "unfunded liability."
A young man's unfunded liability, today, is probably several million dollars. Of course, his future income is probably on the order of a million, or so, more.
NCIS. Other than CNBC, local sports, Family Guy, and Robot Chicken, NCIS is all I watch on TV anymore.
ReplyDelete.
The CIA is populated by Morons
ReplyDelete"Your more knowledgeable than me on this stuff Rufus... "
ReplyDelete---
That has not kept him from being consistently Wrong!
"Suffice it to say. "Unfunded Liabilities" is the Scam of the Century. Anyone who has a mortgage, has kids to put through college, or just has a few years to live, in general, has an "unfunded liability."
ReplyDelete...like stupid stuff like that, where he ignores
THE HISTORICAL RECORD
of growth of welfare programs in real terms and in terms of percentage of GDP.
...not to mention the even more expensive cost in terms of what it has done to the fiber of our culture.
Take the black family for instance.
...rapidly spreading elsewhere.
Rufus's talking points are the scam of the century!
ReplyDelete"There is only One long-term danger, here. And, that is a prolonged, deep recession. This spending, although extreme, is counter-recessionary."
ReplyDelete---
Right, transfering wealth from the taxpayers to the wealthy crooks is doing wonders for the country and the economy:
The amount they have already committed to spend would
PAY OFF EVERYONE'S MORTGAGE!!!
Rufus is a shill for the socialist crooks running this place.
ReplyDelete"Goes without saying I was wrong."
ReplyDelete---
I was hoping you were right.
Don't know if I can stand to read about it tonite.
Exclusive: CIA Attacker Driven in From Pakistan
ReplyDeleteThe story seems to corroborate a claim by the Taliban on the Pakistani side of the border that they had turned a CIA asset into a double agent and sent him to kill the officers in the base, located in the eastern Afghan province of Khost.
The infiltration into the heart of the CIA's operation in eastern Afghanistan deals a strong blow to the agency's ability to fight Taliban and al Qaeda, former intelligence officials say, and will make the agency reconsider how it recruits Pakistani and Afghan informants.
The officers who were killed in the attack were at the heart of the United States' effort against senior members of al Qaeda and the Taliban, former intelligence officials say. They collected intelligence on the militant commanders living on both sides of the border and helped run paramilitary campaigns that tired to kill those commanders, including the drone program that has killed a dozen senior al Qaeda with missiles fired from unpiloted aircraft.
The former intelligence officials all say the CIA will be able to replace those who were killed, but the officials acknowledge the attack killed decades of knowledge held by some of the agency's most informed experts on the region, the Taliban and al Qaeda. It also killed at least one officer who had been part of the agency's initial hunt for Osama bin Laden in the mid-1990s.
The drone program relies on informants who can cross the border easily, in parts CIA officers cannot. The CIA is wary of making major trips into Pakistan for fear of the repercussions if officers were caught or killed there. Informants -- especially Pakistani informants from the Waziri or Mehsud tribe -- are the most valuable assets for the CIA in finding senior al Qaeda and Taliban militants who are targeted by the drone program.
"To go after the Taliban and the Haqqani network on the Pakistani side of the border, the United States relies almost exclusively on its predator drones. But those predator drones require agents on the ground to direct them, to say, 'this is where you should be looking,'" says Richard Clarke, the Bush administration's counter-terrorism czar until 2003 and an ABC News consultant. "The CIA does that in support of the military, and without their intelligence, we really have very little way of affecting what's going on on the Pakistani side of the border."
ReplyDeleteThe infiltration into the CIA base suggests an extremely high level of sophistication, even for a network that has a huge reach across the area.
"The Soviet Union during the Cold War, the Cubans during the Cold War were able to run double agents against the CIA very successfully," says Clarke. "But for a non-nation state to be able to do this -- for the Haqqani network of the Taliban to be able to do this -- represents a huge increase in the sophistication of the enemy."
Clarke and other former intelligence officials predict the CIA in Afghanistan will be forced to question who they can trust and change their methods in how they find informants.
"Because of this attack, the CIA will be very, very careful about who it trusts, how it vets its agents, how it searches its agents," Clarke says. "And this will mean that in the future, it will be much more difficult for CIA to operate in the field because of probably new security roles affecting what they do."
More Victims in Suicide Bomber Attack Identified
The only victim of the attack who has been publicly identified is 37-year-old Harold Brown Jr., a father of three. The base chief, a woman in her 30s, was also killed, according to current and former intelligence officials. She is believed to have been focused on al Qaeda since before 9/11. A former U.S. official says a second woman was also killed in the attack, and that both women had "considerable counterintelligence experience."
The attack also killed Captain Al Shareef Ali bin Zeid, a member of the Jordanian spy agency Dairat al-Mukhabarat al-Ammah, according to people who have spoken with bin Zeid's family. The Jordanian military released a statement acknowledging bin Zeid had been killed in Afghanistan, but did not mention he was working with the CIA.
The ability for the CIA to replace the officers and institutional knowledge taken away by the attack will help decide the war in Afghanistan, former intelligence officials argue.
CIA historian Tim Wiener says, "The war we are in is going to be won or lost by the quality of intelligence the CIA can gather in the field."
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThe infiltration into the CIA base suggests an extremely high level of sophistication,...
ReplyDeleteNo, it indicates a lax operation which ended badly.
3-Year-Old Won't Testify In Child Rape Case
ReplyDeleteA Kingston man who was released on bail after being charged with raping a 5-year-old girl this summer pleaded not guilty Monday to the weekend rape of a 3-year-old girl.
A Kingston man accused a raping a 3-year-old girl while out on bail for sexually assaulting another child has lost a bid to force the girl to testify in court.
Twenty-six-year-old Joseph Gardner was arraigned Monday in Plymouth District Court on charges of rape of a child by force and intimidating a witness.
Gardner was accused this summer of breaking into a home and raping a 5-year-old girl. He was released on $10,000 bail while awaiting trial on those charges. Prosecutors in that case had requested that bail be set at $150,000.
Took a good dump for that one to penetrate my thick skull:
ReplyDeleteAsshole mom who knew the baby raper since high school, takes her babies over to sleep with the guy while he's out on bail for raping another baby!
Should put the kids up for adoption and sterilize mom.
109. Morton Doodslag:
ReplyDeleteTo get 13 high ranking CIA/other intel officers in one room to listen to what the bomber had to say must mean the guy duped our spies with a pretty big sugarplum.
I don’t want to second guess, and I don’t know anything about CIA war procedure, but it seems that gathering so many mission-critical top ranking Americans in one place at one time in this type of war illustrates a terrible blunder on our part.
This belies a level of comfort and confidence which the CIA clearly should not have been feeling.
Even if the lure was a big get like a hint that the bomber knew OBL’s location, as exciting as that would be, such wouldn’t require more than one or two top agents present, no? It sounds like the whole command was annihilated. BIG score for AQ.
Wretchard called pondering their level of sophistication. Our guys clearly died underestimating their mark.
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What say ye, Trish?
To much!
ReplyDeleteThe top operatives that the CIA had in Afpakistan, blown to pieces, by a double agent, in their own headquarters!
Were the Dutch in charge of security, there, too?
Little wonder that the Langley boys could not connect the dots, in Nigeria, they cannot even secure their own, inside the wire.
Those billets will be refilled, but the institutional knowledge lost, that is gone forever.
Whether the Afpakis are sophisticated or the CIA bumpkins, merely a matter of perspective. The reality demands an admission of both. Not only did they turn our trusted native asset, they radicalized him to the point of suicide.
The explosive charge more than 1/4 lb det cord secreted in his undies or up his ass.
Rufus: U.S. GDP $14 T X 75 years = 1,050 Trillion. Of course, GDP doubles about every 12 years, so . . . . ah hell, you figure it out.
ReplyDeleteIt's just first year calculus Rufus, no big deal.
It doubles every 12 years, 75 / 12 = 6.25
That means we're somewhere between doubling six times (for a multiplier of 64) and seven times (for a multiplier of 128). Closer to 64. Let's narrow it down:
ln(2)=0.6931 (logarithm of 2 because we "double" every 12 years)
6.75 * 0.6931 = 4.332
e ^ 4.332 = 76.1 (e=2.718281828459045)
76.1 * $14 trillion = $1,065 trillion.
Of course, if inflation is at 18% (because Obama is Peanut II) then it doubles every 3.85 years, and in 2075 that quadrillion dollars will get you a double-tall decaf latte at Starbucks...with sprinkles.
"Not only did they turn our trusted native asset, they radicalized him to the point of suicide. "
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I think that is the possibility they failed to anticipate.
U.S. Closes Embassy in Yemen Over Qaeda Threats
ReplyDeleteA statement posted Sunday on the embassy Web site said it had closed in response to threats, but gave no further details.
Think about this: Who have we been killing with predator strikes based upon this man and his network?
ReplyDeleteThe people of Waziristan are suffering a brutal kind of occupation under the Taliban and al Qaeda. Therefore, they welcome the drone attacks
ReplyDelete"I have yet to come across a non-TTP resident of Waziristan who supports the Taliban or al Qaeda. Till recently they were terrified by the TTP to the extent that they would not open their mouth to oppose them. But now, having been displaced and out of their reach, some of them speak against them openly and many more than before in private conversations. They express their fear of the intelligence agencies of Pakistan whenever speaking against the Taliban. They see the two as two sides of the same coin.
ReplyDeleteWhat we read and hear in the print and electronic media of Pakistan about drone attacks as a violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty or resulting in killing innocent civilians is not true so far as the people of Waziristan are concerned. According to them, al Qaeda and the TTP are dead scared of drone attacks and their leadership spends sleepless nights. This is a cause of pleasure for the tormented people of Waziristan.
Moreover, al Qaeda and the Taliban have done everything to stop the drone attacks by killing hundreds of innocent civilians on the pretext of their being American spies.
They thought that by overwhelming the innocent people of Waziristan with terror tactics they would deter any potential informer, but they have failed. On many occasions the Taliban and al Qaeda have killed the alleged US spies in front of crowds of hundreds, even thousands of tribesmen. Interestingly, no one in Pakistan has raised objection to killings of the people of Waziristan on charges of spying for the US.
This, the people of Waziristan informed, is a source of torture for them that their fellow Pakistanis condemn the killing of the terrorists but fall into deadly silence over the routine murders of tribesmen accused of spying for the US by the terrorists occupying their land."
Doug, please repost your last two on the next thread where you have the hat tip.
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