Friday, January 13, 2006
Rumors Swirl That The CIA Killed Al-Zawahri
Whoo-hoo!!! We got the #2 Al Qaeda guy!!! Again!!!! I think it's the third or fourth time in the last year or so!!!! Wow, we kick ASSSSSSSSS!!!!!
While I really do hope the CIA got Al-Zawahri, I have to wonder how helpful it is for the U.S. to blow up villages full of people who may or may not have ties to terrorists (or be terrorists themselves) with predator drone missles every time they get a hot rumor that Bin-Laden or Al-Zawahri or another member of the Al Qaeda leadership is hiding out somewhere.
I just saw some of the video of the village the CIA hit with missles shot from a predator drone on CNN. Lots of rubble, dead cows and a few bodies.
I bet Al Jazeera is showing the very same video all over the Muslim world.
Pretty ugly stuff, especially if it turns out Al-Zawahri wasn't there and the CIA got some innocents instead.
Don't get me wrong, I want to rid the world of Al-Qaeda terrorists as much as the next fellow.
But I wonder if these kinds of awful pictures don't hurt our cause in the War on Terror in the long run.
U.S. officials told NBC News on Friday that American airstrikes in Pakistan overnight Thursday were aimed at the No. 2 man in the al-Qaida terror organization — Ayman al-Zawahri.
One official said intelligence indicated a strong possibility that Zawahri was in the Pakistani village at the time of the airstrike, but there is no confirmation that he was killed.
Pakistani officials say U.S. aircraft, apparently CIA Predator drones, fired as many as 10 missiles at the residential compound.
Reports indicate as many as 30 villagers, including some women and children, were killed.
The attack came in the Bajur region of Northwest Pakistan, along the Afghanistan border.
The CIA Predators carry as many as four Hellfire missiles. Only last month, the CIA used a Predator to kill the No. 3 man in al-Qaida in a similar Hellfire strike in Pakistan.
Killing Zawahri would be a major psychological victory for the United States in its war on terrorism. Zawahri, not Osama bin Laden, has emerged recently as the chief operator for al-Qaida.
While some remains were reportedly recovered from the site of the attack, there was still no confirmation Friday night that Zawahri was among the dead. An intelligence official told NBC that it does have a sample of Zawahri's DNA.
“Anyone who tells you there is clarity on whether he [Zawahri] was killed ... do not take what they are saying as gospel,” a senior U.S. official said.
While I really do hope the CIA got Al-Zawahri, I have to wonder how helpful it is for the U.S. to blow up villages full of people who may or may not have ties to terrorists (or be terrorists themselves) with predator drone missles every time they get a hot rumor that Bin-Laden or Al-Zawahri or another member of the Al Qaeda leadership is hiding out somewhere.
I just saw some of the video of the village the CIA hit with missles shot from a predator drone on CNN. Lots of rubble, dead cows and a few bodies.
I bet Al Jazeera is showing the very same video all over the Muslim world.
Pretty ugly stuff, especially if it turns out Al-Zawahri wasn't there and the CIA got some innocents instead.
Don't get me wrong, I want to rid the world of Al-Qaeda terrorists as much as the next fellow.
But I wonder if these kinds of awful pictures don't hurt our cause in the War on Terror in the long run.
