* admin (Rummy) aborted raid on Al-Qaeda meeting that may have included Al-Qaeda's #2

[draft_mario_cuomo]

More evidence of the repukes being tough on terrorism. :sarcasm:

Democrats should make sure this becomes a major news story as it highlights the repukes' ineptness on security. The presidential candidates in particular should play a key role in using this to highlight the GOP record on terrorism and fight back against the canard that Democrats are weak on defense.

==By MARK MAZZETTI
Published: July 8, 2007

WASHINGTON, July 7 — A secret military operation in early 2005 to capture senior members of Al Qaeda in Pakistan’s tribal areas was aborted at the last minute after top Bush administration officials decided it was too risky and could jeopardize relations with Pakistan, according to intelligence and military officials.

The target was a meeting of Qaeda leaders that intelligence officials thought included Ayman al-Zawahri, Osama bin Laden’s top deputy and the man believed to run the terrorist group’s operations.

But the mission was called off after Donald H. Rumsfeld, then the defense secretary, rejected an 11th-hour appeal by Porter J. Goss, then the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, officials said. Members of a Navy Seals unit in parachute gear had already boarded C-130 cargo planes in Afghanistan when the mission was canceled, said a former senior intelligence official involved in the planning.

Mr. Rumsfeld decided that the operation, which had ballooned from a small number of military personnel and C.I.A. operatives to several hundred, was cumbersome and put too many American lives at risk, the current and former officials said. He was also concerned that it could cause a rift with Pakistan, an often reluctant ally that has barred the American military from operating in its tribal areas, the officials said.==

Read the rest at http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/08/washington/08intel.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

[Snarkoleptic]

1. Probably backed off after getting word 'The Sheik' was in the house.

That would take a lot of the terra-scare tools out of *'s bag of tricks.

[Mz Pip]

2. I'll be waiting for

the outcry of outrage from Rush about how BushCo let him get away. Oh wait. They're not Clinton. Never mind. The silence will be deafening.

Mz Pip
:dem:

[stellanoir]

3. How many # 2's can there possibly be.???

Boggles the mind really.

[Igel]

4. Pay attention.

AQ has always--at least for the last 5-6 years, had the same #2.

The Iraq branch has had a bit of turnover, but the one with dear Obama at its head, the one that was based in Afghanistan, that one hasn't changed its top two guys for quite a while. Nobody's claimed that it did. They caught a putative #3 a couple of years ago.

Boggles the mind, really.