The Devil We Know

Hamilton urges U.S. to rout al Qaeda from Pakistan
(CNN) -- U.S. forces should go into Pakistan to rout al Qaeda from the safe haven it has found in the mountains on the border with Afghanistan, a co-chairman of the Iraq Study Group said.

Former Rep. Lee Hamilton, who also served as the vice chairman of the 9/11 commission, says the Iraq war distracted the United States when it had al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden on the run in the tribal region between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

He says it's now time to finish the job.

"This has to be carefully calibrated, worked out with the Pakistanis, but I am very concerned that you have a safe haven in Pakistan today where they (al Qaeda) can regroup, rethink, and get ready for more attacks," Hamilton said on CNN's "Newsroom" on Wednesday.

Declassified portions of the National Intelligence Estimate released Tuesday reported that al Qaeda has "protected or regenerated key elements" of its ability to attack the United States while in this region.

Some intelligence analysts believe bin Laden and his second in command, Ayman al-Zawahiri, are hiding in western Pakistan. more

He's right. We should go after them. But the question is can we afford to? Musharraff is barely in a politically tenable position in the cities. He had previously signed over control of much of the rural areas to local tribal leaders in order to remain in power. Its highly questionable as to whether or not he can allow us to perform such an operation let alone allow his military to participate in it and stay in power. No matter how little you may think of Musharraff you have to admit that he a: knows where his nukes are b: knows how many nukes he has c: hasn't used any of them and d: hasn't sold them or the recipe/blueprints to anyone.

The fact that we haven't gone in after Al Qaeda in Pakistan strongly suggests that Musharraff would be out of power if we did. If he loses power in a cioux we have no guarantee that a through d remain true. So for better or for worse he is, if nothing else, the devil we know.

Powell Says Close Gitmo

Powell Calls for Closure of Military Prison at Guantanamo

By Walter Pincus
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, June 11, 2007; A03

Former secretary of state Colin L. Powell said yesterday that he would close down the U.S. military prison for enemy combatants at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, "this afternoon" because it has become a major problem in "the way the world perceives America."

"Essentially, we have shaken the belief that the world had in America's justice system by keeping a place like Guantanamo open and creating things like a military commission," Powell said on NBC's "Meet the Press."

Making it clear that he "would not let any of those people go," Powell said, "I would simply move them to the United States and put them into our more federal legal system." He said he sees no problem in detainees having the right of habeas corpus and getting their own lawyers. "Isn't that what our system is all about?"

Powell was the only member of President Bush's first-term "war cabinet" who argued against the detainee policies. Those policies said the United States was not obligated to abide by the Geneva Conventions in its treatment of enemy combatants. more

I never take Powell's opinion lightly. He's what one might call a concerned realist. By that I mean he doesn't filter facts through a partisan sieve when making decisions. His opinion (and mine) is that Gitmo harms America's image and moral authority and that does more harm than any "good" Gitmo does us. See for yourself.

Taliban Military Leader Is Killed

From the WaPo:

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, May 13 -- Mullah Dadullah was the face of the Taliban movement in Afghanistan as it used suicide bombings, videotaped beheadings and targeted assassinations to escalate its insurgent campaign over the past two years.

Dadullah periodically turned up on television to taunt the Afghan government and U.S.-led international forces with threats of ever more ambitious attacks.

On Sunday, his face was on display again, resting on a pink sheet, bloody and lifeless. A bullet hole was visible in the back of his head, with two more piercings in his stomach.

Dadullah, the Taliban's top operational commander, was killed Saturday after U.S.-led troops and Afghan forces tracked him down and surrounded him in southern Afghanistan, according to Afghan and international security officials.

His death was hailed by those officials as a critical victory in the fight against the Taliban at a time when the extremist Islamic movement has destabilized large portions of the country through Dadullah's uncompromising approach to warfare.

"We fully expect Mullah Dadullah will be replaced in time, but for now the insurgency has received a serious blow," said Maj. John Thomas, a spokesman for the NATO-led force that patrols Afghanistan and that supported U.S.-led operations against Dadullah.

Thomas described Dadullah as "the top person in our scope in Afghanistan that we were interested in removing."

It was unclear who would replace Dadullah. Another top leader, Akhter Mohammed Osmani, was killed in December, and a third, Obaidullah Akhund, was captured in February. Although the group's overall leader, Mohammad Omar, remains at large, he is believed to play a lesser role in the organization's military operations.

A Taliban spokesman denied that Dadullah had been killed, but witnesses who inspected the body as it lay at the governor's palace in the southern city of Kandahar on Sunday identified it as Dadullah's, based on distinctive facial features and a missing left leg. More

Good going! Between this and the two Al Qaeda in Iraq leaders all being taken out in the past two weeks I'd say we're having a heck of a month.

So good in fact that if I were more suspicious or prone to being conspiratorial I'd say that they had been keeping the bodies on ice until support for the war fell to an all time low .....