Treating America Like A Brand Name

Keith pretty much says it all...

Headline Win

56 Percent of Americans Are Too Soft to Fight Terrorism

Spencer Ackerman

More Proof The Obama Administration Can't Handle Counterterrorism

WASHINGTON — The Taliban’s top military commander was captured several days ago in Karachi, Pakistan, in a secret joint operation by Pakistani and American intelligence forces, according to American government officials.

The commander, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, is an Afghan described by American officials as the most significant Taliban figure to be detained since the American-led war in Afghanistan started more than eight years ago. He ranks second in influence only to Mullah Muhammad Omar, the Taliban’s founder and a close associate of Osama bin Laden before the Sept. 11 attacks.

Mullah Baradar has been in Pakistani custody for several days, with American and Pakistani intelligence officials both taking part in interrogations, according to the officials.

It was unclear whether he was talking, but the officials said his capture had provided a window into the Taliban and could lead to other senior officials. Most immediately, they hope he will provide the whereabouts of Mullah Omar, the one-eyed cleric who is the group’s spiritual leader.

Disclosure of Mullah Baradar’s capture came as American and Afghan forces were in the midst of a major offensive in southern Afghanistan.

His capture could cripple the Taliban’s military operations, at least in the short term, said Bruce O. Riedel, a former C.I.A. officer who last spring led the Obama administration’s Afghanistan and Pakistan policy review.

Details of the raid remain murky, but officials said that it had been carried out by Pakistan’s military spy agency, the Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence, or ISI, and that C.I.A. operatives had accompanied the Pakistanis.

New York Times

Someone get the fainting couch ready for the Cheneys and Joe LIEberman.

Double Whammy

First the Moony Times reports we have gotten such good intel from the underpants bomber WITHOUT torturing him that we are on a world wide manhunt going after english speaking Al Qaeda terrorists who are trying to attack America

Then we get a detailed breakdown of the underpants bomber's journey into FBI custody. Turns out he wasn't mirandized 50 minutes after he was detained but NINE HOURS after he was detained. And that was only after he had already been in surgery and come out and decided to stop talking anyway.

That sound you hear? Thats the sound of GOP credibility on fighting terrorism going over the side of a cliff.

May it never reappear anywhere but FoxNews ever again!

The Terror Trial In New York.....From Last Week

Did you know there was a terrorist trial last week in New York who had a connection to Khalid Sheik Muhammed?

Im sure you probably didn't because only a handful of journalists even wrote about it and of course there was no Right Wing freakout over it either.

And not a thing happened. No mutants with laser beams coming out of their asses broke the terrorist out nor did a bunch of jihadis invade New York and start shooting death rays.

Funny how that works.

And you know what the result was?

A conviction.

I bet you won't see anything about THAT on FoxNews though...

Spencer Ackerman Cuts Through The Hyperbole

What's so hard about saying someone is lying when they are.....lying?

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Early Contender For QOTD

The GOP must have really pissed John Brennan off...

Cries to try terrorists only in military courts lack foundation. There have been three convictions of terrorists in the military tribunal system since 9/11, and hundreds in the criminal justice system — including high-profile terrorists such as Reid and 9/11 plotter Zacarius Moussaoui.

This administration's efforts have disrupted dozens of terrorist plots against the homeland and been responsible for killing and capturing hundreds of hard-core terrorists, including senior leaders in Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia and beyond — far more than in 2008. We need no lectures about the fact that this nation is at war.

Politically motivated criticism and unfounded fear-mongering only serve the goals of al-Qaeda. Terrorists are not 100-feet tall. Nor do they deserve the abject fear they seek to instill. They will, however, be dismantled and destroyed, by our military, our intelligence services and our law enforcement community. And the notion that America's counterterrorism professionals and America's system of justice are unable to handle these murderous miscreants is absurd.

The NCTC

Check out Spencer Ackerman's profile of the National Counterterrorism Center. There seems to be some structural problems over there that make analyzing intelligence harder than it already is. If I had to guess, that is where some head will end up rolling.

Terrorist Attach On Airplane Thwarted

I am admittedly late on this, but evidently some guy who is now claiming Al Qaeda affiliation of some sort tried to blow up a plane headed to Detroit but failed and presumably ended up getting his ass whupped by his fellow passengers. TPM is on the case.

Can We Get Somebody To Call This Muthafuka Out?

Uhmmm when exactly are the Democrats planning on nailing the low hanging fruit that is Pete Hoekstra to teh damn wall? Between him and Tom Coburn Democrats should have had people wanting to storm the offices of the RNC by now. I mean seriously, what the fucking fuck?!

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A Twofer On The Rachel Maddow Show

I was going to do separate posts on this but what the hell.

First up, if the Democrats have any sense they will bludgeon Pete Hoekstra into oblivion over this obvious instance of running to the media with sensitive informations. And I don't mean any weaksauce "We are very dissappointed...." bullshit statements either. I mean some "We have serious conscerns and reservations about his ability to continue to serve on this committee..." type statements. Alerting a terrorist to the fact that we are monitoring his email. Are you fucking kidding me? Imagine if Nancy Pelosi had done it. Then flip it and turn it right back on his ass!

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Now as far as this story I just can't understand why in the hell we are continuing to pay for Blackwater or Xe or whatever the hell they are calling themselves this week to be in Iraq after all the crap they have pulled over there. And trusting them to guard our own officials? Unnacceptable!

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Break Out The Wingnut Fainting Couches

After the GOP and various wingnut outfits whined over Congressman Alan Grayson and his statement that the Republican health care plan is to not get sick or die quickly, I can't wait for all of them to condemn Republican Congresswoman Virginia Foxx for her latest in a bunch of over the top hyperbolic statements against health care reform.



At the very least you would expect the Dick and Liz Cheney crowd to blast her for not taking terrorism seriously enough right???

Who Did We Have To Torture?

Surely we couldn't have broken up a terror plot with out torturing somebody:

DENVER – Counterterrorism officials are warning mass transit systems around the nation to step up patrols because of fears an Afghanistan-born immigrant under arrest in Colorado may have been plotting with others to detonate backpack bombs aboard New York City trains.

Investigators say Najibullah Zazi, a 24-year-old shuttle van driver at the Denver airport, played a direct role in a terror plot that unraveled during a trip to New York City around the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks. He made his first court appearance Monday and remained behind bars.

Zazi and two other defendants have not been charged with any terrorism counts, only the relatively minor offense of lying to the government. But the case could grow to include more serious charges as the investigation proceeds.

Now to be sure its still early in the investigation but this is just another case that shows how far out of the mainstream Dick Cheney is. To hear him tell it there is no way we could possibly track down terrorists without torturing somebody. I'll bet he is some where now mad as hell just because the FBI proved him wrong.....again. I can only hope the people he has convinced that they need to be scared of their own shadow and President Obama will now start to realize just how full of shit he is.

Suprisingly, It Could Have Been Worse

I don't know how serious the AP is about trying to round up people who excerpt their work so I will just link to thieir article and paraphrase.

It turns out that in 2002 Dick Cheney and the rest of his NeoCon brood tried to convince President Bush to use the military to go into Buffalo, New York and apprehend some terrorism suspects instead of the FBI. Its now apparent to me that there is no way to overestimate just how big of a coward Cheney and his wing of the Executive Office were. There are many many good reasons why its against the policy of the United States of America to use our military domestically, especially for police actions. Bush ultimately told them no, at least according to the AP article, but the simple fact that Cheney was advocating this just goes to show you how much of a chicken hawk the man really was.

And this is the guy the GOP is now trying to make into some kind of hero. Give me a damn break.

"And That's Called Reporting"

Bill O'Liely has shaken up a hornets nest with Rick Sanchez. I don't think he will be making shit up about CNN again any time soon.

A Verbal Evisceration Courtesy Of Richard Clarke

If there is one guy in this country who I sincerely hope has the ear of President Elect Barack Obama on terrorism and national security issues its Richard Clarke. It was largely because of Clarke in my opinion that we know the depth of the EPIC FAIL President Bush was when he never acted on information indicating that Osama bin Ladin was determined to strike America. Well in today's New York Daily News Clarke once again exposes the FAIL that is Bush along with Karl Rove and his "Bush Legacy Project".

George Bush, still President, is engaging in a legacy tour of media outlets. This comes despite his earlier having said he did not know how history would judge the Iraq war "because we'll all be dead."

Actually, many people are already dead because of Bush, and that is the point to keep in mind when he talks about his legacy.

snip

Bush stopped terrorist attacks? Yes, some of the many alleged plots cited by the White House probably would have matured into attacks had not the U.S. intelligence community acted. Many were more aspirational than operational, and others were the pure inventions of FBI informants. (In the Miami Liberty City case, an FBI informant apparently bribed people who previously had no interest in Al Qaeda. When they swore the oath to Osama Bin Laden, they were then arrested for doing so.)

snip

There wasn't a second 9/11? That's obviously true, but it misses the point. First, we must remember that Al Qaeda terrorists are patient, deliberate planners who often wait years between strikes. Second, there was the first 9/11 - and it happened on Bush's watch. Without rehashing the entire 9/11 Commission Report, the historical record is pretty clear by now that Bush did virtually nothing about the repeated warnings to him that those cataclysmic attacks were coming. Unfortunately, I can personally attest to that as well.

Bush saved American lives? Tell that to the families of the 4,200 U.S. military personnel who have perished in the needless war in Iraq. While they served heroically and deserve the great thanks of the American people, the tragic truth is that they were engaged in a war we should not have been fighting and which was sold to the Congress, the media and American people with exaggerated and even false claims.

snip

Let George Bush keep pushing the buttons on the spin machine. That cannot change the facts. His administration's actions on terrorism, including Iraq, killed many more Americans than U.S. intelligence agencies saved in the past eight years.

You see this is why I don't buy into the fantasy that time will be kind to George W. Bush. Because I truly believe that every time that cats will try to revise his history there will be heros like Richard Clarke (or at least his historical accounts) to smack them down and remind us of the truth.