S-2

From the NYT, there appears a new face on the Al-Qaeda front-

Rising Leader For Next Phase of Al-Qaeda's War- NYT

Meet Abu Yahya al-Libi who escaped from Bagram AFB in mid-July, 2005 after nearly three years of incarceration. His capture by Pakistan and subsequent rendition to U.S. authorities occurred about a year after 9/11.

Why Bagram for so long? Clearly, he was a candidate for Guantanamo given his near-impeccible irhabist credentials. This guy may well be the leading theortician/doctrinaire now and future leader of A.Q. soon.

__________________
"This aggression will not stand, man!" Jeff Lebowski

Adux

S-2,

Whatever happened to the notion that terrorist were illiterate people living under poverty stricken conditions? And this in the NYT, dont they realize they are basically contradicting with their stated views on WoT.

S-2

"Whatever happened to the notion that terrorist were illiterate people living under poverty stricken conditions?"

Ummm...didn't that go away w/ the passenger manifests on 9/11? Those guys weren't illiterate.

"And this in the NYT, dont they realize they are basically contradicting with their stated views on WoT..."

I don't understand. You'll have to elaborate a bit more, please.

Adux

S-2,

Mine was a general statement that all terrorist are illiterate souls with poor economic background which seemed to be pumped around here in the forum as well as in the liberal media, Yes even 9/11 guys were again highly literate. NYT(or is it the post) from what I have read of their reports have always been a liberal mouthpiece, which has been always anti-war.

ba1025

I don't understand the trashing of the Times could you give me an example of their inaccuracies? other than overstating the Iraqi threat I haven't seen a lot of their WoT coverage being contradicted by any source of record. You act like they print articles sympathetic to AQ...SHOW ME ONE or Check yourself.

You forget where they attacked in 2001. Everyone in NY saw what happened. Everyone in NY saw the probably millions of posters asking if people saw loved ones including people at the NY times. You could smell the attack in the air for as long as the media ran those awful clips of people jumping out of windows to avoid being burnt to death. Almost everyone in NY was touched by it. Almost everyone in the tri state area knows someone who lost a friend or family member. I really think you need to check yourself on the NYtimes. Just because you don't like their opinion page doesn't make their news reporting any less the paper of record in this country. No one wants to see that bastard Osma Bin Laden and his ilk burn more than the people directly impacted by the attacks. to people who saw or were effected by that devastating attack the hatred is like a blood oath. The people most effected by the attack are the ones buying the Times at the newsstand.

Shek

Adux,

Where are you getting that this forum propagates the thought that terrorists are illiterates that come from poverty? There is an indirect connection, i.e., terrorists can be inspired by their devotion to the thought that turning to Allah will solve problems such as poverty, and illiteracy can make it easier to influence a population to support your efforts, but it still takes smart people that can communicate effectively (reading tends to help) to run an effective organization.

You may be confusing some links/threads that demonstrate that AQI was having a tough time recruiting "good", motivated suicide bombers and having to use some local mentally retarded bombers or forcing locals through the kidnapping of their families to become unwilling suicide bombers.

Attack Assignments in Terror Organizations and the Productivity of Suicide Bombers

Engineers of Jihad

Education, Poverty and Terrorism

Lastly, the reporting of Judith Miller for the NYT was some of the strongest material in the press that favored going to war with Iraq. It turned out that her sources, members of the INC, weren't so accurate. There's certainly been some poor editorial decision making IMO on some of the pieces that they've run, but a wholesale generalization that they are anti-war cannot be supported.

__________________
"So little pains do the vulgar take in the investigation of truth, accepting readily the first story that comes to hand." Thucydides 1.20.3

ba1025

Yup, they were wrong to challenge the Administration position it was only a couple of dead enders stirring up trouble in Iraq.... when the govt lies in a democracy the job of the 4th estate isn't to mirror lies it's to refute them. reporting on the insurgency when we were being told there wasn't one is the reason we have a free press. I am sure their reports on body armor, unarmored Humvee and, the superiority of the MRAPV has only sped up the elimination of deficiencies. those reports might of made some supporters of the Administration uncomfortable but they increased the pressure to implement improvements.

BTW who is pro war??? No one likes war but Zealots and extremists. sometimes it's necessary

I read about the "911 guys" going to flight school in the Times. I would never equate pilot training with stupidity. i read about that in the times along with the reports the FBI had been informed? How is that "liberal" bent. It's just a fact, if the facts aren't biased even if they make you uncomfortable and you don't like them. Reporting on illegal domestic wire tapping and water boarding????? old Tom Jefferson would of wanted to raise a militia over the wiretapping and the US Army was court martialing soldiers for using something similar to water boarding as torture against Filipino insurgents/ patriots depending on your side 100 years ago 100 years ago. reporting this type of stuff isn't "liberal" it's news.

ba1025

Anyway back on the subject...they can't kill the bastard fast enough for me. if they have some twisted view it's martyrdom to die in their cause let
us help them along. I just want to know why our spy satellites cant find a 6 foot 5 arab traveling in the mountains with a dialysis machine? We wouldn't worry about Pakistani territorial sovereignty if we had a shot at him right? It really frustrates me he is alive and 4000 more Americans are dead since 911

Shek

The attack on Zawahiri demonstrated that we're willing to violate Pakistani sovereignty for the very big fish, in this case, it would be literal. However, I doubt that our satellites can tell the difference between someone that's 6'0 and 6'5 given the dress and the precautions taken by OBL and his entourage. Given that the Pakistani government doesn't even have control of the area, the ability to penetrate the area with HUMINT is also probably very difficult.

tankie

What only him ? .

__________________
TANKIE , WITHOUT WAX

ba1025

Him most of all

Bad Karma

The only thing that really bothered me about the article was that they continually referred to him as Mr. Libi.

His kunya is abu Yahya which means father of Yahya (John). This is a name he has assumed and the name he prefers to go by. al-Libi signifies that he is from Libya. Actually his given birth name isn't given in the article.

BadKharma

Yes the problem with gaining humint is a severe shortfall. Very interesting article and something worth remembering.