Uh...what?

[Professor Smooth]

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/09/ ... 1268.shtml

(CBS) The Pakistani military officers battling al Qaeda along the border with Afghanistan who have the latest first-hand information about Osama bin Laden believe he is hiding with a small cadre in Afghanistan and is no longer an effective leader for the terrorist group.

A full report by correspondent Steve Kroft on the search for bin Laden will be broadcast on CBS News’60 Minutes on Sunday, Sept. 25 at 7 p.m. ET/PT.

“I think now [bin Laden] is being protected or assisted by a very short number, which keeps his profile very low,” says the counter-terrorism head of Pakistan’s Intelligence Service, a brigadier who goes by the name “Ali” and whose true identity is known by only a few government officials. Ali believes that bin Laden is still someplace along the border, probably in Afghanistan.

Ali tells Kroft that Pakistan’s intelligence forces have diminished bin Laden’s power by capturing 594 al-Qaeda members and crippling the group’s communications, including infiltrating their courier network. “We have been able to effectively break the communications network from top to bottom. We do not allow these people to communicate with each other,” says Ali.

The information gleaned from captured al-Qaeda members and given to coalition officials has helped to prevent planned terror attacks against financial buildings in the U.S., and planes and buildings at London’s Heathrow airport. It also assisted in the capture of al-Qaeda operatives in Great Britain. “The mere fact that there has not been a replication of 9/11 speaks volumes of what we shared with the world,” boasts Ali.

Finding bin Laden doesn’t matter at this point, according to Lt. Gen. Safdar Hussain, who is in charge of Pakistan’s anti-terrorism operations along the Afghanistan border. “If [bin Laden] is hiding in a hole, neither the electronic nor the human intelligence can find him,” he tells Kroft. “Is it all that important to find him? If he’s taken out tomorrow, his ideology is not going to come to an end. I don’t think that it’s important…if he is captured… This is my personal view,” says Hussain.

Kroft also spoke to Pakistan’s leader, Gen. Pervez Musharraf. “These troops are not certainly on the trail of one man, and that’s all they are doing,” notes Musharraf. “We are fighting terrorism wherever it is. If Osama happens to be there incidentally, he will be killed or captured.”

Are they right? Of course. Capturing bin Laden won't do a damn thing in the "war on terror." But, he did kill 3,000 people. I mean, that's got to count for something, right? If you kill your wife, I doubt the government's going to say that it's no big deal if you're caught because it won't put an end to the killing of spouses.

I read this article and all I came away with was: Yeah, he killed 3,000 people but we've got bigger stuff to worry about. I wonder how the familes of the 9/11 victims are responding to the fact that capturing/punishing the guy who screwed up their lives "isn't that important."

[Guest]

I read this article and all I came away with was: Yeah, he killed 3,000 people but we've got bigger stuff to worry about. I wonder how the familes of the 9/11 victims are responding to the fact that capturing/punishing the guy who screwed up their lives "isn't that important."

Imagine the scenario 64 years ago:

Some Whitehall Suit: "Mr Chamberlain! Mr Chamberlain! Hitler's just invaded Poland!"
Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain: "Right! Let's go smash the German War Machine!"
Some Whitehall Suit: "WTF? Aren't we gonna smoke out Adolf?"
Chamberlain: "Duh! Killing Hitler won't end the war! Defeating his armies will!"

Same deal with bin Laden: kill the head, and a new one will grow right back. But kill the body, and the head dies off.

You quoted it yourself at the top of your article:

(CBS) The Pakistani military officers battling al Qaeda along the border with Afghanistan who have the latest first-hand information about Osama bin Laden believe he is hiding with a small cadre in Afghanistan and is no longer an effective leader for the terrorist group.

What will killing bin Laden now achieve in the fight against al Qaeda?

[Impactor returns 2.0]

I think the job they do of contaiment is probaly better at the moment.

If you Bin Laden then 100 more Bins Ladens will rise to fill his shoes. if you contain him tho then his followers will wait for his next command, that will rarely ever come.

[Scraplet]

Bin Laden isn't and never was 'head' of any significant regimented 'army'.

He never was a commander of anything significant. He's just a hate-mongering rich-boy who has become the figure head of western islamaphobia, and gratefully accepted the title because it has furthered his hate-mongering.

Killing him will do nothing more than immortilise this false picture of him. Its lets the western governments off to do this (they created this publicity monster as a convenient post-coldwar target) and will further Bin Laden's cause much further than letting him rot in the Afgan hills.

All the people in the world who are prepared to commit attrocities in the name of islam will still exist.

I am no more convinced that Bin Laden masterminded 9/11 than I would be if you told me he planned the 7th July Bombings in London.

I'm not saying that Bin Ladens connections might not lead to common resources for the training of these people, but that proves nothing.

Gadaffi had links to the IRA, but we don't call him an IRA commander. The IRA have trained terrorists and gurrillas all over the world, but no-one call these groups 'IRA cells'. Which is what happens with Al Qaeda.

If you want to destroy Al Qaeda, you can start by not making them out to be a single, powerful, organised group. They are not. But our governments want us to believe that. Fear is their biggest weapon, and our governments hand it to them every day.

Ask yourself why.

(sorry for the rant, but this makes me angry)

[Impactor returns 2.0]

I think Al-jehzera TV should stop being the public broadcasting station for terroist TV.

[Best First]

yes Al-jehzera's distortion of events to pander to the sensibilities of their viewers is entirely incomparable to what goes on in the western media.

what?

oh.



Agree with you scraplet. Although you should eb clearly locked up for having such opinions. for your own good.

[Scraplet]

Agree with you scraplet. Although you should eb clearly locked up for having such opinions.

They'll have to get me out of my bunker first (cunningly disguised as a semi detached house, so they'll never find me).....and I've got enough baked beans to last a nuclear winter......