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| India-Pakistan |
| Panetta: secret attacks in Pakistan have hobbled al-Qaeda |
| 2010-03-18 |
| Aggressive attacks against al-Qaeda in Pakistan's tribal region have driven Osama bin Laden and his top deputies deeper into hiding and disrupted their ability to plan sophisticated operations, CIA Director Leon Panetta said Wednesday. So profound is al-Qaeda's disarray that one of its lieutenants, in a recently intercepted message, pleaded with bin Laden to come to the group's rescue and provide some leadership, Panetta said. Panetta credited improved coordination with Pakistan's government and what he called "the most aggressive operation that CIA has been involved in in our history," offering a near-acknowledgment of what is officially a secret war. "Those operations are seriously disrupting al-Qaeda," Panetta said. "It's pretty clear from all the intelligence we are getting that they are having a very difficult time putting together any kind of command and control, that they are scrambling. And that we really do have them on the run." Panetta is one of several senior officials who have stepped forward to argue that the administration is making gains against extremists, in part to rebut Republican criticism that President Obama has weakened national security. He is not the first CIA director to point to progress in the war against al-Qaeda, claims that sometimes prove too ambitious. "I have an excellent idea of where [bin Laden] is," then-CIA Director Porter J. Goss told an interviewer in 2005. |
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #5 DAILY TIMES.PK > THAI RED SHIRTS DECLARE "CLASS WAR". Dey's is Callin' for an Uprisin'/Rebellin'! |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2010-03-18 23:59 |
| #4 Hobbling Al Qaeda is all very well, but until the various Taliban and other jihadi groups are hobbled also, the jihadi war against the West and against those they deem taqfirs -- not pius enough -- will continue unabated. Even the capture, trial and execution of Osama bin Laden himself would do nothing to end the war the jihadis continue to prosecute against all who do not believe exactly as they do. |
| Posted by: trailing wife on the other computer 2010-03-18 08:44 |
| #3 While I agree the attacks are valuable, I would not say they have hobbled al Qaeda. And Obama does deserve credit for at least managing to do this right. |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2010-03-18 07:32 |
| #2 ION DAILY TIMES.PK > 33% OF INDIANS LIVE IN A STATE OF FAMINE, conditions of which induce them = Indian youth to turn towards Radicalism including Armed Militancy-Insurgency. * TOPIX > HUNGER, POVERTY MAJOR CAUSES FOR REGIONAL MILITANCY. * SAME > NORTH AFRICA: AFRICAN AL QAEDA [espec AQIM] SHOULD STOP TARGETING CIVILIANS. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2010-03-18 00:39 |
| #1 'Secret attacks' is from the journo, not apparently Panetta. These attacks are so secret we have to wait a whole 24 hours to read about them at the Burg. Idiot journalists. |
| Posted by: phil_b 2010-03-18 00:25 |