Tuesday, February 03, 2009
The sudden news of victory over al Qaeda: A victory for American intelligence
NPR -- yes, that NPR -- is reporting that drone attacks over the last nine months have "decimated" Al Qaeda's central command structure. Tom Maguire, and pretty much everybody else to the right of Hillary Clinton, wonders why we are only hearing this news now. Well, yeah. Nobody in a position to report the story dared to contradict Barack Obama's claim during the campaign that Al Qaeda "is stronger now than at any time since 2001." Now, though, it can be told.
Of course, all the Predators and Reapers (the cool new amped-up drone discussed in the story) in the world cannot drop a bomb into the living room of a bad guy without some pretty exact intelligence. Somebody in very close proximity has been willing to drop a dime on Al Qaeda leadership for the better part of a year, knowing full well that the United States would deliver death from above. Allahpundit wonders whether we are the beneficiaries of dissent -- or hope and change -- within the jihad. Maybe so, but that could only create the opportunity for intelligence operations. Actually executing on them is another thing entirely. There is an American operative somewhere doing his or her job extremely well. Maybe more than one.
Remember, George Bush told us at the beginning of this war that it would involve "covert operations secret even in success." This is almost certainly one of them.
11 Comments:
By 
, at
Wed Feb 04, 01:02:00 AM:
The haters on the left ignored their own common sense which should have told them that the "last remaining superpower" was capable of doing some things right. Just because they didn't see in in the left wing media, the haters assumed it wasn't happening.
By 
Purple Avenger, at
Wed Feb 04, 06:19:00 AM:
It should be obvious what's going on here.
With Iraq in the bag and Obie saying another 30K troops are headed to Afghanistan, the ISI has decided that supporting AQ and the Taliban is no longer a workable strategy and they've decided to side with the winners.
AQ simply hasn't gotten their status update memo yet.
By TourPro, at
Wed Feb 04, 07:05:00 AM:
Obviously, this is the culmination of years of failed Bush and Cheney policies.
Huzzah!
By , at
Wed Feb 04, 08:52:00 AM:
Let's not pat ourselves on the back too fast.
The creation of the Taliban was mid-wifed by the Pakistani ISI. Perhaps they realize that they cannot fight a "two front" war with the US in Afghanistan and India to the east. So a decision has been made to tamp down the Taliban/Al Qaeda for now (even though it looks like the Taliban are getting stronger in several provinces in Afghanistan).
"Hudna" is an Arabic word, but there is probably an equivalent in Urdu or Pakistani. And NPR isn't exactly the most reliable source for this sort of information (or mis-information).
Hurray! We won! Now let's all pack it in an go home.
And in a couple of years it starts all over again.
-David
By TOF, at
Wed Feb 04, 09:06:00 AM:
Obie and his crowd of left-winger hangers-on are still living in 1933 and FDR is the savior of civilization.
In today's WSJ an article explains why Hayek works while Keynes does not. Same-o for military ops: this ain't WWII.
By Ray, at
Wed Feb 04, 09:30:00 AM:
I'm really far more alarmed by the fact that, with the state of our supply, we're arming both sides in the war in Afghanistan, than by any temporary holes in Al Qaeda's command structure.
By , at
Wed Feb 04, 10:55:00 AM:
I am really beginning to be frightened; the lefties seem to believe their rhetoric makes things true, and believing al-Qaeda is toast most definitely does not make it true. Instead, it's a good way to lead us into massive disaster.
I've been saying for the entire two weeks of Obama's presidency that he looks very weak. Initially, it was the seemless way Pelosi rolled him on this astounding "stimulus" bill. Then it was the silly continuing insistence on his moral high ground "I'm going to run the perfect administration", when in reality his entire life has been spent in the bosom of a party machine, and he doesn't even have a clue what the word "ethical" means in governance. This guy is an amatuer of the first order. He has no idea what a business even does every day. He has no idea where jobs "come from", or taxes or foreign policies. We are in deep trouble.
By Mrs. Davis, at
Wed Feb 04, 11:28:00 AM:
How should we spend the peace dividend?
By Purple Avenger, at
Wed Feb 04, 11:40:00 AM:
Subsidize the price of UnicornChow™ so every child can afford one.
By Viking Kaj, at
Wed Feb 04, 12:41:00 PM:
There can be no permanent solution as regards Al Qaeda without a permanent solution in Pakistan.
The decision by the Kyrgys to kick us out of the base in Bishdek is also bad news, that's where most of the drones are coming from.
Looks like Hillary and Obama are going to have to open those purse strings a little wider, or risk getting outspent by Putin.
Wonder where they are going to hide that in the bailout?
By , at
Thu Feb 05, 12:26:00 PM:
Well, so much for security.
Obama is 2 weeks in office and already we are leaking that we have an intelligence asset high up in the Al Qaeda CnC.
The half life of that asset is going to be about as long as an unrefrigerated tuna fish sandwich in Basra.
