March 18, 2004
WHERE THE WAR ENDS:
Pakistan: Qaeda No. 2 Surrounded (CBS News, March 18, 2004)
Pakistani officials said Thursday they believe al Qaeda No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahri is surrounded near the Afghan border.No other details were available.
Pakistani troops and paramilitary forces using artillery and helicopter gunships had launched a new assault Thursday against al Qaeda and Taliban suspects in a tribal region near Afghanistan, two days after a fierce assault that left dozens dead.
The new push began in Azam Warsak, Shin Warsak and Kaloosha villages in South Waziristan, the tribal region that borders Afghanistan, said Brig. Mahmood Shah, the chief of security for the area. Army spokesman Gen. Shaukat Sultan said there have been casualties in the new offensive, but he had no details of how many or on which side.
The operation follows a clash between security forces and suspected Taliban and al Qaeda holdouts in a fortress-like compound in the village of Kaloosha, just miles from the border. Some 41 people — including 15 troops and 26 militants, died in the raid on Tuesday, the military said Thursday. Eighteen other suspects were captured.
A military statement said most of those killed Tuesday were foreigners, but it gave no details of nationalities and acknowledged that only two of the bodies had been recovered. No senior al Qaeda figures are believed to have been among those killed or captured.
One of the two dead militants whose bodies were recovered was a Chechen and the other was believed to be of Middle Eastern origin, a military official said on condition of anonymity.
Given the likelihood that Osama is, and has been, dead, this'd be huge. Posted by Orrin Judd at March 18, 2004 1:38 PM
why do you think osama is dead?
Posted by: neil at March 18, 2004 2:24 PMSeen any videotape of him mentioning anything that's happened since Dec 01 or so?
Posted by: brian at March 18, 2004 2:29 PMOsama is on the same pacific island where they put Amelia Erhart and Jimmy Hoffa.
No one's seen him since Tora Bora have they?
Posted by: oj at March 18, 2004 3:15 PMWho will be the first prominent Democrat to say (assuming we really get Zawahari) that this proves how easily we could have rolled up AQ if we hadn't spent the last 18 months distracted by Iraq? And who will be the first to say the Bush purposely held off the "spring offensive" until the spring before the election?
Posted by: brian at March 18, 2004 3:19 PMIt can't be that risky for Osama to release Video tapes clearly showing that he is alive. Now is the perfect time for him to inspire the Jihadist. But he doesn't.
It's my understanding that Hoffa is buried in the end zone at the Meadowlands.
Posted by: h-man at March 18, 2004 3:22 PMyou all seem pretty sure that he is probably gone, if that's the case why isn't anyone on radio, printo ortv suggesting this might be the case? It just seems more likely he's still arou nd or more of us would be on to your theories. No?
Posted by: neil at March 18, 2004 3:36 PMThe thing is, nobody out here actually knows if OBL is alive or dead. It is entirely possible he was killed at Tora Bora but the body was never found or identified (thermobaric bombs tend to do that) and whoever really is running Al-Qaeda has been keeping up the myth that OBL is alive or in hiding, waiting to return in victory. (After all, that would fit a Messiah figure. Or Elvis...)
Or he could have survived, but disfigured/crippled/invalid; same drill, but they can use his voice on-demand. I have heard that OBL had a couple of chronic medical conditions that would argue against going to ground without some sort of support trail.
As for why "He's still around or more of us would be on to your theories. No?" -- It may be a case of "I'll believe he's dead when they show me the body."
Besides, the Myth of OBL works in US domestic politics, too. Anti-Bush types can point to it as a reason for failure ("It's All The Republicans' Fault!"), and Bush can point to it as the need to continue the war until the actual aim is achieved -- remaking the Middle East away from a breeding ground of fanaticism & terrorism, something impossible under the status quo.
Posted by: Ken at March 18, 2004 4:14 PMBecause Mark Steyn says so. And he's from NH too.
Posted by: Genecis at March 18, 2004 4:48 PMWar end in Pakistan? Maybe but not just yet I'm afraid.
Posted by: h-man at March 18, 2004 7:44 PM