Nov 09 2006
Is Bin Laden Dead After All?
Well, while Dems ponder how to best surrender Iraq to the terrorists – I mean withdrawal our troops – it is interesting to see this UPI news out of Saudi Arabia regarding the manner and mood of Al Qaeda members trickling back into Saudi Arabia – and being captured:
Consider the following: Saudi security services have arrested several former fighters returning from Afghanistan and Pakistan to Saudi Arabia over the past few months. While these arrests may not indicate much, it is the manner in which those fighters trickled back home that is revealing.
“They had no attack plan and no clear command structure,” said Saudi security expert Nawaf Obaid. “They focused exclusively on avoiding Saudi security services.”
Obaid is a Saudi security and intelligence analyst who monitors trends among Saudi terrorist groups.
He told UPI that dozens of Saudi nationals who had gone to Pakistan and Afghanistan to join Bin Laden’s training camps for a chance to fight American forces and their allies in Afghanistan are now suddenly making their way back to Saudi Arabia.
Furthermore, the returnees seem to be completely disorganized, not knowing where to go, or what to do once in the kingdom. They have no marching orders, many have not been paid in several months, and they seem in total disarray.
It would not be the first example of an impatient electorate pulling the trigger right before a success was to be had. I posted earlier on the first hints at this rumor, which I think still merit legitimacy. Bin Laden was the big Saudi leader in Al Qaeda. Zawahiri is Egyptian. And if he took over for the deceased Bin Laden he may have purged some of the Saudi units to consolidate power.
Even if he’s still alive, this suggests AQ is dead. Having said that, of course, state terrorism, always the major problem, remains alive, well, and certainly inspirited by the election returns.
There is probably more in play here than meets the eye. We have some major middle-eastern intelligence organizations that have gone after AQ in a big way. Jordan has a very good service and after the hotel bombings, underwent a major shakeup and refocusing of efforts against AQ. Yemen has been active and has had varying degrees of success as have some other countries in the region. The point is that AQ is now being targeted by people who share their language, religion, and culture.
We aren’t the only ones in this battle and I believe that as more pressure from more sources is brought to bear on them, they will find themselves less able to recruit and operate.
It could be that it is more than just Saudis returning home. It could be getting dangerous and uncomfortable to be associated with AQ. This is going to be one long, cold winter in the border region of Afghanistan and Pakistan. The Taliban and AQ don’t really have anything to celebrate. The results of their summer offensive has been more dead bodies. No gains. To date AQ has not had a single success story and the only one in the making is possibly Somalia.
Bin Laden death rumors return…
In September, the French publication, L’Est Republicain, cited Saudi security sources and reported that Osama bin Laden is dead. This drew skpeticism from all over but not from AJ Strata at the Strata-Sphere….
I have felt that bin Laden has been dead for some time. But I think the returning Saudis to Saudi Arabia is because the Sunnis in Iraq have withdrawn their support and are actually hunting down and killing AQ foreigners. AQ has run out of money they used to bribe the insurgents so the insurgents have turned on them.
We could win in Iraq and would have already won if we would forget this “hearts and minds” crap. How can anyone win a war this way? These people are in a way like the democrats in that they tasted power for decades and don’t want to give it up. We have been so careful not to harm civilians, but does anyone think the insurgents have been so lenient with our troops. No, they can lie about our soldiers, and the dems and media will yak on and on about how true their stories are as they have done in the past. I find it horrendous that Murtha will be in charge of military matters when he has been so egregiously hostile to our troops.
You know, if the Talaban was smart it would dawn on them that AQ made them lose Afghanistan. The US would probably not have invaded them ever no matter what they did except that they harbored AQ and we took both the Talaban and AQ down in Afghanistan. Maybe some of these returning Saudis were with the Talaban in Pakistan and the agreement between the Pakistan government and the tribes left these Saudis with no place to go but home.