The leader of al Qaeda in Saudi Arabia, Abdulaziz al-Muqrin, has been killed, Al Arabiya television reported Friday.
Muqrin claimed responsibility for the beheading of a U.S. engineer Friday and the killing of other Westerners in the kingdom, which has battled Osama bin Laden's group for over a year. Arabiya gave no further details.
article
Muqrin claimed responsibility for the beheading of a U.S. engineer Friday and the killing of other Westerners in the kingdom, which has battled Osama bin Laden's group for over a year. Arabiya gave no further details.
Too bad for the beheaded man they weren't a little faster on that one. But yea! We got one!
I wonder if anyone has stopped to think how long we could go in the war on terror one retaliation at a time. Oh, you're right. That's the bonus, isn't it? Perpetual war.
But I do have another, perhaps more difficult question. In all the talk about whether torture is justifiable and just what exactly constitutes torture, I'm asking myself why they thought torture on the "low value" detainees at Abu Ghraib would produce anything useful. What kinds of things did they expect them to tell that would help in putting down the "insurgency"? It seems to me that their ignorance about who they are fighting was an avoidable factor in the huge screw up, even if you look at it from a discompassionate, totally functional point of view. After all, there is obviously going to be no shortage of Iraqis willing to take up the fight. What information could they extract from interrogations that could help them prevent entire towns of outraged people attacking coalition soldiers? They have to be going on the false belief that there is a finite number of an organized force that they can kill, capture or otherwise neutralize. Frankly, I don't think that's what they're facing.
It might have been the case in the early stages. And perhaps at that point information produced from interrogations may have been helpful. But their totally fucked-up approach of shocking and awing Iraqi civilians by storming their homes, humiliating them and dragging innocent people away changed the entire situation.
I can't believe I'm arguing what might have been a reasonable approach to an illegal and indefensible war. And actually, what I think I'm trying to say is, these people, who are supposed to be the greatest military on earth, are actually quite stupid. And, if I can see that, then I think it's a pretty safe bet that other countries' military commanders can see that. And it's going to be pretty difficult to shock and awe anybody ever again.
Good.
"The murder of Paul shows the evil nature of the enemy we face," Bush said as he prepared to board Air Force One. "These are barbaric people. There's no justification whatsoever for his murder. And yet they killed him in cold blood."
Seattle Post-Intelligencer article
Well, I guess we know the meaning of barbaric, don't we? Did they not show him the Abu Ghraib home movies? Is it very dark and smelly where he keeps his head?
Somebody please. We can't go on with this man at the head of our government. We just can't.
"And it should remind us that we must pursue these people and bring them to justice before they hurt other Americans," the president said.
Johnson's killers, Bush said, are "[See,] they're trying to intimidate America. They're trying to shake our will. They're trying to get us to retreat from the world. America will not retreat. America will not be intimidated by these kinds of extremist thugs. [May God bless Paul Johnson.]"
...Secretary of State Colin Powell said the circumstance of Johnson's death "shows what the world is dealing with, with these kinds individuals who behead somebody or murder somebody in cold blood."
...Vice President Dick Cheney also condemned the killers. "They have no shame, not a shred of decency, and no mercy. America will hunt down the killers, one by one, and destroy them," he said.
combined Seattle Post-Intelligencer and [Berkshire -UK] articles
Johnson's killers, Bush said, are "[See,] they're trying to intimidate America. They're trying to shake our will. They're trying to get us to retreat from the world. America will not retreat. America will not be intimidated by these kinds of extremist thugs. [May God bless Paul Johnson.]"
...Secretary of State Colin Powell said the circumstance of Johnson's death "shows what the world is dealing with, with these kinds individuals who behead somebody or murder somebody in cold blood."
...Vice President Dick Cheney also condemned the killers. "They have no shame, not a shred of decency, and no mercy. America will hunt down the killers, one by one, and destroy them," he said.
Honestly, these men are mentally unstable. And I am not being facetious. Criminally insane might be a bit too extreme to say. But, if so, only a bit.
Update 6:20 More information on the raid that killed Al-Moqrin, who trained with Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan and who allegedly claimed responsibility for Paul Johnson’s beheading.
(And, small, perhaps embarassing detail...it doesn't appear that it's America who's hunting down and destroying these killers one by one. This one belongs to Saudi Arabia.)
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