Turns out al-Qaeda double-agent was not as double as the CIA originally thought
It turns out the suicide bomber that killed seven CIA agents in Afghanistan was a double-agent the CIA recruited to find al-Qaeda leaders. From the BBC:
The suicide bomber who killed seven CIA agents in Afghanistan was an al-Qaeda double agent, US media reports say.
He is said to have been a doctor from Jordan, arrested there a year ago.
He was then reportedly recruited by the Jordanians and CIA, who wrongly thought they had turned him, and given a mission to find al-Qaeda leaders.
Whatever the CIA is doing, they need to stop doing it. I don’t understand why this government agency is still in existence. One might think that after the intelligence debacle known as September 11, the CIA would have been deactivated and our nation’s intelligence needs would be performed by some other massive government agency, an agency not called the CIA.
The CIA is the same intelligence agency that didn’t know the Berlin Wall was coming down until they watched it happen on CNN like the rest of us.
Let this be a lesson to the CIA: you can’t “turn” a member of al-Qaeda like you could an East German. During the Cold War, you could simply throw a bunch of money at an eastern European communist and expect him to more or less do what you wanted. Members of al-Qaeda are radical religious extremists that cannot be trusted.
Hillary Clinton: ‘We’re not talking about an exit strategy or a drop dead deadline’
If your only problem with President Obama’s military escalation of the Afghanistan war was that you thought it included a set date for troop withdrawal, think again. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Defense Secretary Robert Gates taped an interview with David Gregory of NBC’s Meet The Press that seemed to contradict what President Obama said in his speech at West Point. From the interview:
HILLARY CLINTON: We’re not talking about an exit strategy or a drop dead deadline. What we’re talking about is an assessment that in January 2011, we can begin a transition. A transition to hand off — responsibility to the Afghan forces.
ROBERT GATES: We’re not talking about an abrupt withdrawal. We’re talking about something that will take place over a period of time…. Our military thinks we have a real opportunity to do that. And it’s not just in the next 18 months. Because we will have a significant — we will have 100,000 forces — troops there. And they are not leaving– in July of 2011. Some handful or some small number or whatever the conditions permit, we’ll begin to withdraw at that time.
A handful? What a load of crap. And to think that I and every other American was told that a vote of John McCain was in fact a vote for George W. Bush. The idea being is that John McCain would simply continue with the Bush ideas and strategies. Well, the ironic thing is that Defense Secretary Robert Gates used to be George W. Bush’s defense secretary and he is on national TV talking about an open-ended, no deadline set war in Afghanistan.
So how is this any different?
When I voted for Barack Obama, I was looking for some Change. I thought it was time that we stopped spending so much of our money (and future money) on a massive military so that we could have the distinct privilege of waging unwindable wars in far off lands. I thought it was time to instead spend our money and resources closer to home. I thought it was time to start spending our money on things like universal health care and reusable energy.
If Barack Obama wanted to be the war president, he should have said so during the campaign.
Osama bin Laden’s driver sentenced to 66 months
Salim Hamdan, Osama bin Laden’s former driver, was convicted of supporting terrorism, but he was acquitted of conspiracy to murder. He was sentenced to only 66 months. Since he has already been held down in Guantanamo Bay for 51 months, he technically could go free in five months.
A jury of six US military officers, and not a judge, imposed the sentence.
After Hamdan completes the rest of his sentence, he will still be considered to be an enemy combatant.
Hamdan admitted to working for Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan from 1997 to 2001 as his driver. He made around $200 a month.
God save the Queen and Matt Drudge is a douche bag
Matt Drudge, founder of the Internet news site the Drudge Report ran a story on his rag of a website that told the world Prince Harry was fighting on the front lines in Afghanistan. Much of the British and American press knew he was over in Afghanistan, but they all agreed to keep the story secret until Harry and his regiment returned from Afghanistan. It was believed that if it was known that a member of the Royal family was in Afghanistan fighting the Taliban, it would create an extra risk not only for the Prince, but the rest of his unit.
Everyone was able to keep it a secret. Everyone except that douche bag Matt Drudge. He just had to let everyone know about it.
Because of Matt Drudge’s reckless disregard for the safety of Prince Harry and the rest of his unit, they are being withdrawn from Afghanistan. Their risk is just too high for him and the rest of the men in his unit.
My respect for Prince Harry is only matched by my contempt for Matt Drudge. Prince Harry didn’t have to put himself at risk and go to Afghanistan. His grandmother is the Queen of England and he is is third in the line of succession to the throne. Shame on Matt Drudge for putting his own desire for attention over the safety of Prince Harry and the rest of his unit.
An example of good military camouflage
That is what I call a well camouflaged soldier. No matter where the fight takes our military, the men and women in our armed forces are ready for the challenge. Whether it’s the mountains of Afghanistan or the sofa in Grandma’s living room, our fighting men and women can blend into almost any environment.
(photo stolen borrowed from Imager.cc)
The al-Qaida in Iraq is not the real al-Qaida
Our illustrious president spoke last night on the television about his most favorite subject – the Iraq war. From his speech:
Anbar province is a good example of how our strategy is working. Last year, an intelligence report concluded that Anbar had been lost to al-Qaida. Some cited this report as evidence that we had failed in Iraq and should cut our losses and pull out. Instead, we kept the pressure on the terrorists. The local people were suffering under the Taliban-like rule of al-Qaida, and they were sick of it. So they asked us for help.
The al-Qaida he should be worried about is the al-Qaida in the mountains of Afghanistan and Pakistan. That is the real al-Qaida. That is the al-Qaida that attacked the United States on 9-11. The al-Qaida in Iraq? They just call themselves that to give themselves some cheap terrorist credibility. Everyone knows that al-Qaida attacked the United States six years ago and Bush has failed to bring them to justice. Bush has failed to make them pay. Bush and his inability to make al-Qaida pay turn them into the terrorist organization that every two bit terrorist wants to be apart of.
Just because they call themselves al-Qaida doesn’t make them al-Qaida. The al-Qaida in Iraq is as much al-Qaida as American skinheads are Nazis. Sure, they may have a photo of Hitler in their mom’s basement, but that doesn’t mean they are the same bunch that fought Patton’s Third Army in the Battle of the Bulge. Those were real Nazis. They weren’t pretending to be Nazis.
Just because someone identifies themselves as a Nazi on their MySpace page doesn’t mean they are a Nazi. Just because someone in Iraq says they are al-Qaida doesn’t make them al-Qaida.
U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan destroy reporter’s photos
A suicide bomber hit an American convoy in eastern Afghanistan with an explosives-packed minivan and militants then fired gunfire from several directions. American forces returned fire in defense of the attack. 16 Afghan civilians were killed and another 25 people were wounded.
Several wounded Afghans said they were shot by U.S. forces fleeing the scene. One U.S. soldier was injured in the attack.
The incident is supposedly under investigation. What’s not very clear is who exactly killed the Afghan civilians. Finding out what really happened may be next to impossible. This from the AP article:
U.S. soldiers at the scene deleted photos taken by a freelance photographer working for The Associated Press and video taken by a freelancer working for AP Television News. Neither the photographer nor the cameraman witnessed the suicide attack or the subsequent gunfire. It wasn’t immediately known why the soldiers deleted the photos and videos. The U.S. military didn’t immediately comment on the matter.
The freelance photographer, Rahmat Gul, said he took photos of a four-wheel drive vehicle with four bodies that had been shot to death inside.
An American soldier then took Gul’s camera and deleted the photos. Gul said he later received permission to take photos from another soldier, but that the first soldier came back and angrily told him to delete the photos again. Gul said the soldier raised his fist as if he was going to strike Gul but that he didn’t.
How are we the American people supposed to know what is happening if reporters are forcibly having their photos destroyed?
I personally have a hard time believing my personal freedoms depend on my government invading and occupying two different countries. Did any of those 16 dead or 25 wounded Afghan civilians had anything to do with the terror attacks on 9-11? Was there a chance that any of the 16 people killed would ever come to the United States to commit a terror attack? I would say that since they were not Saudis, the chances of that ever happening were absolutely nil.
What a complete and utter waste.


President Obama will be announcing his Afghanistan policy at a prime time televised speech from West Point on Tuesday. He is expected to announce a buildup that will bring U.S. forces to around 100,000, from today’s 68,000.
Look like President Obama is going to send 40,000 more troops to Afghanistan. Maybe.



