Osama bin Laden :slashingtongue

AP sources: Bomber at CIA base was a double agent – Yahoo! News

Tuesday, January 5th, 2010 at 1:44 am  
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WASHINGTON – The suicide bomber who killed eight people inside a CIA base in Afghanistan was a Jordan-born terrorist double agent who was invited to the base because he claimed to have information targeting Osama bin Laden’s second-in-command, a former senior U.S. intelligence official and a foreign government official confirmed Monday
The bombing killed seven CIA employees — four officers and three contracted security guards — and a Jordanian intelligence officer, Ali bin Zaid, according to a second former U.S. intelligence official. The former senior intelligence official and the foreign official said the bomber was Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi, a 36-year old doctor from Zarqa, Jordan, who had been recruited by Jordanian intelligence. Zarqa is the hometown of slain al-Qaida in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. The CIA declined to comment on the report.
Hajj Yacoub, a self-proclaimed spokesman for the Taliban in Pakistan, identified the bomber on Muslim militant Web sites as Hammam Khalil Mohammed, also known as Abu-Dujana al-Khurasani. Al-Balawi was not searched for bombs when he got onto Camp Chapman, according to both former officials and a current intelligence official.
The bodies of seven CIA employees arrived Monday at Dover Air Force Base in a small private ceremony attended by CIA Director Leon Panetta, other agency and national security officials, and friends and family, said CIA spokesman George Little.
SITE said Monday that al-Balawi used his pseudonym — identified as Khorsani — in the postings, describing how he rose through the ranks of online jihadist forums. A Jordanian government official, who was not authorized to speak to the press, said the Jordanian government has no connection to the bomber. The official said the Jordanian government had not verified whether the bomber was Jordanian.
The Taliban’s Yacoub said the Jordanian intelligence officer, bin Zaid, was helping the CIA recruit agents to spy on al-Qaida in Afghanistan. Bin Zaid allegedly recruited the suicide bomber.
Jordan’s state news agency Petra identified bin Zaid as an army officer on a humanitarian mission in Afghanistan. The Jordanian military released a brief statement acknowledging bin Zaid had been killed in Afghanistan, but it did not mention he was working with Jordanian intelligence or cooperating with the CIA.

Bin Zaid’s family declined to comment.

Bin Zaid is known to be a relative of Jordan’s King Abdullah II. Jordan is known to have acted as a proxy jailer for the CIA in 2004, when Jordanian intelligence officers interrogated several al-Qaida militants who were flew in on rendition flights from Guantanamo Bay.

Jordan denied the link to the CIA and the abuse allegations.

A key U.S. ally in the Mideast, Jordan also contributed valuable intelligence data to the United States, which helped track down the former al-Qaida in Iraq leader, Jordanian-born Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, in 2006. Associated Press writer Jamal Halaby in Amman, Jordan, contributed to this report.

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Dangerous mentality in Pakistan

Wednesday, November 18th, 2009 at 6:58 pm  
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No country in the past few weeks has been receiving the brunt of terrorism like Pakistan has. So you would think that the public would be very angry with the Taliban and Al Qaeda since their citizens are being killed, right? Get ready to be disappointed.

Firstly, I would like to commend the Pakistani troops who have recently made huge gains on their Western border in Afghanistan. They have made large gains against the Taliban and according to some reports, have driven them back to Afghanistan. Okay so good job guys.

I am also not faulting the work of their intelligence today, their police or other safety officers or any one of their safety organizations. I do understand that just like our guys, they want to keep their country safe. So along with my wishes to our troops, keep up the good work guys.

But the most important group of people seem to be thinking differently. The public! Yes, the public! CNN and other news agencies went around asking the question, who do you think is responsible. Very rarely are the words Al Qaeda or the Taliban mentioned.

So who do they think is bombing their buildings? It surprised me initially, but not many of my South Asian friends; India. Yes, the majority of Pakistanis think that India is being the spate of bombings in their country! As if that is what a country with nuclear power amongst their arsenal would do! Fund terrorism!

This could be the screwed up mentality of the South Asians. A year ago, in the aftermath of the Mumbai attacks, Indians did exactly the same thing. Rather than working together to solve the issue of terrorism, a majority of Indians blamed Pakistan and wanted them to be punished!

Also on that list of suspects on the list of Pakistanis are the Israelis. That shows how much hate there is in the Muslim world for Israel..It is absolutely ridiculous that Israel from so far away would want to bring down Pakistan, a country that has not done anything to Israel.

Some more sensible Pakistanis blame the foreign fighters. They cannot take the fact that a Pakistani would want to attack Pakistan. This is half true. There are many foreigners in Pakistan that engage in terror related activities. One of the suspects is a Saudi mass murderer named Osama bin Laden!

But the fact is that there are many terrorists out there that are from Pakistan. The scary thing is that if Pakistanis do not acknowledge that there are local terrorists those local terrorists would strike again and again. They can strike locally or globally.

Like Americans when it comes to our federal deficit, they just would not want to blame their administration in the 80s that started all this mess. Al Qaeda began with training from the much-feared Pakistanis intelligence agency, the ISI. This was funded by the President Reagan’s administration whose aim was to get rid of the communists in Afghanistan. Until and when they come to realize that aspect of truth, we can forget about dealing with terrorism within Pakistan.

I hope that the Pakistanis come to their senses and take the cancer out of their country. It is for the sake of Pakistan and the world.

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Pakistan Bleeding and why we should take note

Monday, October 12th, 2009 at 7:37 pm  
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Pakistan has lost more lives again to the terror, that has roots planted in her soil and history. While there is no doubt that she is putting up the biggest fight against them, the US should take note and not get out of Afghanistan.

Pakistan is where the real action is. Be it at the tribal, lawless mountainous regions at the West, Kashmir or developed Punjab, the hotbed of terrorism is there. For years, they had close ties to the Taliban. They trained the Mujaheideen in the 80s via their intelligence service, the world class ISI with money pouring in from the (President) Reagan administration. Back then, they were often hailed as positive role models for the populace. Kids were taught to be men like Osama bin Laden. Pakistan was one of the 3 countries in the world that recognized the Taliban government in Afghanistan.

9/11 changed everything. Overnight, Pakistan abandoned their old friends for their bigger ally, the United States. A local saying in Pakistan, “We answer to three As : Allah, Army and America.”

Or did she really abandon the Taliban? It was no secret that there were factions of the all powerful Army in Pakistan that still had or were loyal to Taliban ideology. All this came out in the open with the revelations of the Swat negotiations. The Taliban and her allies the TNSM, had territory as a result of negotiations.

The TNSM, under Maulana Fazlullah a.k.a Radio Mullah, made a fatal error then made a fatal mistake. He got greedy and back-stabbed Pakistan almost immediately. That led to an all out war, and there was no more love for the Taliban. Since then, Pakistan has been hit by terrorist attacks time and time again, but the Pakistani army had made huge gains against them.

So how does this affect the US? After all, this is an American blog not a Pakistani one. After so many years, where the Taliban and Al Qaeda just slip away into the Pakistani border, the Pakistani army is closing them down on the East. We can squeeze them out. We have been doing it since the dusk of President Bush’s presidency.

That is why it is so essential not to let give up in Afghanistan. The Taliban currently do not have the capacity to take over the country. Lets ensure that it remains that way. Lets finish Al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan. We do have the Pakistani support now. Now it is the best time to take out the enemy.

For God’s sake, lets not take the eye off the ball when victory is in our grasp. Please, lets not make the single biggest foreign policy mistake of our generation. Let us be able to tell the family of the victims of 9/11, that we got the people responsible.

We already had one President that ignored our mission in Afghanistan. President Obama better not be the second President to do so.

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Iran supplying the Taliban?

Thursday, October 8th, 2009 at 8:05 pm  
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I have heard of this from the Associated Press a few weeks ago. I really did not pay much attention to it as I felt it was a lot of hear say. However, when CBS covered it recently, I called some friends back at the military and they told me that suspicion of Iranian involvement was growing stronger and stronger.

The biggest reason why I was not alarmed by the views earlier was because Iran and Al Qaeda and the Taliban should be at the opposite end of the spectrum when it comes to their religious views. Iran is Shiite and Al Qaeda and Taliban are Sunni extremists. Anyone that knew the work of Ayman al-Zawahiri, Al Qaeda’s number #2, would know that he, at least loathes Iran. There were talk of Osama bin Laden’s son living in Iran, but I really would think that that would have had more to do with corruption along the borders in Iran rather than real cooperation. They, at least publicly and on paper declare Shiites as enemies.

However, when you show shells that were so obviously from Iran, what more can you say? It is really a jaw-dropper. Contrary to what the conspiracy theorists think, the Army would never make up stories like this for fun. They may hide things, but never bring out false allegations. So the chances of it being real is very, very high.

That though does not mean that Iran is guilty yet. There could be that very small chance that Iran is not involved in the sale of such weapons. It could be a criminal problem in Iran; where they could smuggle weapons out of the Iranian army and sell it out in the black market.

The evidence though is not on Iran’s side. Iran’s actions are suspicious at best. The manner that they have been caught with their pants down by the Russians with regards to nuclear enrichment is the reason why they put us on the edge. Why should any American trust Iran? It is true that we screwed them over in the past that led to the Iranian Revolution, but we did try to be friends with them in the (President) Clinton years and they refused.

So what should we do if it is a proven fact that Iran is supplying Al Qaeda and the Taliban with weapons? I would follow the rules of engagement. There would be the threat of attack, and rule #1 is : We have a right to use force to defend our selves against attack or threats of attack. There is the threat of our soldiers dying at the hands of weapons supplied by Iran. Iran should either close its shop or feel the brunt of our aggression.

All this should only happen though after there is a thorough investigation with regards to this allegation. We should not make the same mistake of invading an “innocent” country again, like how we got into Iraq.

Lastly, this would blur the lines of Sunni and Shiites in the Middle East if it is true. They would still not like each other but would be treating the US as their common enemy. We are the “bigger devil” for them.

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Afghanistan : Pour in the troops now

Monday, September 21st, 2009 at 3:31 pm  
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The far left does not want it. Now, the far right too does not want it. But it would be the biggest mistake in history if we were to just cut and run from Afghanistan. This is not about our safety alone, but the safety of the whole world is stake.

Lets face it, the world is not going to do much about tackling Al Qaeda in Afghanistan. Our allies in Afghanistan are also having a tumultuous debate about this in their own countries when their body count are rising as well. Body bags are never a site that the public would want to see.

However, we should not be discouraged. We should remember that the Afghan war is not a war of choice but a war of necessity. They kept people that killed 3000 of our citizens. Are we going to let their lives be wasted? What are we going to tell the family of the victims of September 11? We cannot just walk out of this war!

Iraq was very different. The war in Iraq was based on intelligence that came out of Enhanced Interrogation Techniques or torture. In the case of Afghanistan, Osama bin Laden himself said that he did not intend to get twin towers to collapse but to get a few floors only to come down. That is still mass murder with intent. The fact that he gloated about it shows a sheer lack of remorse.

We cannot be drawing the conclusions based on the comparisons between Iraq and Afghanistan. One is an apple and the other is and orange. We are not there to rebuild Afghanistan, we are there to get Al Qaeda. That is the mission. And until and when we get all of Al Qaeda or at least Osama, we should not relent.

These are the people that hate America. But that is something that Republicans and Democrats do not understand. Our political parties think that the other party is the enemy. That is so utterly disgusting. They are more concerned about the D or R beside their name rather than the United States in from of their designation.

Senator John McCain is right. After the huge success in Iraq, why should we not do the same thing in Afghanistan? There is no civil war over there. No Sunni is killing any Shi’ite and no Pushtun is killing any Uzbek. Even the public in Afghanistan is very clear : they do not want the Taliban back. Lets finish the job and then leave.

Leaving Afghanistan would be a huge victory for Al Qaeda. They are right now being struck at all directions. US drones and Pakistani Soldiers are killing them in Pakistan. Their affiliates in South East Asia had their plots uncovered and their leadership killed. Even in Muslim East Africa they are taking hits. Going away from Afghanistan would just embolden them and risk Afghanistan being a safe haven yet again.

Please, let us not give up the fight that we need to finish. Rather than setting timetables, we should be setting goals. We should leave only when the goals are accomplished. Please don’t wilt away on this too, President Obama.

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