I've seen this story at a couple of sites the past few days. Al Qaeda appears to be retreating from Afghanistan. Everyone is counting this as a victory, and perhaps it is. At least one site was tying this story to the story of a few weeks back about Bin Laden being dead.
I don't know, though. Read this story, and tell me if you think this is good news, or not:
Rohan Gunaratna, head of terrorism research at Singapore's Institute for Defense and Strategic Studies, and the author of "Inside Al Qaeda; Global Network of Terror," said "We have seen that several hundred, perhaps five to six hundred al Qaeda members who were located on the Afghan-Pakistan border, have now left."
Gunaratna adds that these al Qaeda members have returned "to their own home countries, particularly to Iraq, and also to other Middle Eastern countries such as Saudi Arabia and Yemen. We have seen a shift in Al Qaeda's thinking, in strategy."
Some of those who returned to their native countries in the Arab world and were caught have told investigators that the orders only specified al Qaeda's decision for the Arabs to depart Afghanistan. The choice of a route was left to al Qaeda's local commanders in Afghanistan, according to information given by arrested suspects to their interrogators.
"The standard answer was: We don't know why we were told to leave. The orders were very specific — leave Afghanistan now without wasting much time." The diplomat spoke on the condition that neither his identity nor that of his country would be revealed.
Leave, and leave fast?
That's peculiar, especially when you consider they could simply melt away into the landscape. Methinks there's something more to this.
There was also a call for Muslims to leave the United States recently.
I don't know. If Al Qaeda had a nuke up their sleeve, it's a bit hard to believe they'd detonate it in Afghanistan.
What do you think is going on?
6 comments:
As a pure guess, there's either going to be more to do in Pakistan, or in Iraq or in Israel.
Even the lesser minds of the terrorists can figure out that Americans were more united about fighting in Afghanistan than about fighting in Iraq. So with a Democrat victory the place to keep fighting is other than Afghanistan.
That way the Democrats surrender-monkeys can have it their way all the sooner.
Meanwhile, if Pakistan is going to yield one province to them, why not arrange for two more to get too hot to handle? Already America has publicly done nothing about this, and under the Democrats the secret stuff will be stopped as well.
And after the Israelis failed to clearly defeat Hizballah, we know there's going to be another war there and even less help from America under the Democrats.
So if there is any truth to this at all, it's a clear reaction to the terrorists' victory in the 2006 elections.
Lloyd, Greenfield WI
It just occurred to me that, perhaps, it wasn't Afghanistan they were supposed to clear out of quickly. It may have been Waziristan.
Steve Harkonen wrote a great piece awhile back wherein he conjectured that the reason Pakistan ceded Waziristan was to make it an independent terrorist state, which would free the United States to attack it. When it was still part of Pakistan, we could not have reasonably attacked because (supposedly) Pakistan is our ally.
I think Steve's conjecture is very likely correct, so it would make sense that Al Qaeda would want to clear out of there fast.
But, who knows?
I'm often called paranoid--but what if there's a coup planned in Pakistan, which will give the islamists control of the nukes?
What better way to send a message to the U.S. and India than detonating one against coalition forces in Afghanistan?
When trying to figure out your enemies strategy, I think it is wise to first allow your paranoia to run wild, and then to temper it with reason. Therefore, I don't think your idea is nuts. I think it's important to consider.
A Pakistan coup has been one of Walid Phares' main worries because he believes the Islamists want to create a block of states with nuclear capacity, to which end seizure of Pakistan would be key. I know I tend to harp on the man, but he is right a frightening percentage of the time. He worries, I worry.
Interesting post Pastorius- especially since Michael Yon has predicted a massive upsurge in violence in Afghanistan following the winter lull; partly due to a massive profit made off the poppy harvest. He's expecting a major offensive against the allied troops there.
Could it have anything to do with a Democrat controlled Congress and House- perhaps they believe that they're winning the propaganda war in Iraq. A series of bloody attacks there could affect the upcoming Presidential election. And that could spell victory for them there. With a major force there they would be well positioned to take advantage of any US withdrawal.
Add in the news that Hezbollah and Iran are supplying sophisticated equipment to the Palestinians, and moves by Syria over the Golan Heights lately and we could be looking at a very dangerous Middle East in the few years to come.
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