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Obama’s Inheritance: Al-Qaeda in Retreat

hypocritexposer

Well-known member
This is a very long article, well worth a read.

Obama’s Inheritance: Al-Qaeda in Retreat
Marc A. Thiessen

In a widely noted speech at the National Archives in May, President Barack Obama said of George W. Bush’s national security policies: “We are cleaning up something that is quite simply a mess.” The president is wrong. Far from a mess, when it comes to national security, President Obama actually inherited a very strong hand from his predecessor. When Bush left office in January, America had marked 2,688 days without suffering another terrorist attack on its soil, an outcome that seemed all but impossible when the smoke cleared on September 12, 2001. Despite repeated attempts, al-Qaeda failed in its efforts to strike the U.S. again—because Bush kept its leaders on their heels and left them increasingly defeated and discredited on battlefronts across the globe.

To understand exactly how strong Obama’s hand is on national security, one needs only to compare the situation today to the one Bush inherited when he arrived at the White House. In 2001, the Taliban ruled Afghanistan, and had turned that country over to al-Qaeda to train terrorists and plan attacks. Pakistan was one of the only countries in the world that recognized the Taliban regime, but the United States was not actively working with that country’s leaders or its military to shut down al-Qaeda’s operations. Saudi Arabia had turned a blind eye to facilitators within its own borders who were providing recruits, money, religious justification, and logistical support to al-Qaeda. In Southeast Asia, a terrorist network called Jemaah Islamiyah was growing in strength and collaborating with al-Qaeda on attacks planned for the American homeland........

In the seven years before Obama took office, America’s foes suffered serious blows in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and a defeat in Iraq. They have been increasingly rejected by their fellow Muslims and even by their fellow jihadists. The president ought to realize that his own legacy depends on what he does with this inheritance. On his one-hundredth day in office, he declared at a White House press conference: “Ultimately I will be judged as commander-in-chief on how safe I’m keeping the American people.” This is one statement with which no one, whatever their party or political persuasion, can disagree.

http://www.worldaffairsjournal.org/2009%20-%20Summer/full-Thiessen.html
 

Tam

Well-known member
New Al Qaeda Book on 'Muslim Spies' Paints Picture of Weakened Group, Experts Say
Thursday, July 09, 2009
By Mike Levine and Catherine Herridge

A new book published by Al Qaeda called "Guide to the Laws Regarding Muslim Spies" paints a weak and paranoid portrait of the terrorist group, experts say.
A new book published by Al Qaeda called "Guide to the Laws Regarding Muslim Spies" paints a weak and paranoid portrait of the terrorist group, experts say.
A new book published by Al Qaeda shows that the terrorist group is under intense pressure and in "deathly fear" of U.S. counterterrorism efforts in Pakistan, terror experts say.

The 150-page book, titled "Guide to the Laws Regarding Muslim Spies," was recently posted on jihadist Web sites. It was written by a senior Al Qaeda commander, Abu Yahya Al-Libi, and features an introduction by Ayman Al-Zawahri, the No. 2 man in Al Qaeda.

The book accuses some in Al Qaeda's ranks of being spies who provide intelligence, including information about Al Qaeda camps and safehouses, to U.S. forces. According to the book, these "Muslim spies" have allowed the U.S. to use its Predator drone campaign to paralyze Al Qaeda leadership.

"It would be no exaggeration to say that the first line in the raging Crusader campaign waged by America and its allies against the Muslims and their lands is the network of spies, of various and sundry sorts and kinds," says the book, translated by the Washington-based Middle East Media Research Institute, or MEMRI

"Their effects are seen: carnage, destruction, arrest, and pursuit, but they themselves remain unseen, just like Satan and his ilk who see us while remaining unseen."

Terror experts have called the book unique in its weak and worried tone.

"I haven't ever seen this kind of language from senior Al Qaeda commanders before," said Daniel Lev, who works for MEMRI. "In general, Al Qaeda speaks in a very triumphant tone," but in the new book Al-Libi speaks of the group's dire straits and serious problems, Lev added.

"Such an admission of distress on the part of a senior Al Qaeda commander makes this a very unique book in terms of the author."

FOX News military analyst Tom McInerny said the book is a "gold mine" that attests to the success of the Predator strikes that are decimating Al Qaeda's ranks in Pakistan.

"They are in deathly fear of airpower," said McInerny, a retired lieutenant general in the U.S. Air Force. "Whether it's unmanned drones or whether it's fighters or bombers using precision weapons, they are deathly afraid."

The books also displays a deep-seated paranoia of hidden enemies, according to MEMRI. It claims that anyone — from the old and infirm to the imam of a mosque — could be a U.S. spy.

"The danger of these spies lies not only in the ability of these hidden 'brigades' to infiltrate and reach to the depths," the book says.

"They include the decrepit, hunchbacked old man who can hardly walk two steps; the strong young man who can cover the length and breadth of the land; the infirm woman sitting in the depths of her house; the young woman whose veins still flow with youth; and even perhaps the prepubescent adolescent who has not reached the age of legal maturity [in Islam]."

Lev, of MEMRI, said that the group's suspicions could be used as an excuse to conduct a purge, which could further harm the Al Qaeda's stature in Pakistan.

"In the situation that they're in, they're entirely dependent on the natives, on the Pakistanis and the Afghans, and they definitely do not want to be facing a situation like Al Qaeda in Iraq, where you have the tribes turning on you," he told FOX News.

"That can be the beginning of the end."
 
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