Wednesday
Apr092008
Decrease of Osama Bin Laden's effect on al Qaeda?
The House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence held a hearing today “Assessing the Fight against al Qaeda. The panel was consisted of Robert Grenier, managing director of Kroll Inc., Peter Bergen Schwartz senior fellow at the New American Foundation, and lastly Steven Emerson, executive director of the Investigative Project on Terrorism.
The fact that Osama Bin Laden is still at large does not surprise the panel. Peter Bergen touched upon the fact that Bin Laden has not been in a serious shoot out or close to getting arrested since the battle Of Tora Bora in Eastern Afghanistan in late 2001, where he “narrowly escaped being killed in massive American bombing raids”. He has learned not to communicate via satellite phones or internet so that he will not be the subject of the American Intelligence. This does not conclude that bin Laden has lost his power in the organization, on the contrary, now he communicates with his followers via video/audio tapes. As Peter Bergen said in his testimony, the people “love him” and the result is seen by the direct response of the young Islamists’ acts. Robert Grenier also emphasized the mentioned issue by saying that Bin Laden sends the message through the tapes and he has millions of followers, not necessarily directly linked to al Qaeda, who will carry some sort of a terrorist act. The increase in the Pakistani suicide bombings over the last year, for instance, proves the point of previously mentioned issue, since Bin Laden, in one of the tapes, said actions needs to be done against the Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf. Not to forget that Musharraf survived two deadly attempts.
Although Bin Laden’s effect on the organization is unquestionably high, Grenier believes that it is more important to capture the directly linked terrorists rather than the leaders, since the latter are in no way of moving and changing positions because they are scared of being captured.
Steven Emerson talked about the new government in Afghanistan and that it is in its “own best interest to be as aggressive as possible.”
However, the panelists believe that future al Qaeda attacks on the United States is very unlikely.
The fact that Osama Bin Laden is still at large does not surprise the panel. Peter Bergen touched upon the fact that Bin Laden has not been in a serious shoot out or close to getting arrested since the battle Of Tora Bora in Eastern Afghanistan in late 2001, where he “narrowly escaped being killed in massive American bombing raids”. He has learned not to communicate via satellite phones or internet so that he will not be the subject of the American Intelligence. This does not conclude that bin Laden has lost his power in the organization, on the contrary, now he communicates with his followers via video/audio tapes. As Peter Bergen said in his testimony, the people “love him” and the result is seen by the direct response of the young Islamists’ acts. Robert Grenier also emphasized the mentioned issue by saying that Bin Laden sends the message through the tapes and he has millions of followers, not necessarily directly linked to al Qaeda, who will carry some sort of a terrorist act. The increase in the Pakistani suicide bombings over the last year, for instance, proves the point of previously mentioned issue, since Bin Laden, in one of the tapes, said actions needs to be done against the Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf. Not to forget that Musharraf survived two deadly attempts.
Although Bin Laden’s effect on the organization is unquestionably high, Grenier believes that it is more important to capture the directly linked terrorists rather than the leaders, since the latter are in no way of moving and changing positions because they are scared of being captured.
Steven Emerson talked about the new government in Afghanistan and that it is in its “own best interest to be as aggressive as possible.”
However, the panelists believe that future al Qaeda attacks on the United States is very unlikely.
tagged 
Iraq, afghanistan, al qaeda, bin laden, pakistan in News/Commentary
Iraq, afghanistan, al qaeda, bin laden, pakistan in News/Commentary
Pentagon Notes
From Monday’s press gaggle with Pentagon spokesperson Colonel David Lapan.
WikiLeaks
According to Lapan, the 120 person review team set up to respond to the anticipated release of 400,000 Iraq war documents through the whistleblower website WikiLeaks has already gone over the Iraq database and will put the DoD in a position to promptly respond to possible dangers resulting from the release.
Lapan said that news organizations should not publish the leaked material so as not to legitimize WikiLeaks.
DADT
A federal judge in California is set to rule today on whether she will grant a request from the Obama administration to place a stay on an earlier order to halt the enforcement of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.
If the stay is denied, Lapan said that the Pentagon will keep their recent suspension of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell in place.
When asked if the suspension has resulted in any breakdowns in unit cohesion or disciplinary troubles in the field, Lapan remarked that there were none that he was aware of, but that minor disciplinary issues in individual commands don’t typically reach him.
Bin Laden Story
Lapan didn’t have any comments on the CNN story regarding the possible location of Bin Laden, but said that there isn’t anything in it that hasn’t been reported previously.