Strike Five! Fifth Airstrike in Pakistani Tribal Areas This Year – Update: Zawahiri The Target?

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The Democratic Party and far left theme is that President Bush somehow allegedly gave up on the war in Afghanistan. US forces and intelligence agencies know better. The anti-Bush/anti-war theme extends to claim that somehow or another President Bush isn’t fighting Al Queda in Afghanistan or going after Bin Laden. Of course, both aren’t really in Afghanistan. They’re in the lawless mountains in Pakistan that border Afghanistan. So, what about there? Well, not a lot can be said about the fight in that area. Reporters and sightseers aren’t just discouraged. They’re arrested or killed or both. However, the skies above are very active-as active as the hunt for Al Queda leaders always has been despite the political PR from the left.

Today, we’re getting reports that another covert (well, it WAS covert) air strike has taken place in that region. If so, it’s the FIFTH time this year that we know about. How many do you think we don’t know about in this secret war’s most secret area and against the most top secret targets?

More here….

UPDATE by Curt

Some updated info here:

Taliban and Afghan National Army backed by American forces have traded severe firing in Sooran Dara area of Mehmand and Bajaur Agencies on Afghan border late Tuesday evening.

Sources told this correspondent that Afghan National Army backed by American forces and gunship helicopters clashed with Taliban when the former on a tip-off attacked a Taliban hideout in the Sooran Dara area.

Unconfirmed reports receiving from the Dara revealed that dozens of Taliban and Afghan National Army are feared dead in the clashes.

Pakistan Tehrik-e-Taliban spokesman Maulvi Umer talking to this correspondent via phone from an undisclosed location said that clashes erupted in Sooran Dara area when American and Afghan National Army backed by gunship helicopters and jets attacked Taliban on the Afghan border.

He said that Afghan National Army and American forces and their jets also violated the territorial limits of Pakistan and continued to fly over Mehmand and Bajaur Agencies for few minutes.

Ok, now here is where some speculation comes into the mix. The US would fire a drone missile at a high value target. No way they are going to do that for just a bunch of regulars. The attack happened in the Mohmand area of Pakistan:

The missile was thought to have been fired into the Mohmand ethnic Pashtun tribal area in northwest Pakistan where this year, U.S.-controlled Predator aircraft have struck at least four sites used by al Qaeda operatives, killing dozens of suspected militants.

Who has some family in that area?

It is pertinent to mention, however, that al-Zawahiri is reportedly married to a woman from the Mohmand tribe who lives with her father in the border area between Bajaur and Mohmand agencies

James Robbins believes the target may have been OBL:

This is some of the baddest of the badlands in Pakistan, and a great place to hide if you are Osama bin Laden.

Obviously, this attack was targeted at someone high value….but just how high value was he?

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Does this mean will get to see George W. Bush keep his promise about bin Laden “dead or alive”?

Were this a Democratic Administration, FoxNews would have a daily counter of how long it has been since the September 11, 2001 attacks that Osama bin Laden has been free. “Airstrikes” would not have counted (and for proof you can look to Republican comments about President Clinton’s airstrikes that were no more effective against Osama bin laden in the 90’s than President Bush’s are now).

Apparently Conservatives have given George W. Bush another “Free Pass” on his stated priority on this one:

http://www.depresident.com/bushisms.asp

“I don’t know where bin Laden is. I have no idea and really don’t care. It’s not that important. It’s not our priority.”
– George W. Bush, 3/13/2002

For Pete’s sake Stevie!

Where did Bush “promise” this?

Can you site a source? A video? Anything?

No, you cannot because you, sir, are a liar. A bold-faced brazen LIAR.

Also, I find it more than a tad amusing that you chose to only post a portion of President Bush’s quote. Another attempt at dishonesty that you hoped to get away with I am sure.

I know for a fact that there is more to that quote, both before and after, but I’d be willing to bet that you either a) don’t know that or b) don’t care that you are twisting the truth by using only that little snippet.

If you had been paying attention since 9/11 you would have discovered that defeating Al Queda is about more than just capturing or killing Osama. Of course, you probably know that, but you’re just too intellectually dishonest to admit it because it doesn’t fit the template that has been laid out for you.

For additional bonus points can you even tell me who planned and executed the 9/11 plot?

I’ll give you a hint….it wasn’t Osama.

Not to worry, since when did Stevie worry about the truth. Being part and party to the lying democrats has it’s desired effect. BDS is alive and well.

The attack was ‘covert’ because no one told a democrat. If so, it would have been on the front page of the NYSlimes before it could be launched.

Maybe Booosh will launch a surge in the democrat haven of Phillie and make the city ‘almost’ as safe as Bagdad. It’ll take longer but might work.

BDS is alive and well.

The question is Scrappy——what are these poor souls going to do come January when Bush is building his new golf course at Crawford? Stevie’s pathetic rhetoric about the targeting skills of Bush’s military vs. Clinton’s would be argued by folks like Saddam’s sons, and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, (IF THEY WERE ALIVE), but of course Clinton never took bin Laden or his califate serious and neither does Obama who would rather sit down and chat with terrorist with NO PRE-CONDITIONS.

The only thing we may miss is the size of bin Laden’s eyes just before the cloud of dust and the diffusion of DNA.

And let us not forget that Clinton has a better record at hitting pill factories than Bush does.

Re: “For Pete’s sake Stevie!
Where did Bush “promise” this?
Can you site a source? A video? Anything?
No, you cannot because you, sir, are a liar. A bold-faced brazen LIAR.”

http://www.usatoday.com/news/sept11/2001/12/14/bush-binladen.htm

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Bush pledged anew Friday that Osama bin Laden will be taken “dead or alive,” no matter how long it takes, amid indications that the suspected terrorist may be bottled up in a rugged Afghan canyon. The president, in an Oval Office meeting with Thailand’s prime minister, would not predict the timing of bin Laden’s capture but said he doesn’t care how the suspect is brought to justice. “I don’t care, dead or alive — either way,” Bush said. “It doesn’t matter to me.”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/afghanistan/1340895/Bin-Laden-is-wanted-dead-or-alive,-says-Bush.html

PRESIDENT Bush said yesterday that he wanted Osama bin Laden, the Saudi exile, “dead or alive” in some of the most bellicose language used by a White House occupant in recent years.
“I want justice,” he said after a meeting at the Pentagon, where 188 people were killed last Tuesday when an airliner crashed into the building. “And there’s an old poster out West that says, ‘Wanted: Dead or Alive.’ ”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=&contentId=A43265-2001Sep17&notFound=true

In a day of stepped-up rhetoric and law-enforcement proposals, President Bush said today he wants accused terrorist leader Osama bin Laden “dead or alive.” Attorney General John Ashcroft, meanwhile, urged new laws to facilitate wiretaps, saying he believes that “associates of the hijackers that have ties to terrorist organizations may be a continuing presence in the United States.”

It can’t be UBL. The left has been telling us since 03 that Bush already has him in custody at a secret CIA prison, and Republicans are just waiting for the right PR moment to announce it.

Is that your alibi for George W. Bush?

.

And Aye Chihuahua can apologize for the “LIAR!” comment any time.

Alibi? Why would he need an alibi? Bin Laden’s either already in custody as Sec Albright and other nutjobs claim, or history is real and UBL escaped before the CIA guys in Afghanistan even knew it (Nov 01).

Stevie, only in your warped, twisted, little mind do I owe you an apology.

President Bush said we would go after OBL, that he would be taken “dead or alive” regardless of how long it takes.

Have we, or have we not, gone after him? Yes or No? So simple a question even you can handle it.

What makes his statement false? That’s right. Nothing.

Once again, I challenge you to show me where he used the word “promise”.

For bonus points, where did he give a time frame in which this would happen?

You, sir, remain a bold-faced brazen LIAR.

Also, you didn’t address any of the points in the remainder of my post and you still didn’t post the remainder of the quote from the President because, obviously, it doesn’t fit with in your template.

Re: “Have we, or have we not, gone after him? Yes or No? So simple a question even you can handle it.”

Apparently the answer is, “sort of”. But Conservatives aree certainly pleased with the results.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21000298/

As usual Conservatives will parse every last syllable in order to protect George w. Bush from any accountability whatsoever. The Conservative protection machine will always go after anyone who dares use “accountability” and “George w. Bush” in the same paragraph.

George W. Bush, the “remember to read the fine print” Presidency.

Oh, a leftist source Steve? By your “logic” and standards applied when we use non-leftist sources or (gasp) a conservative source, your link means nothing. But I do not use youre pathetic “standards”.

Though as you are such a military genius, I am surprised you did not read the article, or understand the quotes from identified sources.
However, YOU parsed these syllables it seems:

But the bigger part of the picture is the question of allocation of resources from Afghanistan to Iraq. All Delta Force and “dark side” Rangers were moved to Iraq, said a special operations officer involved in the Afghanistan operation. Left behind in Afghanistan were SEAL Team Six and some Rangers. But apparently in this case, not enough “dark side” were available. The 82nd, said a second special operations officer, “is a poor substitute … [it is] a blunder to use them on an op with dark side operators.”

The rest of the article gives the military’s assesment of how it could have done better and cites named sources with the exception of a few, you zeroed in on the last “gotcha” paragraph as your thought leaders knew you would. Unnamed sources giving deployment information? Delta Force and Ranger deployments are not given out for security reasons. We, the US Military tried and, despite indicators (so NOW you trust the intelligence, but not for Iraq, Iran, or other places?), it does seem OBL most likely fled long before the operation started and left his loyal followers to die like the coward he is (as he did in 2002). That is, IF he was there. With OBLs health a question, along with his falling out in the Arab world (being sold out by guards/aids is a real possibility for him), maybe he did not travel. I do not know as I have no access to his calendar. Of course, maybe he is buried under 50 tons of rock or trapped in a cave-in.

YOU, like the mind-numed leftist drone you are see failure and another opprotunity for your idiotic BDS to shine. I see a success where we disrupted AQ’s and the Taliban’s planning ability. They massed to plan their next spring offensive (since the last one failed utterly for them, as did the one before) and got hit. I also see AAR comments all over on how WE the military need to improve planning and coordination in a casualty adverse culture (i.e., the left will gleefully count our dead while ignoring our accomplishments). I also see how we, the military need to improve interoperation in the 18th ABN Corps and joint operations. The 82nd is not a “conventional” unit. I would think any Airborne worth his wings would have more than a few words for the NBC reporter who wrote this.

Of course, any who saw your antics would also be seething.

“sort of”

Sort of?

Sort of?

Who’s parsing now?

Round and round and round you go.

George W. Bush himself has been quite clear as to how important he considers the man who was the leader of and proclaimed himself the symbol of the September 11, 2001 attacks.

http://www.depresident.com/bushisms.asp

“I don’t know where bin Laden is. I have no idea and really don’t care. It’s not that important. It’s not our priority.”
– George W. Bush, 3/13/2002

If “The Man” himself does not care one way or the other if Osama bin Laden is ever brought to justice, why should any Conservative care more?

If “The Man” himself does not care one way or the other if Osama bin Laden is ever brought to justice, why should any Conservative care more?

Simple question for you Steve. Where does Bush say he doesn’t care care if bin Laden is ever brought to justice? Look at the quote you just used. Where is it said? You’re a pathetic sniveling toad without a working nerve cell in your brain.

Another simple question. What is more important: Capturing bin Laden, or working to marginalize and destroy the organization he leads? Terrorist groups have repeatedly shown that the idea of “cut off the head and the body will die” is not true. These groups are Hydras, a new head will just grow back. But if you chop off the limbs and start hacking up the body, the head isn’t going to be a whole lot. The Al Qaeda organization is the priority, bin Laden, if he is even still alive should not be the main focus. Or do you think its a good use of resources to send all of our military out searching for one single camel humper?

He also said he wanted Bin Laden, dead or alive. It seems the timing of the statements would be of particular importance here. By 3/13/02….UBL’d been gone from Afghanistan for 4 months. No one’s known where he is since November 2001. ‘course…for all we know, yesterday’s air strike might’ve gotten him.

All you care about is gotcha politics. If you cared about substance, you’d be keeping track of how many of Al Queda’s leadership have been killed or captured-including all of the 911 plotters except UBL and Zawahiri, and it’s very clear (again, we can point to the 5 air strikes this year alone, including yesterday’s), that the hunt for UBL hasn’t ever ended. Only the care from people who now see gotcha politicking and word parsing as more important than substantive accomplishments.

Stevie,

You’ve obviously chosen to continue down your path of dishonesty with the partial, misleading, and blatantly inaccurate quotes.

You probably thought that no one would notice or that you could just slip one by us dumb Conservatives.

I told you in post #2 that there were things you were leaving out but you chose to forge ahead.

I will post the complete and accurate quote for you below since you seem to be unwilling/unable to do it for yourself.

Maybe you’re just not smart enough to realize that you wont get a “free pass” when you post this sort of crap here like you did back in March.

White House Press Conference
March 13, 2002

THE PRESIDENT: Deep in my heart I know the man is on the run, if he’s alive at all. Who knows if he’s hiding in some cave or not; we haven’t heard from him in a long time. And the idea of focusing on one person is — really indicates to me people don’t understand the scope of the mission.

Terror is bigger than one person. And he’s just — he’s a person who’s now been marginalized. His network, his host government has been destroyed. He’s the ultimate parasite who found weakness, exploited it, and met his match. He is — as I mentioned in my speech, I do mention the fact that this is a fellow who is willing to commit youngsters to their death and he, himself, tries to hide — if, in fact, he’s hiding at all.

So I don’t know where he is. You know, I just don’t spend that much time on him, Kelly, to be honest with you. I’m more worried about making sure that our soldiers are well-supplied; that the strategy is clear; that the coalition is strong; that when we find enemy bunched up like we did in Shahikot Mountains, that the military has all the support it needs to go in and do the job, which they did.

And there will be other battles in Afghanistan. There’s going to be other struggles like Shahikot, and I’m just as confident about the outcome of those future battles as I was about Shahikot, where our soldiers are performing brilliantly. We’re tough, we’re strong, they’re well-equipped. We have a good strategy. We are showing the world we know how to fight a guerrilla war with conventional means.

Q But don’t you believe that the threat that bin Laden posed won’t truly be eliminated until he is found either dead or alive?

THE PRESIDENT: Well, as I say, we haven’t heard much from him. And I wouldn’t necessarily say he’s at the center of any command structure. And, again, I don’t know where he is. I — I’ll repeat what I said. I truly am not that concerned about him. I know he is on the run. I was concerned about him, when he had taken over a country. I was concerned about the fact that he was basically running Afghanistan and calling the shots for the Taliban.

But once we set out the policy and started executing the plan, he became — we shoved him out more and more on the margins. He has no place to train his al Qaeda killers anymore. And if we — excuse me for a minute — and if we find a training camp, we’ll take care of it. Either we will or our friends will. That’s one of the things — part of the new phase that’s becoming apparent to the American people is that we’re working closely with other governments to deny sanctuary, or training, or a place to hide, or a place to raise money.

And we’ve got more work to do. See, that’s the thing the American people have got to understand, that we’ve only been at this six months. This is going to be a long struggle. I keep saying that; I don’t know whether you all believe me or not. But time will show you that it’s going to take a long time to achieve this objective. And I can assure you, I am not going to blink. And I’m not going to get tired. Because I know what is at stake. And history has called us to action, and I am going to seize this moment for the good of the world, for peace in the world and for freedom.

Wow, the full quote sure gives a different impression than the partial quote from Steve.

Scott,

Not only does the full quote have an entirely different meaning, if you read through it, you’ll note the blatantly false nature of Stevie’s “quote”.

What Stevie posted is not even what the President said.

Yet he’s surprised when we call him a LIAR.

Philadelphia Steve,

This one’s for you dude…

http://www.political-humor.org/graphics/Osama-bin-Laden-Bill-Clinton.jpg

🙂