For at least the last year or so I have been wondering whether in fact the Bush administration is quietly pleased with all the "anti-war"(*) focus on Iraq.

We have tens of thousands of operatives in places like Mali, Djibouti, Mauritania, Somalia, Yemen and the assorted reaches of Chaostan. They're doing good work, taking out a lot of tangos, and generally making the enemy's life a living hell across wide swaths of the globe with very little notice.

The Left's obsessive focus on Iraq has created vast strategic freedom elsewhere, such as (probably) Dagestan.

• BTW, they're not "anti-war" they're on the other side. Especially if viewed from the perspective that American freedom and enterprise are now struggling against a temporary alliance of convenience between secular euro-transnational socialism and islamist fundamentalism. The islamists, no doubt, feel they can make quick work of the ET socialists once (together) they have neutralised America. The ET socialists have solid beach-heads -- actually 'AIR-heads' is more appropriate in several ways -- in the American media and academia, and this fifth column was simply too valuable to the islamists not to be exploited at this phase. Bush may well be letting them expend their energy and pushing back just enough to keep 'em focused on Iraq.

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Read our novel, America. Then, you’ll be able to see with enough vision to find your Way outta the stagnant hole mosta U.S. have dug ourselves into. What you’ll find in our wonderful, fruitFULL, dynamic novel is a treasure, unlike any other. If you decide to read this indelible script, here’s the next step: Get in touch with my CPA, Edward Foree, at 1-800-266-9111.

MAY GOD BLESS YOU WITH DISCERNMENT!
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This is a hoot of a site
So, for the record, since there is a deathly silence at WoC about .........

1) 10 Americans died and oodles more injured in Iraq yesterday from the bomb blast of 3 wired artillery shells.

And dare to be a Dan here, above, is writing about 3 pissy guerillas????!!!

2) Video footage of illy clad guerillas roamin' in th' gloamin' of Ramin, carrying the symbolic equivalent of box cutters compared to the armnaments of the Occupation Army(OA). This is mud in the pants of the OA honcho and is he ever hopping mad on TV.

The guerillas look exactly like the undertrained, underarmed, underled but with guts galore pictures of them we recall as icons of freedom fighters anywhere in the world. It's Classic David and Goliath stuff! It's a sobering thought to feel so impotent when all along one thought these ragmuffins had been bagged ! The head honcho is thinking ,"Who are these guys? How can they do that? Can you do that? I can't do that." ...butch cassidy and the sundance kid.

Where is the rapportageditorial about this above revelatory visionmetrics seen by everyone on CNN, at WoC?

3) The Pentagon (talk about an anti Christ symbol, huh?) can't make good news out there in Iraq, by its achievements, so it has to BUY it's way into the newspapers. There were no little "advertisement" words above their planted fluff stories. So what would we think average Iraqis think about their liberators bringing them freedom of the press? Not bloody much.

And not bloody much is said about it at WoC either!!!

Is all the news not fit to Blog at WoC?

In the coming years many of us will see how willfully blind and unwittingly believing we were in our politically correct conservative views.

Joe, open that window, will ya' ? We need some fresh Winds to bring some meaningful Change to this Net.

Setmarian was recognized last July by a victim of the bombing of a restaurant near Torrejon AFB in Spain back in 1985, during the NATO referendum campaign, in which 18 persons were killed.

He comes from an important religious family in Syria. He is one of the rich jihadists, like Bin Laden, not just a guerrilla.

And sorry guys if you find the war against terror a bit boring, but it is the way it is: long, bloody, dark, dirty...

Okay, Tom V. ... to end the "deathly silence" ...

a) Ten guys died. Yup. And I feel for their families. But there's a war on, chicken$#|+, and guys die. My family has brought forth both officers and enlisted for the defence of this country in every single generation for over 300 years. We've lost more than a few along the way. It happens. It sucks. It's worth it. Even though small-minded folks never quite seem to get it. Oh, and the tangos that just got neutralised are not exactly 'guerrillas.' More like a couple of 3-stars and a 1-star, or at worst a bird-colonel. Howse about you get some perspective, eh?

b) So the bad guys can very temporarily control a piece of real estate they used to own. Oooh. Again, this is a war, and things like this always happen. The Bulge is an important example. Ramadi is trivial. You are extrapolating minor counter-trend events and trying to turn in into the disaster you apparently so desperately long for. Dream on. Too bad you've built your hopes upon America's failure. What a sorry mental and emotional universe to inhabit.

c) Oh my. Oh my! Propaganda in a time of war. The horror. How ironic the issue was brought forward by the LA Times, which has been caught out repeatedly in biased and distorted reporting, and is paying for it with its circulation figures. The scandal is that the LAT is providing the other side's propaganda for free.

Ya know what Tom V.? When you're in a close-in fight you CHEAT, and we cheat a whole lot nicer than anybody in the world. Get over it. Maybe I'll talk to you about the back country in Peru and Colombia in the early '90s some time ...

My main complaint about our government's conduct of this war is that we have been way too nice for way too long. When "peace activists" are kidnapped and quite believably threatened with beheading by thugs you'd think the left might begin to have a clue.

But some people, as my grandmother used to say, "don't have the sense God gave to a goose."

How wonderful it must be to be a Tom Viklander, living with the absolute certainty of your superiority and everyone else's inferiority. The trouble being, of course, that since everyone else is stupid and incapable, that must always mean that everything they do is a failure.

So therefore, you're an Atlas standing tall astride your world, indomnitable and brave, but the world you're astride is a stinking cesspool -- so that in the personal wonderfulness you have granted yourself with ease, no pain and nary a droplet of sweat, you have won just exactly ... nothing.

Actually, Tom is an open supporter of al-Qaeda in Iraq and their Ba'athist accomplices. Read

This may help to explain his comments.

How many times have we killed/captured/maimed the No. 3 man?

http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2005/05/how_many_number.html

How Many Number Three Men Does Al Qaeda Have?

Michael Froomkin directs us to First Draft, where we learn that Al Qaeda's number threes include:

* Abu Faraj al-Libbi
* Saif al-Adel
* Khalid Sheikh Mohammed
* Mohammed Sheikh Mohammed
* [a] senior operational leader, who gave Faris his orders... identified in court documents as 'C-2'

Or how about this number 3:

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/GE06Df03.html

or how about this number 3:

http://in.rediff.com/news/2005/may/10pak1.htm

Or this number 3:

http://www.zaman.com/?bl=hotnews&alt=&trh=20050514&hn=19535

Or this number 3:

http://www.rsf.org/print.php3?id_article=1371

Yeah, you can't trust anything this administration says. I wonder when they are going to raise the terror alert levels again? Probably about 1-2 months before the 2006 elections.

Patrick:

You want answers or just an excuse to demonstrate your ignorance of al-Qaeda?

As I noted above, the al-Qaeda military committee (do you know what that is or do I need to explain that as well?) split in two after we invaded Afghanistan, reestablishing itself in northern Pakistan and eastern Iran. KSM oversaw the Pakistani branch, Saif al-Adel the Iranian one. After KSM was captured, leadership of the Pakistani branch passed first to Abu Faraj al-Libbi and then to Hamza Rabia. Saif al-Adel and the Iran-based leadership remain at large. A "senior operational planner" isn't the same thing as the head of the military committee, BTW.

Syed Saleem Shahzad argues in the Asia Times story you provided that al-Qaeda isolated al-Libbi from its decision-making apparatus after he became the subject of an intense manhunt by the Pakistani authorities. That's one possibility, but the problem is that if that is true it only increases the stature of Hamza Rabia, who had not been identified in the limelight as much and, like al-Libbi, was one of KSM's top aides.

The Rediff story you cite says that al-Libbi was the head of al-Qaeda in Pakistan rather than the #3, which tracks with my own analysis at the time.

The Zaman article states that Haysam al-Yemeni was killed. Al-Yemeni was one of al-Libbi's lieutenants and a member of the ad-hoc committee mentioned above, so taking him out was yet another blow to his stature in the organization.

As for KSM, his status within al-Qaeda is not a matter of serious dispute, especially after 9/11.

Like I said, all you're doing in posting this is demonstrating just how little an effort you have made to learn about al-Qaeda, its post-9/11 evolution, and its leadership. As long as you continue to substitute a serious study of the group in favor of a conspiracy-ladden narrative (for instance, the Zaman article you referenced cites Cannistraro as saying that the killing of al-Yemeni is a good thing - if you knew anything about Cannistraro you would know just how completely implausible it is that he's in the tank for the Bush administration, which leaves us with conspiracy theory as the only viable alternative). Under those circumstances, your criticisms of the Bush administration don't exactly hold a lot of water with me.

Its probably been said before, it must be said again. You don't want to be the number 3 guy in al-Qaeda. You don't want to be a drummer for Spinal Tap.

Propoganda has been discussed on WOC on many occassions, including by AL here

When this topic comes up it appears that those who oppose it, see no problem with it being used in World War II or in any other "good" war they support. The opposing view is that when you send men off to kill and perhaps die you support your troops with all the tools in your possession.

That is good news indeed! Although it may be awhile before Bin Laden and Zarqawi are nabbed, the more of their underlings are taken out of the fight, the better!

The sad thing is I actually have to read this on a blog in order to find out any good news on the war on terrer. :(

Propaganda here and the the right wing generally.........Dan Darling, Katzman, the whole crew here and their idol/masters at the NRO are nothing but propaganda.

And they're little bithches about it too.

http://turcopolier.typepad.com/sic_semper_tyrannis/2005/12/cv_w_patrick_la.html#comments

They'll smear and backstab anyone who does not agree with them including decorated veterans.

Lies, inuendo, and backstabbing.....it's all you have because, at the end of the day, you're a pack of salesmen mascarading as ideologues.

I'll now sign off so you all can return to your regular dose of fear and war mongering.

Wait... I thought the anti-Iraq contingent wanted us to have 100,000 troops in Aghanistan. Where Al Qaeda isnt ,anymore. Oh, instead in Pakistan. Except that would mean war, which i stongly suspect is much the same kind of red herring the Iran and North Korean argument is. We could be dealing with these other places... expect that we (being the anti-useful answer, appeasement, peacemonger types) would be screaming our bloody heads off ten times as loud if Pakistan, Iran, or North Korea would have been attacked sans a million UNSC resolutions.
Personally, i've just lost all patience with the gotcha crowd. Claiming we should have done any and everything we dont do is as pathetic as it is pointless.

#13 was of interest as it was just about the purest example of ad hominem illogic that I've seen in a year. If you actually search for a shred of fact or argument, it simply isn't there. The amusing thing about the post is trying to figure out what the webcitation has to do with anything other than the UFO sitings discussed there.

Tom,
You make my case. You are a typical adherant of WoC/NRO philosophy - a filthy liar.

The post that is cited and for which the URL is provided (#13) has to with Pat Lang (go to his blog and check out his credentials) having to re-post his CV because the NRO gang was attempting character assissination. They were notifying various media outlets that Pat Lang (colonel, ret. USA) - who often appears for media interviews - is an agent of some shadowy Lebanese political group. The allegation is, of course, completely false. It's just another swift boating by men - and I use that term loosely - who couldn't even come close hazarding a guess at even 1 of the general orders (something that is memorized by every recruit in every branch of the service).

Just wondering, if all of sudden these successes is another proof that Omar al-Farouq had actually turned and then released. But that is besides the point.

We all know that al-Qaeda does not exist in itself anymore (operationally) but as pointed out, out-sources its training and support, sometimes even attacks to organisations like LeT and HM.
My question is, why are LeT members (and others) openly roaming in Pakistan and not much has been done about it than lip service? Or is it part of a plan?

The 'USMC_Vet' posting above is quite obviously not the USMC_Vet (aka, Steve Schippert) of Winds of Change, ThreatWatch, WordUnheard etc. Hence, I've altered his nic to reflect that. Fair warning, buddy: when posting, use a different nic, or I'll change it for you.

Actually, impersonation is cause for instant site banning here. The only question here is was it intentional, given Steve's chosen handle. This indicidual's behaviour suggests that it may have been intentional.

Here's the ONE warning - if that nic appears again, then having been warned this person will be gone permanently from Winds.

I'll add that we expect better standards of conduct and decorum as well, sir - if you're going to be here, you need to be an adult. If you can't, you'll be gone.

Re 5. Is Mr. Hall Mr. Darling's press flunky here, or what?

Re. 6. Look, Nancy, the task at hand is to querry why at this site there is blatant disregard for what even CNN and FOX are reporting. I'm sorry I bring you painful news.
I hardly boast about myself, but I do wonder why seemingly just I here am aware of the precarious situation the USA finds itself in the world. That hardly makes me an Atlas, just a messenger for you to shoot.

Re. 7. Joe misinforms us again. All I say in the link he provides is that "I am amazed....". Who isn't? Everyone was amazed at what al-Queda did with box cutters. Joe would have us believe that translates into "open support" of that organization. I don't think so.

Re. USMC_VET - not Steve Schippert .
This person is a welcome contributor. We thank him for his posts bringing a breeze of change and we encourage more participation from him, don't we?

Today we see Mr. Allawi, the former interim PM installed by the AngloAmericans scurrying away from shoes a-flying in Najaf. Note that the throwing of shoes is deemed an isult of absolutely vile proportions in the Middle East
Great visuals from CNN
Seems most Iraqis want the Occupiers and their mouthpieces out.

But slander is just hunkey dorey?

http://www.windsofchange.net/archives/005030.php

(Dan repeating the lie Pat Lang is a registered agent of a foreign government. A lie that originated with Ledeen and the rest of the NRO crowd. Also, an example that runs counter to Dan's claim thathe is his own man with thought independent from his "mentor's").

USMC_Vet - not Steve Schippert:

If you can't refrain from making ad hominem attacks, I'm going to have to ask you to exit the thread. Please note that under WoC comments policy, if you can't comply with that request, you're going to be shown the door. I have better things to do than trade insults back and forth.

a conservative reader:

Actually, it was a lefty who is far from being part of the "NRO" crowd who brought up Lang in the post you cite - in the comments. You also might want to get your criticisms right in that the claim that Lang was an agent of a foreign government did not originate with Ledeen, but rather with Michael Rubin, who got the information from the Department of Justice website on the subject. To the best of my knowledge, it was not repeated by anyone on NRO other than Ledeen and his article on the subject now has an editor's note.

None of that, incidentally, has anything to do with Ledeen whatsoever. At best, you might be able to try and argue that I rely on Rubin's work. Which, since they both work at AEI and are both Jewish, I guess must mean that they're sort of the same person to you.

Tom Vikander, now have have simply broken into open lying. Your words:

"One can only be amazed at the current efforts of the patriot freedomfighters in Iraq to throw out the foreign occupiers.
"To defend the good principles takes a terrible toll short-term, to give in means to live in hell for generations".

...have no other plausible construction other than support. I'm glad to see you at least have the intelligence to realize that they constitute a millstone around your neck, but you cannot now unsay them or hide your support for fascism.

Your words here can, should, and will be taken in that context. They are unusual for the left only in respect of the openness with which they were proclaimed.

Joe, you are not now equating "freedom fighters" with al-Queda whom you are trying to somehow link me with, are you?

And aren't YOU amazed at what you call insurgents, are metting out in Iraq with the little they have at their disposal? Everyone else is amazed, it seems.
The whole scenerio over there was going to be a cake walk, right?

If I am correct, you took my two quotes from separate locations and together as you have put them, they are contextually innacurate.
The second quote I think was a rollover with a few changes, of a sentence used by another person earlier in the same thread. Why not quote him?

Please stop placing me in the "left" box. It's a waste of time.
Similarly with 'fascism".
I don't do that kind of label loading on you, do I?

And aren't YOU amazed at what you call insurgents, are metting out in Iraq with the little they have at their disposal?

'Little'? With overt support from neighbouring states and volunteers streaming in from all over the world, in to a country awash with arms and supposedly welcoming to their cause, what is suprising is how little their managing to pull off. Given how lefties are so keen on the Vietnam analogy, its worth pointing out that if the VC had the arms, safe-havens and money the 'insurgents' have at their disposal, they'd have killed a lot more than 2,000 Americans in the last 30+ months.

Blowing up mosques, hospitals and marketplaces - not to mention Jordanian hotels - and kidnapping aidworkers are not the acts of a successful movement.

"As far as Lang is concerned, for example, he is currently registered as the agent of a foreign government, namely Lebanon. Not that you’d ever learn that from any of the media outlets that treat him as an objective analyst."

Dan Darling

I hate to intrude on your nice little thread, but I do think that it's important that readers have some idea of your level of "journalistic integrity".

You did repeat the slander against Pat Lang. There it is in the quote above. There are other examples as well.

avedis:

See #22. He was listed as such on the Department of Justice website at the time in question. As for other examples, the only other point I've made against the man is pointing out this story here as far as characterizing his beliefs:

.The Pentagon, he said, had been seized by extremists, 'Zionist revisionists', whose goal was to 'de-Arabise' the Middle East. Ariel Sharon's Likud party had in effect directed America's invasion of Iraq, and the way to visualise Likud's power was as 'a steel barbell, with one ball in Israel and another in the Pentagon, among the neo-conservatives'.

Of course, if my previous conversations with you are anything to recall, you believe this to be objectively true.

De-Arabise the Middle East? Not just Yesha, but the entire Middle East? Lang is effectively accusing Sharon of being a latter-day Hitler.

I'd agree with Lang to a point.

Not sure what de-arabize means. If literal, then the statement is way over the top.

If figurative, perhaps refering to political capacity, then still pushing the envelop, but closer to reality. I'll ask him.

Yet he does seem to have struck a nerve within the NRO/neocon crowd given their attempt to "swift boat" him. The man deserves better and if you folks want to be taken seriously you will be wise to address his kind in a reasoned - not underhanded - manner.

He (I think it was Pat) recently the terms Iagos to refer to the NRO/neocon crowd. This seems appropriate. If you you are not familiar with the reference, you might want to become so.

Iago ultimately was the source of his own downfall.

avedis:

I'm quite familiar with the character of Iago (having portrayed him at one point during a high school production of "Othello," for those who are interested), but that's beside the point. You said that I slandered Lang and I explained why I said what I did concerning him in #22 and #27. The only other time I've ever referenced him to my recollection is in relation to the above quote and no offense, but I think you'd be hard-pressed to justify your own repeated denunciations of Ledeen and other neocons for stuff they've said and not allow the same courtesy to be extended in kind to Lang or anyone else because he says stuff on other occasions that you agree with.

One of the things I'll say from having worked at AEI (and I'm aware that you almost certainly won't believe it, but I write this for the benefit of other readers) is that it is nowhere near as centralized or coordinated as you seem to think it is.

"The man deserves better and if you folks want to be taken seriously you will be wise to address his kind in a reasoned - not underhanded - manner."

If you're referring to "you folks" as neocons (as opposed to WoC), my reply would be that they likely would the same way they do other people as soon as he reciprocates the same. However, as long as he's willing to accuse them of working at the behest of a foreign government or political party (though all those conspiracy theories centering around Sharon are looking a little silly these days, aren't they?), which is essentially treason, I can certainly understand why they might be a little testy towards him.

Tom,

You called them, and I quote, "patriot freedomfighters" - and of course, referred to American as "foreign occupiers" rather than troops who are in Iraq at the behest of a democratically elected government, and who will leave if that government or a successor asks them to.

Your idea of "patriot freedomfighter" apparently extends to beheaders of hostages, deliberate murderers of gathered children, and people who blow up worshippers at Shi'ite mosques because the 'untermenschen' must be kept in their place rather than allowed to determine their own destiny away from Ba'athist/Sunni rule.

To believe such things is to support fascism - not merely objectively, but literally. The people you speak of are a combination of foreign theocrat fanatics whose goal is quite literally global slavery, and the former einsatzgruppen, torturers, and flunkies of a fascist regime.

THAT is whom you have chosen to side with (your pose of mere amazement at their 'accomplishments' is, I submit, a transparent lie), and you cannot evade the issue and its implications just because you have now been called on it, and find that inconvenient.

Re the supposed death of Abu Omar Saif in Dagestan - the FSB certainly doesn't know anything about it, and has said so:

http://www.newsru.com/russia/10dec2005/fsb.html

Russian special services will not comment on some media reports that al-Qaeda representative Abu Omar was liquidated in Chechnya. "We don't have any data about the liquidation of Abu Omar and will not comment on some media reports of this," an employee of the Public Relations Center (TsOS) of the FSB of the Russian Federation told Interfax on Saturday.