by Damozel | Bush's recent raids in Pakistan are "part of a three-phase plan, approved by President Bush, to strike at Osama bin Laden and top al-Qaida leadership." (NPR) I suppose that before leaving office, Bush would like to finish at least one thing he started.
"Definitely, the gloves have come off," said a source who has been briefed on the plan. (NPR)
There's heavy irony in that statement, considering everything that Bush's administration has wished on us in the name of 911. Why have they kept the gloves on all this time?
If this is what it takes to stop bin Laden, shouldn't they have thought about it...well, back in 2001, before Iraq?
Admiral Mike Mullen says he is now drafting a new military strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan. (NPR) And yes, Congress has been briefed, at least according to NPR's source:
[L]awmakers on Capitol Hill were briefed on the new plan shortly before The New York Times broke the story this week about the Special Operations raid from Afghanistan into Pakistan.... CIA personnel from around the world were being pulled into the Afghan-Pakistan border area, an intelligence-community "surge" to go after bin Laden and other al-Qaida figures. (NPR)
Some of them see cause for concern in all this.
Should the U.S. raids continue on Pakistani soil, there is fear that the Pakistani government may halt — or at least curtail — its cooperation with American counterterrorist efforts in the border area. A military source says that the Pakistani government side is given little prior notice of the American military activity.
There have been some complaints within the military that the Pakistanis, even before last week's raid, were not doing enough to stop the cross-border attacks. And the nation's leaders are balking at allowing more Special Operations forces inside Pakistan to train the country's security forces. Currently, the Pentagon does some limited training of short duration, defense sources say. (NPR)
Memeorandum has blogger commentary
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It very strange that all Pakistanis invoved in Mumbai attacks carried valid Pakistani ID's on them up till now the history of such attacks state taht documents of the country attacked were carried how naive of Pakistanis to carry their own ID;s Please stop telling behind BUSh lies after all so far no WMDs were found in Iraq.Lies by Americans and their stooges are now naked in front of the world are you not ashamed
Posted by: Asad Rehman | December 09, 2008 at 12:45 PM