War On Terror: U.S. in retreat?

[Zkribbler]

Thursday's LA Times reports on pg. A13 that the US is closing down all its diplomatic missions in Indonesia, citing security threats.

So while we continue on our Quixotic nation-buildidng quest in Iraq, we have ignored al Qaeda to the point where it's driving us out of the world's most populous Islamic country.

And somewhere bin Laden is still working on his tan.

[Dis]

terrorism cannot be beaten. They will win in the end (or they will just get tired of it and move on )

[chequita guevara]

Sure it can. We invade their countries, kill all the terrorists, their families, and convert everyone to Christianity.

[lord of the mark]

we've closed down diplo facilities in the past in countries where intell indicated an iminent threat. When the threat passed, or hit something else, the diplo facilities reopened. No biggie. We're hardly getting out of Indonesia, where a largescale post-Tsunami rebuilding is underway.

Meanwhile the Pakis caught Al Libbi, AQ's latest number 3 (or 4, according to some), with several follow up arrests of lesser types, and the Taliban in slowly fading in Afghanistan.

[Dinner]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-1602568,00.html

Sorry to bust your bubble but Al Libbi was a nobody which the Bush Administration tried to pretend was a somebody.

According to European intelligence experts, however, Abu Faraj al-Libbi was not the terrorists’ third in command, as claimed, but a middle-ranker derided by one source as “among the flotsam and jetsam” of the organisation.

[Wezil]

Surely the Bush admin wouldn't exaggerate a threat?

[Dinner]

It has been known to do that from time to time. Especially when elections and legislation are pending. I recall several insiders coing forward a few months back saying that in the run up to elections last November the administration was constently pushing to raise the terror alert level even when intelligence didn't justify it. It was a transpartent attempt to scare people in order to get more votes in what was a very tight election.

[Wezil]

Sorry Oerdin, I forgot to include a

Fear is an amazingly effective electoral strategy. Works like a charm in this country.

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Oerdin

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-1602568,00.html

Sorry to bust your bubble but Al Libbi was a nobody which the Bush Administration tried to pretend was a somebody.

According to European intelligence experts, however, Abu Faraj al-Libbi was not the terrorists’ third in command, as claimed, but a middle-ranker derided by one source as “among the flotsam and jetsam” of the organisation.

He was in charge of the assasination attempts on Musharraf, which despite their failure, were very sophisticated hit attempts (at least one was done in the city that is the virtually the compoud of the Paki officer corps, and so probably involved serious penetration of the Pak military) and was strategically as important to AQ as anything else theyve done. Its hard to make sense of any claim that he wasnt in charge of operations in Pakistan which is where OBL and Zawahiri are. Now he may not have much authority over AQ elsewhere in the world, but then its not clear the AQ leadership in Pakistan (OBL and Zawahiri) are in sufficient communication to exert effective control over AQ outside of Pakistan/ Afghanistan.


Now tell me, if these unnamed sources dont think Al Libbi was number 3, who exactly do they think was (and is) the AQ number 3?


Of course some have said Saif el Adel is the real AQ number 3. Id be very interested if the Euro sources confirmed this. It would be very interesting, considering el Adels current location.

[lord of the mark]

"In August 2004 Pakistani officials stated that al-Libbi (also known as Abu Faraj Farj) had become "number three" in al-Qaeda as "director of operations", a role once filled by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed [1] (http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNew...hub=TopStories). Upon al-Libbi's arrest U.S. and Pakistani authorities continued to claim him as the third most important figure in al-Qaeda."

Note that was in AUGUST 2004. Months before he was caught. So presumably not something made up after he was captured. How long the unnamed sources in the Times have held their position, since they were only quoted AFTER al - libbi was captured.

[lord of the mark]

from CSM

"Abu Farraj al-Libbi's one of the hard-core Al Qaeda members," says Bruce Hoffman, a terror expert at the RAND Corp. in Washington. "He's not as well-known to Americans as many of the 9/11-era Al Qaeda leaders. But since Al Qaeda's expulsion from Afghanistan, he has become an increasingly important player - stepping into the role vacated by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed."


Mr. Libbi, whose capture Monday was made public only Wednesday, isn't considered to be as sophisticated or talented as Mr. Mohammed, who is credited with hatching the 9/11 plot and others, and who also was captured in Pakistan in 2003.

But after Al Qaeda was evicted from Afghanistan in 2001, Libbi allegedly traveled with Osama bin Laden, seeking refuge in the border region of Pakistan.

Since then, the Pakistani government has placed him on their top-six list of terrorists, accusing him of engineering several attacks, including two assassination attempts on Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf in December 2003.

Those attempts on Mr. Musharraf's life - in which 17 others died - came quite close, experts say, indicating that Libbi was an Al Qaeda up-and-comer with good command of intelligence, surveillance, and planning.

Musharraf himself named the Libyan as the chief suspect, the "mastermind" of the assassination attempts, and the government in 2004 placed an advertisement in Pakistani newspapers that showed Libbi dressed in a Western suit, with a trimmed beard. A reward of 20 million rupees (about $335,000) was offered at the time for any information that might lead to his capture.

"He's definitely an operator and a very important guy," says Michael Scheuer, former head of the CIA's bin Laden unit'




Thats two named experts vs some unnamed experts. And Scheuer, author of Imperial Hubris, is no friend of the administration.

[DinoDoc]

Is there any reason why I should care about this thread in light of the non-al-Libbi facts LotM provided?

[Zkribbler]

...um...because Usama bin Laden is still free and is planning your destruction?

[Lancer]

No more major attacks in the US since 9/11...

UBL just hasn't been pulled out of his spider hole yet.

[Wezil]

A former CIA agent says he's number 3. The CIA's credibility in this area is impeccable (friend of the admin or not).