Danny Jeffrey wrote an essay complete with a pictorial entitled “The Cave Dwellings of Afghanistan”. The theme is that Afghanis are primitive people that survived centuries of invasions because of their mountainous terrain that has developed cave dwelling system for periods of defense and reclaiming their land after wearied invaders either left or were assimilated into the tribal situations. Thus Afghanis are not now nor will be amenable to Western ways.
I concur with Danny but there were legitimate reasons for America to invade Afghanistan. Now those reasons have been answered and it is time to leave.
The reason for invading Afghanistan is because the then ruler – the One-Eyed Mullah Omar – provided protection to Usama bin Laden as the head of al Qaeda sent Islamic terrorists to the USA that became responsible for around 3000 deaths on American soil. We chased UBL for about a decade until we found him and killed him out in Pakistan.
Being Americans we have attempted to build an infrastructure in Afghanistan that includes democratic principles. Frankly I was all for that agenda; however time has proven that Islam and Western democratic principles are incompatible.
So what’s left? In my thinking it would be to get Mullah Omar who protected UBL. The thing is the One-Eyed Mullah is only alive by reputation. He has not made any verifiable appearances since he fled the collapse of his Taliban regime as the American led forces commenced their invasion:
“…there have been no verifiable communications on paper, by phone, or in audio or video recordings from the so-called Leader of the Faithful, since he disappeared into the Kandahar mountains on the back of a motorcycle in November 2001 as his regime collapsed.” (Taliban Forces Desperate to Hear from Their Absent Leader, Mullah Omar; By Ron Moreau; The Daily Beast; 5/1/13 4:45 AM EDT)
If Mullah Omar is alive he is hiding so deep that the Islamic Terrorists that swear allegiance to him don’t even know if he is running the Taliban terrorist show.
So here’s my thinking: UBL is dead, the Afghan Muslim people are less than pleased with any contribution to Afghanistan and Mullah Omar isn’t running the Taliban operationally.
It is time to leave Afghanistan to its own devices with a warning of future devastation if any Afghan government supports Islamic terrorism on the American homeland. Incidentally devastation does not mean another invasion; it means some kind tactical military action up to and including a small nuke strike to make a point about the long arm of American military might.
Back in February (2012) Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab – the Christmas Day Underwear Bomber of 2009 – was sentenced to life in prison for his infamous efforts.
Today I discovered that al Qaida Arab Peninsula (AQAP – maybe we should pronounce it as A-Crap) was trying to send a more complicated version of an underwear bomb from Yemen. The CIA has foiled the plot. Evidently the captured sophisticated underwear bomb was sent to the FBI to study it to create a countermeasure to discover new underwear bombs at airports.
Some of my fellow Conservative pundits have expressed disappointment that the Obama Administration had not notified airport authorities of the plot potential as soon as it was discovered. I hate to agree with any Obama Administration decision however I back Obama and the CIA in not revealing the plot as long as the investigation was in a controlled observation mode to catch the perpetrators. A public alert would expose the methods being used by government counterterrorism efforts to Islamic terrorists making more difficult to catch and/or prevent a terrorist agenda on American soil.
So Obama did good to keep America safe. On the other hand I have to wonder out loud if the Left would be as courteous to support a Republican President in keeping security methods secret at least until the threat is or was neutralized.
A team of FBI experts are examining a sophisticated new Al Qaeda bomb to figure out whether it could have slipped past airport security and taken down a commercial airplane, U.S. officials said.
The bomb was confiscated after the CIA unraveled a terror plot by Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula to destroy a U.S.-bound airliner using an underwear bomb around the one-year anniversary of the killing of Usama bin Laden.
The plot involved an upgrade of the underwear bomb that failed to detonate aboard a jetliner over Detroit on Christmas 2009. This new bomb was also designed to be used in a passenger's underwear, but this time Al Qaeda developed a more refined detonation system, U.S. officials told the Associated Press.
“Initial exploitation indicates that the device is very similar to IEDs that have been used previously by Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula in attempted terrorist attacks, including against aircraft and for targeted assassinations,” the FBI said in a written statement. “The FBI currently has possession of the IED and is conducting technical and forensics analysis on it.”
Officials say the device did not contain metal, meaning it probably could have passed through an airport metal detector. However, it was not clear whether new body scanners used in many airports would have detected it.
The would-be suicide bomber, based in Yemen, had not yet picked a target or bought his plane tickets when the CIA stepped in and seized the bomb, officials said. It's not immediately clear what happened to the alleged bomber.
A U.S. official told Fox News that Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP, remains "committed to striking targets in Yemen, Saudi Arabia, the Homeland, and Europe. And AQAP is probably feeling pressure to conduct a successful attack to, from their perspective, avenge the deaths of bin Laden and Awlaki.”
A team of U.S Navy SEALs killed bin Laden during a raid last May on his compound in Pakistan. Anwar al-Awlaki, an American-born cleric hiding in Yemen, was killed by a U.S. drone strike in September.
Al-Awlaki was closely tied to AQAP and was the inspiration for multiple attacks on American targets, including the failed Christmas Day underwear bomb attack in 2009.
“It is our assessment that the threat from AQAP is growing due to the territorial gains the group made during the political standoff in Yemen that lasted from early 2011 until this past February," the U.S. official told Fox News. "Those territorial gains have allowed the group to establish additional training camps.”
In a press conference at the Pentagon with China's Minister of National Defense, Gen. Liang Guanglie, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said the US has to "continue to remain vigilant against those who would seek to attack this country and we will do everything necessary to keep America safe."
The operation to thwart the latest bomb plot unfolded even as the White House and Department of Homeland Security assured the American public that they knew of no Al Qaeda plots against the U.S. around the anniversary of bin Laden's death.
"We have no credible information that terrorist organizations, including Al Qaeda, are plotting attacks in the U.S. to coincide with the anniversary of bin Laden's death," White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said on April 26.
But Obama was being briefed on the plot in April by counterterrorism adviser John Brennan, Deputy NSC Spokesperson Caitlin Hayden said.
“While the president was assured that the device did not pose a threat to the public, he directed the Department of Homeland Security and law enforcement and intelligence agencies to take whatever steps necessary to guard against this type of attack,” she said.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., the Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman, told Fox News she was informed of the plot a half hour before it went public.
House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Pete King, R-N.Y., said lawmakers are only aware of certain threat streams, but he did not know about this one.
"Some things are very closely held. I understand why," he told Fox News. "You're not going to hear me complain about it."
The AP said it learned about the thwarted plot last week but agreed to White House and CIA requests not to publish it immediately because the sensitive intelligence operation was still under way. Once officials said those concerns were allayed, the AP decided to disclose the plot Monday despite requests from the Obama administration to wait for an official announcement Tuesday.
U.S. officials, who were briefed on the operation, insisted on anonymity to discuss the case, which the U.S. hadn't officially acknowledged until now.
It's not clear who built the bomb, but, because of its sophistication and its similarity to the Christmas bomb, authorities suspected it was the work of master bomb maker Ibrahim Hassan al-Asiri. Al-Asiri constructed the first underwear bomb and two others that Al Qaeda built into printer cartridges and shipped to the U.S. on cargo planes in 2010.
Both of those bombs used a powerful industrial explosive. Both were nearly successful.
A government source also told Fox News that a second threat stream, that involved surgically-implanted body bombs, was being monitored out of the Middle East.
The latest operation is an intelligence victory for the United States and a reminder of Al Qaeda's ambitions, despite the death of bin Laden and other senior leaders. Because of instability in the Yemeni government, the terrorist group's branch there has gained territory and strength.
But along with the gains there also have been losses. The group has suffered significant setbacks as the CIA and the U.S. military focus more on Yemen. On Sunday, Fahd al-Quso, a senior Al Qaeda leader, was hit by a missile as he stepped out of his vehicle along with another operative in the southern Shabwa province of Yemen.
Al-Quso, 37, was on the FBI's most wanted list, with a $5 million reward for information leading to his capture. He was indicted in the U.S. for his role in the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole in the harbor of Aden, Yemen, in which 17 American sailors were killed and 39 injured.
Al-Quso was believed to have replaced Anwar al-Awlaki as the group's head of external operations. Al-Awlaki was killed in a U.S. airstrike last year.
Fox News' Catherine Herridge, Chad Pergram, John Brandt and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
Shoebat.com has posted a video that is a
documentary of the death of Usama Bin Laden. The important theme of this video
is that Pakistan aided Bin Laden in hiding him in plain sight.
This is not a surprise because Pakistan’s Intelligence
community – Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) – is a byzantine style government within a government and
the ISI were and are very supportive of the radical Islam of the Taliban and
al-Qaeda.
Pakistan’s military are not really supportive of radical
Islam as much as it supportive of Pakistan National Interests. The primary
objective of Pakistan’s National Interests is to focus on its mortal enemy
India. In 1947 the British succumbed to India’s nationalist movement and
departed; however the political expediency in the hope to prevent an India
civil war was to create a rough division between India’s Muslims and India’s
Hindus as well as other ethnic and religious people that were neither Muslim
nor Hindu. The non-Muslim/non-Hindu population pretty much stayed with the
Hindu side of India. The foolish non-Muslim populations that determined to live
in the Muslim majority areas which became known as Pakistan found themselves a
persecuted people. The Christians, Hindus and other non-Muslims of the new
Pakistan fled to India or became exploited in Pakistan. For the most part
Christians that could not afford to flee remained in Pakistan. In 1947 Pakistan
was one nation separated by the immense Indian Sub-Continent. East Pakistan
eventually became the independent nation of Bangladesh. It is the Pakistan of
the west that is a nuclear power that is the arch-enemy of India which also is
a nuclear power.
The one thing that unites the byzantine elements of
Pakistan is the hatred of India. The Pakistan military over the years since
1947 has taken a secular approach to its contribution in governance. The ISI
appears to be more inclined toward the religious interests of the Pakistan
people; i.e. the religious interests of Islamic Supremacism.
I would be surprised if the Pakistan military actively
hid Usama bin Laden but I am certain that ISI interaction with the military
provided elements that were aware bin Laden was in Pakistan. I am absolutely
convinced the ISI was actively hiding bin Laden in Pakistan AND that means
keeping bin Laden from America. Getting bin Laden is one of the primary
objectives in going to war with the then Taliban dominated Afghanistan.
So what would be the reason that the ISI pretend to be a
friend with America and hide UBL? I speculate that reason was hatred of India.
The ISI wanted to protect the Taliban in case they could be used as an agent of
subversive activities if the American supported Afghan government began to show
favorable relations with India. In the ISI’s eyes an economic-trade situation
between Afghanistan and India might lead to the Indian military establishing
bases of operation under the auspices of protecting Afghanistan but surrounding
Pakistan with the threat of military action. AND the threat of nuclear war
between Pakistan and India has been
on the precipice over the years.
Ultimately Pakistan cannot be trusted because their
National Interests are focused on India and Pakistan Foreign Policy as it
concerns the USA is at best an element of manipulation. It would behoove
America to begin secret negotiations of a military alliance with India.
Pakistan will eventually sell-out America especially if there is a drawdown of
the American military in Afghanistan as the perception grows that America has
down all it can for the Afghan government. It is at this point the Taliban will
test the Afghan government to see if it is too corrupt to sustain
administrative control of the Afghan nation. If the Taliban finds success, you
can count on Pakistan probably through the ISI will begin planning with the
Taliban to bring down the American supported Afghan government.
Sarah Palin correctly wonders how in the world Usama bin Laden could live in a life of luxury for quite some time near the Pakistani capital city of Islamabad when the public shpeel was UBL was hiding in caves along the AfPak border which suggested a life of asceticism. Well anyway she questioned Pakistan not knowing where UBL was. I was wondering the rest.
Pakistan looks extremely foolish and deceptive when that nation denies there was any knowledge of bin Laden’s whereabouts.
Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said bin Laden's ability to live undetected in the compound, apparently for years, "is an intelligence failure of the whole world, not of Pakistan alone." He made the comment Wednesday during a visit to Paris.
U.S. officials also have demanded answers as to how the al-Qaida leader could have lived at a luxury complex in Abbottabad without the knowledge of Pakistani authorities or help from a support network inside Pakistan. The area around the compound remained sealed off Wednesday by Pakistani police and soldiers. (“Afghanistan: Pakistan Must Have Known bin Laden Was Living in Abbottabad,” VOA News 5/4/11)
Afghan Defense Ministry spokesman Zahir Azimi also accuses Pakistan of knowingly keeping bin Laden’s luxury compound a secret:
Speaking at a news conference Wednesday, Afghan Defense Ministry spokesman Zahir Azimi said the location of the house in the military garrison town of Abbottabad would have ensured that Pakistani authorities knew who was living there.
Azimi said bin Laden's hideout would have been known not only to a "strong" intelligence agency such as Pakistan's ISI but even to a "very weak government with a weak intelligence service". He said the ISI faces many questions that need answers. (Ibid.)
Obviously Pakistan is covering its geopolitical butt with lies. UBL’s existence in a luxury compound in Pakistan shows a few possibilities.
One possibility is the government of Pakistan under the authority of either its President and/or Prime Minister is operating a duplicitous policy of favoring Islamists while pretending to be an ally with America in the fight against the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT).
Another possibility is that the Pakistan government is a byzantine-like government. This is to say internal government factions actively work against each other in the formation of policy. An example might be Pakistan’s intelligence community of which the Inter-Services Intelligence has been known to favor the Taliban by extension al-Qaeda.
I am guessing there is still a large element in Pakistan that is closely aligned to maintain a secularist Islamic State.I know it sounds like an oxymoron to use the term “secular” and “Islamic” as a singular form of government but that the doctrines of Islam demonstrate that government and religion are an intertwined entity in the Muslim world. Thus a secularist-Islamic State would be secular in actions but Islamic in nature as in the code or rule of law.
The secularist element in Pakistan has this world view: Hindu majority ruled India is the enemy because Islam once dominated all of India by conquest. Pakistan Muslims thus are well aware that is a deep seeded animosity among Hindus who were the recipients of genocide, slave trade (including sex slavery) and when it became clear that killing all the Hindus that refused to convert to Islam would dry up the booty-cow that India represented to Islamic conquerors began to establish extremely harsh dhimmitude upon the population. In the long run the harsh dhimmitude probably won more converts to Islam than the typical Islamic axiom of for polytheists which was (and is) convert or die. The extremely harsh dhimmitude eventually converted large swaths of Hindus to Islam around emerging Islamic power centers built by attrition in India.
There thus is little surprise that there were horrendous acts of violence between India Muslims and India Hindus as the 1947 independence proceeded to emerge. Incidentally Israel was a tiny sliver in an ocean of hostile Muslims also in 1948. The same rage existed among Muslims toward a Jewish existence established by once Islamic conquerors. The difference between Jewish Israel and Hindu India is that the number of Hindus is in the hundreds of millions while the Jews represented a little less than a million in 1948 (Of course the Jewish population nearly doubled after Israeli independence because nearly 800,000 Jewish refugees received a vicious boot from Muslim lands after losing in 1948).
Hindu-Muslim violence or more precisely India-Pakistan violence has a 1947 pretext for occurring. The area known as Kashmir is roughly between Pakistan and India. In 1947 when a partition plan was devised by the exiting British, the princely States that governed themselves autonomously were forced to choose between merging with either Pakistan or India. Kashmir’s case was it was ruled by a Hindu Maharaja while the majority population was Islamic.
At any rate India and Pakistan have come close to nuclear war since both nations have nuke WMDs. In this paradoxical geopolitical world of lesser nations aligning with more powerful nations for their national interests, the largest democratic natured government in the world India gravitated toward the Communist Soviets and despotic Islamic Republic of Pakistan gravitated toward the Americans. I can understand that Pakistan’s government has become ironically byzantine because of the need to play off internal affairs and international affairs to maintain an Islamic Pakistan with a powerful neighbor India (comparatively powerful between India and Pakistan). However, the question becomes: Can America afford or count on a byzantine style government in Pakistan for our nation’s National Interests?
America has had a history of being burned when there was an expectation from another nation to agree with an American agenda. The Taliban and al-Qaeda evolved from American aid funneled through Pakistan in a long war that resulted in Soviet occupiers from leaving Afghanistan in disgrace. These terrorists then turned on their American supporters because as non-Muslims we are the despised kafir. Even though it was American aid that preeminently freed Afghanistan from Soviet oppression the Taliban and al-Qaeda called us the big Satan oppressors of Islam. Usama bin Laden’s leadership of al-Qaeda got the ball rolling for the moment when Muslim terrorists seized four jet airliners on American soil crashing three into building and one in a Pennsylvanian field resulting in the deaths of civilian noncombatant primarily Americans.
So should some kind of investigation as in Congressional or American Intelligence of Pakistan’s commitment to cooperation in the GWOT occur? I SAY YES! THE AMERICAN PUBLIC HAS A RIGHT TO KNOW IF PAKISTAN HELD UP THE NEAR DECADE LONG SEARCH FOR USAMA BIN LADEN!
ACT for America wants Congress to investigate how Usama bin Laden lived next to a Pakistani military institution and not have a clue how UBL went undetected. ACT for Americaneeds your help with a petition to place some political pressure on members of Congress to conduct such an investigation.
On May 1, 2011 a glorious thing happened to the demon of al Qaeda: American Navy Seals in stealth mode entered a rather large compound just outside the Pakistan capital city of Islamabad and executed the devil infested Usama bin Laden.
