Wanted: A Pakistan Permission Slip To Attack Al Qaida

By Big Tent Democrat, Section War on Terror
Posted on Sat Jul 07, 2007 at 07:10:15 PM EST
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NYTimes:

A secret military operation in early 2005 to capture senior members of Al Qaeda in Pakistan’s tribal areas was aborted at the last minute after top Bush administration officials decided it was too risky and could jeopardize relations with Pakistan, according to intelligence and military officials.
The target was a meeting of Qaeda leaders that intelligence officials thought included Ayman al-Zawahri, Osama bin Laden’s top deputy and the man believed to run the terrorist group’s operations.
But the mission was called off after Donald H. Rumsfeld, then the defense secretary, rejected the 11th-hour appeal of Porter J. Goss, then the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, officials said. Members of a Navy Seals unit in parachute gear had already boarded C-130 cargo planes in Afghanistan when the mission was canceled, said a former senior intelligence official involved in the planning.

WWJBD? What Would Jack Bauer Do?

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Wanted: A Pakistan Permission Slip To Attack Al Qaida | 17 comments (17 topical)

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Jack Bauer's grandfather (5.00 / 1) (#9)
by joejoejoe on Sat Jul 07, 2007 at 11:50:54 PM EST

I'd love to see Jack Bauer* give a ripping good speech about the merits of universal healthcare seeing as his grandfather Tommy Douglas was voted 'The Greatest Canadian of All-Time' on CBC for his role as the father of the Canadian universal health care system.

For more than 50 years, his staunch devotion to social causes, rousing powers of speech and pugnacious charm made Tommy C. Douglas an unstoppable political force. From his first foray into public office politics in 1934 to his post-retirement years in the 1970s, Canada's 'father of Medicare' stayed true to his socialist beliefs -- often at the cost of his own political fortune -- and earned himself the respect of millions of Canadians in the process.

If universal health care causes terrorism as the wingnuts are now implying and the grandfather of Jack Bauer* founded the Canadian medicare system does that make Jack Bauer* a terrorist? It boggles the mind.

*of course I mean actor Kiefer Sutherland. Jack Bauer is fictional and it makes as much sense to ask the Green Lantern to join the coalition of the willing as it does to base your understanding of antiterrorism on a TV character. It's like asking Mr. Furley to be the Secretary of HUD.

A ripping good speech (5.00 / 1) (#10)
by Alien Abductee on Sun Jul 08, 2007 at 02:48:26 AM EST

"I'm not interested in getting power unless you can do something with this power," he replied. "I have watched politicians for the last 40 years drop their principles in order to get power, only to find that those who controlled the party that they joined prevented them from doing all the things that they really believed in."

Forget the wingnuts. We need him to speechify to the Dems.


: And the Dems to ::listen::. (none / 0) (#12)
by Edger on Sun Jul 08, 2007 at 09:36:47 AM EST

: Unfortunately (none / 0) (#13)
by Warren Terrer on Sun Jul 08, 2007 at 11:42:12 AM EST

he died over 20 years ago :(

But, but, Sandy Berger!!!! (4.66 / 3) (#1)
by jerry on Sat Jul 07, 2007 at 07:38:19 PM EST

We have to prop up our Pakistani strongman (4.50 / 2) (#8)
by Dadler on Sat Jul 07, 2007 at 09:18:58 PM EST

Which will, like all the times that we've done this before, blow back at us in some other fashion. "Solve" one problem by creating another. Over and over again.

dadler (1.00 / 0) (#11)
by jimakaPPJ on Sun Jul 08, 2007 at 09:18:36 AM EST

Well, let say we make a move in Pakistan.

Will you support the war that will follow, and thus finally getting OBL??

BTW - We know Pakistan has a nuke or two.


it's hard to complain when the ... (none / 0) (#14)
by Sailor on Sun Jul 08, 2007 at 01:34:46 PM EST

... guns you gave them to fight 'oppression' get turned on you.

ppj supported arming the taliban. ppj supported arming saddam.

We are reaping what we sewed and ppj's solution is to arm even more people who will end up turning their guns on us.


sailor (1.00 / 0) (#16)
by jimakaPPJ on Mon Jul 09, 2007 at 10:36:06 AM EST

ppj supported arming the taliban. ppj supported arming saddam

And I also supported the Soviet Union during WWII, the St Louis Cardinals as a youth and the Denver Broncos when I lived there. So, what's your point?

That these things were bad???

Would you have not supported the Soviets during WWII?

We supported the Taliban as fighters against the Soviets. Would you have preferred that we let the Soviets win and thus pressure Iran for the warm water port Russia has always wanted??

We supported Iraq against Iran because we saw that Iran wanted to control the ME. Would you have preferred an Iranian controlled ME?

The Left has a long history of complaining against the US supporting what they called dictators, yet when we go to Iraq to change a regime and form a democracy, the Left is against it.

When we supported the Shah of Iran it was a dictatorship, but one that showed some capability of change. Most of the political oppression of the Shaw was against communists and radical Moslem. The wrongness of this can be debated because with out it, could the US friendly governmeng survive? We don't know. But we do know that when Carter let the Shah be overthrown, the result was a strict theocracy that gave birth to the problems we see today.

How many people have been killed because of that?


: Your Entertainment is not Support (5.00 / 1) (#17)
by squeaky on Mon Jul 09, 2007 at 10:49:26 AM EST

And I also supported the Soviet Union during WWII, the St Louis Cardinals as a youth and the Denver Broncos when I lived there. So, what's your point?
You give yourself away here ppj. Supporting the troops for you is akin to enjoying your favorite sports team entertain you in your idle hours.
That is always they way it seemed to me as everything you say about the war and occupation puts partisanship far ahead of any support of the troops. The troops wind up as pawns in your entertainment cycle.

It's a double edge sword with... (none / 0) (#2)
by Slado on Sat Jul 07, 2007 at 07:54:56 PM EST

these terrorists.

We go in there and maybe we get them or maybe we kill a couple hundred "militants" and the jihadists overthrow the government and we have a real mess on our hands.

20/20 hindsight is great. Just like the repubs like to pretend Clinton could have wrapped up Osama with nothing more then an executive order or that if we'd just sent in more troops we'd have gotten Osama again when the Northern Alliance supposedly had him cornered.

The deal with Pakistan bothers me too. They kill Daniel Pearl and really suffer no consequences. A whole portion of their country is so out of control Osama can come and go as he pleases and their fragile dictatorship hangs on by a thread only becaus of our and other Western contries support because we have to choose dictatorship over Talabani type rule.

You are right BTD. If only we lived in the Jack Bauer world. This would all be wrapped up by 7am tomorrow if it weren't for those damn Chinese.

Tell your friends Slado (5.00 / 1) (#4)
by Big Tent Democrat on Sat Jul 07, 2007 at 07:57:15 PM EST

Honestly, I can admit I am demagoguing this issue but your favorite candidate Rudy Giuliani shames us all with his dishonestyt on this issue.

Please be fair.


: I agree BTD (none / 0) (#15)
by Slado on Sun Jul 08, 2007 at 01:42:51 PM EST

but demagoging is unfortunately part of politics.
I'll tell Gulliani to stop it if you tell Hillary to stop demagoging the Libby Pardon and the rest of her platform.

well, you know ... (none / 0) (#3)
by chemoelectric on Sat Jul 07, 2007 at 07:55:13 PM EST

... there probably was no meeting anyway, so Rummy was just preventing an attack on some meeting of goatherds, or maybe of the local Rotary club.

Jack Bauer would do whatever James Bond, Jack Ryan, Superman, or Agent 99 would do.

: I am still waiting (5.00 / 1) (#5)
by andgarden on Sat Jul 07, 2007 at 08:19:04 PM EST

for M to dispatch 007 on a mission to kill Bin Laden.

The Times was only half right last week (none / 0) (#6)
by andgarden on Sat Jul 07, 2007 at 08:26:51 PM EST

George Bush is soft on crime AND terrorism.

It makes your blood boil. (none / 0) (#7)
by timber on Sat Jul 07, 2007 at 08:50:41 PM EST

And even more so, when you can see they get away with it without accountability.

Behind these incompetence is a hidden agenda ---and you will know it by --

Who is beneffiting from all these incompetence.

It is a success for them financially.