President Obama's Secret: Only 100 al Qaeda Now in Afghanistan

[winyanstaz]

Source: ABC News

As he justified sending 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan at a cost of $30 billion a year, President Barack Obama's description Tuesday of the al Qaeda "cancer" in that country left out one key fact: U.S. intelligence officials have concluded there are only about 100 al Qaeda fighters in the entire country

Obama's National Security Adviser, Gen. James Jones, put the number at "fewer than a hundred" in an October interview with CNN.

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., referred to the number at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee in October, saying "intelligence says about a hundred al Qaeda in Afghanistan."

With 100,000 troops in Afghanistan at an estimated yearly cost of $30 billion, it means that for every one al Qaeda fighter, the U.S. will commit 1,000 troops and $300 million a year



Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/president-obamas-secret-100-al-qaeda-now-afghanistan/story?id=9227861

---

so we can spend that on a mere 100 al Qaeda....
but there is "limited funding" to help the unemployed and working poor?

[arcadian]

1. ABC isn't a reliable source according to some DUers.

The reality doesn't fit their world view so they choose to ignore it.

[winyanstaz]

3. So what about this part?

"Obama's National Security Adviser, Gen. James Jones, put the number at "fewer than a hundred" in an October interview with CNN"

Is Obamas' pick of a National Security Advisor not a reliable source or CNN?

I know there will still be some that find a reason to discount it..but hey..at least I am trying to get it out there :)

[arcadian]

16. Yeah check it out.

berni_mccoy apparently lives in an alternate reality and doesn't believe anything he sees on TV, even things that are sourced to the EOP

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=7151761&mesg_id=7151821

[woo me with science]

20. But, you see, it's just like homeopathy.

There are only 100 there, but Afghanistan has a MEMORY of many, many more...

[winyanstaz]

21. bwhahahaa

[notesdev]

27. It isn't reliable

but that doesn't necessarily mean that every story is incorrect.

That said, it's time for a little trick I call "math".

30,000 troops X $1,000,000/troop/year = $30 billion/year

$30B/year X 1.5 years commitment = $45B commitment

$45B/100 al-Qaida = $450 million per al-Qaida


Why don't we just put a $10 million/head bounty on those 100 guys and save the other $44 billion, and risk no soldier's life?

[avaistheone1]

29. This is a reliable ABC story. ABC is reporting on a Senate hearing and they name the CIA source.

Some DUers are deeply hurting right now, and are in denial.



http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=7158565&mesg_id=7158930

[timeforpeace]

2. Seen "Universal Soldier"? Dude was equal to 1000 regular soldiers. Lesson learned.

[winyanstaz]

5. oh.....I see :P

So what you are saying is...we are not spending 300 million for 100 soldiers but we are willing to pay 300 million for 100,000 soldiers all squished down into 100 bodies :P What a bargan!
Dude! Awesome! You could get a job in Washington with that awesome ability to bump numbers :)

[ima_sinnic]

4. since "al Qaeda" is irrelevant to the U.S. real goals in Afghanistan, so what?

"al Qaeda," like "Osama bin Laden" is just some manufactured boogeyman that gives the MIC the excuse to wreak mayhem and havoc and outright murder to ensure that Afghanistan will go the way it wants it to go, to benefit U.S. interests, with the Afghani people maybe benefiting, but only by coincidence.

[winyanstaz]

9. Exactly...

I agree with you totally...however by posting this I am hoping to be doing a small part along with others in restoring transparency as to what is really going on and how we are being manipulated by ripping off the fabricated cover of bull-crappy that it has been offered to us with. :)

[ima_sinnic]

15. thanks, yes we need to keep shining light on the lies (nt)

[AVID]

6. Do security advisers usually divulge secrets to CNN? Skewed, biased headline.

[mascarax]

7. Rep. Eric Massa also mentioned 100 earlier this week

...when he came out strongly against sending more troops.

[Ozymanithrax]

8. 19 Al Qaeda terrorists perpetrated the attack.

It doesn't take that many.

And for something that is "Obama's secret" it sure is well publicized.

[winyanstaz]

12. umm yah...right...and tell us all again how 7 of those same "al qaeda"

managed to slam planes into the towers and yet are alive and well and walking around the planet.
As long as the 9-11 commission claims it was not allowed to see everything or investigate things...how can anyone claim they know who did 9-11?
Frightened people that think 19 men outsmarted Norad, the FBI, the CIA, the secret services of dozens of other countries, the air force, airport security, and even though they were FAILING at being able to fly a twin engine aircraft still managed to fly (some over an hour) in the most heavily armed air space on the planet (and do maneuvers that experienced pilots say they couldn't possible have done with their level of training)..into two building and yet were also able to totally destroy a third building without even striking it also seem to be the ones screaming "conspiracy theories the loudest......:)

[anonymous171]

13. HURRRRRRRRR

[NightWatcher]

14. stop making sense

my fav was how they found the terrorists passports in the wreckage of WTC. they didnt find large pieces of shit, but the magic passports were fine and easily identified

[winyanstaz]

19. Oh yah...I remember that :)

cement was turned to powder, steel melted and bodies cremated so bad there was no dna but the passports did great :)
I also like how they knew who it was so fast too..before the dust had seattled...

[Ozymanithrax]

18. Tinfoil hats are not my fashion accessory.

Not a conspiracy theorist.

[winyanstaz]

23. I apologise....

For a moment there I actually believed you believed in the 19 "terrorists with box cutters" conspiricy theory. :) My bad.

[Ozymanithrax]

26. I accept the notion that 19 terrorist took over airplanes and flew them into buildings.

It was easy to do that the time.

Though it is my personal belief that the government was warned and let it happen. The idea that it was all a monstrous conspiricay led by a Cabal of neo conservatives involving thousands of Americans to pull off just doesn't meet the test of basic reality.

[winyanstaz]

32. It would not take thousands at all...only the key people need to have known...

The notion that it would take thousands is unfounded.

[HughMoran]

39. There's a forum for this

:yoiks:

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

10. Chasing fleas with a sledgehammer. K&R

[WhaTHellsgoingonhere]

11. Yes, that 100 figure has been reported for days if not weeks

Still waiting to find out:

1. why he wants to stay

2. when the number of troops returned home--not shuffled off to Clusterfuckistan--will exceed the number of troops deployed. Since he took office, he sent/will send over 50,000 American troops. How many will have been returned home by, say, year end 2011?


Anyone see Rachel press Susan Rice on #2? Left me with the feeling that they have a plan different than the one they announced Tuesday night.

[winyanstaz]

24. good questions,,

[avaistheone1]

17. ABC News: CIA testifies before Senate that there are "Zero" Al Qaeda in Afghanistan

At a Senate hearing, the former CIA Pakistan station chief, Bob Grenier, testified al Qaeda had already been defeated in Afghanistan.
"So in terms of 'in Afghanistan,'" asked Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., "they have been disrupted and dismantled and defeated. They're not in Afghanistan, correct?"
"That's true," replied Grenier.

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/president-obamas-secret-100-al-qaeda-now-afghanistan/story?id=9227861&page=2

[winyanstaz]

22. whew...sheesh...I missed that one...good job finding that :)

[avaistheone1]

28. ^5

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

25. 100 al Qaedas?!? Jesus Christ!

It was bad enough when there was only one al Qaeda.

[leftstreet]

30. K&R

[bertman]

31. Yeah, only a hundred. But they're some BADASS al Qaeda mofos, so we gotta root 'um out

no matter what it costs us.

I say "Bring um on, dead or alive."

[winyanstaz]

33. So when will you be going to the front lines in Afganistan?

[bertman]

35. Sorry, didn't think I'd need the sarcasm thingy, winyanstaz.

Anyway, I doubt they'd want me on the frontlines in Vietghanistan, being as this old guy was on the front lines in Vietnam 40 years ago.

[winyanstaz]

36. oops ;) sorry...

[SoCalDem]

34. There was only ONE Hitler..n/t

[unkachuck]

37. "With 100,000 troops in Afghanistan"

"...about 100 al Qaeda fighters in the entire country..."

....yes, but some are very large individuals....some are over 15 feet tall with two nukes under each arm....

....I hear spring time in Pakistan is beautiful....

[winyanstaz]

38. I still dont like the math...so many millions..so few al Qaeda...

(8)Springtime in Pakistan is beautiful...
When the DU ash starts falling....
When you hear the rockets screaming....
You know it's you their calling...

hmmm there could be a very sad song in that...