 |
|
March 5, 2014
Jonathan Tobin: Netanyahu's inaction to Obama's provocations sends powerful message
Jacob Kamaras: Kerry, after apparent criticism by Schumer, seeks to allay skepticism on diplomacy
Becky Rickman: How to ruin a perfectly good kid in 10 simple steps
Herb Scribner: 2014 Oscars played it safe, but was faith lost in the shuffle?
Herb Scribner: Apple joins Hobby Lobby in touting corporate values beyond profit
March 3, 2014
Alina Dain Sharon: In the Hebrew calendar, a leap year has extra month, not day
Ben Cohen: Latest Obama appointment to prove Prez set on emasculating so-called Israel Lobby
|
| |
Jewish World Review
Nov 25, 2011
/ 28 Mar-Cheshvan 5772
No time to let up on al-Qaida
By
Dale McFeatters
| 
|
|
|
| |
|
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
Since the death of Osama bin Laden, the ranks of al-Qaida have dramatically diminished and its leadership ranks diminished to just two figures, U.S. intelligence officials tell The Washington Post, "whose demise would mean the group's defeat."
Their demise could take awhile -- it took us 10 years to get bin Laden -- but we should have the patience to see it through. The remaining "high-value" targets are bin Laden's replacement as leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri, and his deputy, Abu Yahya al-Libi. The CIA's Predator drones, surveillance craft and intelligence operators are concentrated on eliminating them and whatever random bands of al-Qaida terrorists still remain.
Effectively, the rest of the al-Qaida leadership that planned the 9/11 attacks is dead or, like the self-proclaimed mastermind, Sheikh Khalid Mohammed, in prison. The organization should not be allowed to reconstitute itself.
Al-Zawahiri has considered relocating the terrorist group, but the alternative locations are too remote or no safer than where they are now, and then there's the problem of getting there without being detected. And, it's said, al-Zawahiri feels that, at age 60, he's too old to start over again.
However, the CIA is under pressure to move its drone operations and operatives elsewhere, especially to Yemen, now considered the more serious terrorist haven. We would be surprised if Somalia, with its own congeries of terrorist groups and pirates, wasn't on that list.
But the Post reports that CIA Director David Petraeus, the former U.S. commander in Iraq, "and other senior officials -- mindful that al-Qaida has regrouped in the past -- think their unfinished priority is to extinguish the network's base."
The plodding al-Zawahiri is evidently not much of a leader. Al-Libi, thought to be 48, is charismatic, eloquent, well schooled in Islam and has the revolutionary credential of having escaped from U.S. custody at the U.S.-Afghan prison at Bagram in 2006.
Left at large, he could potentially fill the leadership vacuum left by bin Laden and the terrorist cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, killed by a drone strike in September in Yemen.
In 2001, the CIA, U.S. special forces and their Afghan allies had bin Laden trapped in Afghanistan's remote mountains along the Pakistani border. The Bush administration took its foot off the gas to begin diverting troops and resources to the pending invasion of Iraq.
You'd like to think that we learned our lesson and won't make the same mistake again, but we might -- if Congress persists in massive, automatic cuts in the Pentagon budget in 2013.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
Comment by clicking here.
Previously:
• 11/24/11 Congress Quietly Abolishing Friday
• 11/23/11 Cleaning up after supercommittee implosion
• 11/22/11 Jailing minors with adults adds to problems
• 11/21/11 Brilliant strategy? Action by inaction
• 11/18/11They're going to eat horses, aren't they?
• 11/17/11 A pretend stick shift for pretend drivers
• 11/16/11 Clinton's ‘vast experiences’: Did NBC pick the wrong Chelsea?
• 11/15/11 Occupy protesters, you've made your point. Now, scat
• 11/10/11 Our vets are a national problem?
• 11/09/11 Requiem for a once-great sport
• 11/08/11 A toilet as smart as its occupant
• 11/07/11 Prerevolutionary gems in need of TLC
• 11/04/11 Feds must stop scam of stealing from dead children
• 11/03/11 Bank listens ‘very closely’ to customer lynch mob
• 11/01/11 TV that's leading the people away from ‘core socialist values’
• 10/31/11 NATO should not be a victim of its success
• 10/28/11 Iran mulls getting rid of president and presidency
• 10/27/11 Bienvenidos a Dayton and bring your businesses with you
• 10/26/11 Archivists long for Obama's teleprompter
• 10/25/11 United Nations to run the Internet?
• 10/24/11 Attention, world: You've got the cash. We've got the houses
• 10/19/11 Oil pipeline must be in America's future
• 10/18/11 U.S. plans ‘limited’ mission in an Africa with no limits
• 10/17/11 Social Security's grave mistakes
• 10/12/11 NASA's help-wanted sign for astronauts
• 10/10/11 Saving Thomas Jefferson''s chimneys
• 10/06/11 Uncle Sam's answer to deadbeats --- robo-calls
• 10/04/11 Christie should ignore jibes on his weight
• 10/03/11 Iran says its warships will head for Jersey shore
• 09/29/11 Europeans bristle at Obama's lectures
• 09/28/11 Jessica Rabbit for the defense
• 09/27/11 Russia learns outcome of next March's presidential election
• 09/26/11 Another try at leaving no child behind
• 09/23/11 This generation needs a job more than a name
• 09/22/11 In the lane next to you: A driverless car
• 09/20/11 Cloudy, cool, chance of falling satellite
• 09/14/11 Humanitarian extortion
• 09/13/11 Paging Dr. Watson; he's there in 3 seconds
• 09/09/11 Forecasting 100 percent chance of heavy metal
• 09/08/11 A jobs program at Obama's doorstep
• 09/07/11 Iran's government afraid of the water
• 09/06/11 Congress returns, tanned, rested and testy
• 09/05/11 Space nations must clean up after themselves
• 09/02/11 Osama bin Laden died a failure and he knew it
• 09/01/11 Time to retire political pie in the face
• 08/31/11 Labor Day celebrates what, exactly?
• 08/30/11 These arrestees really are framed
• 08/25/11 When in an earthquake, block traffic
• 08/23/11 A case for discretion in deportation arrests
• 08/22/11 Tough times or not, parents shell out for school
• 08/18/11 Being unpleasant for fun, profit, promotion
• 08/17/11 Time to prepare for the end game in Libya
• 08/16/11: ‘Super Committee’ starts facing reality
• 08/15/11: World's fastest plane disappears even faster
• 08/12/11: British cops track rioters through security cameras
• 08/11/11: Relax. There is no Death Star
• 08/10/11: House pages run final errands
• 08/09/11: U.S. treading water on job creation
• 08/08/11: Uncle Sam, the world's permanent guest
• 08/05/11: Most 9/11 victims not on federal death records
• 08/04/11: Russian PM calls U.S. a ‘parasite.’ He should be so lucky
• 08/03/11: Congress goes from one bind to another
• 08/02/11: D.B. Cooper may no longer be a mystery
• 08/01/11: Libya's latest weapon against NATO --- lawsuits
• 07/29/11: He'll always be known as Hot Wheels Handler
• 07/25/11: Recruiting children to save a dying town
• 07/22/11: Bachmann's admirable medical candor
• 07/12/11: Social Security's grave mistakes
• 07/08/11: Debt crisis need not be constitutional crisis
• 07/07/11: Startups entice new talent with kickball, treehouses
• 07/05/11: Stranded tourists get rare treat
• 06/30/11: The dollar Americans refuse to spend
• 06/27/11: The hangman doesn't cometh
© 2011, SCRIPPS HOWARD NEWS SERVICE
|
|
Columnists
Toons
Lifestyles
|
