U.S. Officials: Al-Qaida Leadership Cadre 'Decimated'

by Tom Gjelten

Morning Edition, February 3, 2009 · CIA-directed airstrikes against al-Qaida leaders and facilities in Pakistan over the past six to nine months have been so successful, according to senior U.S. officials, that it is now possible to foresee a "complete al-Qaida defeat" in the mountainous region along the border with Afghanistan.

The officials say the terrorist network's leadership cadre has been "decimated," with up to a dozen senior and midlevel operatives killed as a result of the strikes and the remaining leaders reeling from the repeated attacks.

"The enemy is really, really struggling," says one senior U.S. counterterrorism official. "These attacks have produced the broadest, deepest and most rapid reduction in al-Qaida senior leadership that we've seen in several years."

Another senior U.S. official described "a significant, significant degradation of al-Qaida command and control in recent months."

The intelligence reports have been shared with President Barack Obama and underlie his decision to authorize the continued use of unmanned aircraft to launch missile and precision-guided bombs against suspected al-Qaida targets in Pakistan's border region. One such strike was carried out on Jan. 23, just three days after Obama took office.

The CIA has been using drone aircraft to carry out attacks on suspected al-Qaida and Taliban targets in Pakistan for several years, but such attacks were significantly expanded last summer under orders from President George W. Bush. They also became more lethal, with the CIA for the first time using Reaper drones, an enhanced version of the Predator model used previously. The Reaper is capable of carrying two Hellfire missiles, as well as precision-guided bombs.

'Too Early To Declare Victory'

The officials interviewed by NPR asked not to be identified because of sensitivities surrounding the CIA campaign. They also insist it is too early to declare victory in the struggle against al-Qaida in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region, and they caution that a number of the factors that explain the recent successes could yet be reversed.

The threat of another al-Qaida terrorist attack against the United States has not gone away, they warn, noting that about 100 fighters have already "graduated" from the al-Qaida training camps and are prepared for possible terrorist operations in the West.

"Where those people are and what they're doing, we don't know," says one senior official.

The officials are also careful to say that the weakening of al-Qaida in Pakistan doesn't necessarily extend to the network's operations in other areas, such as in east or north Africa.

Leadership Severely Weakened

Still, the counterterrorism and intelligence officials interviewed for this report say the achievement of the past several months should not be understated.

"In the past, you could take out the No. 3 al-Qaida leader, and No. 4 just moved up to take his place," says one official. "Well, if you take out No. 3, No. 4 and then 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10, it suddenly becomes a lot more difficult to revive the leadership cadre."

Such claims could not be independently verified, although Pakistani sources have identified by name a number of foreign militants killed in the border region in recent months. ....

The officials also report the emergence of some tension between the al-Qaida leadership and local tribal leaders in the border areas. They warn, however, that this tension is, in part, the product of increased Pakistani military activity in the border areas, a development that could be reversed if the Pakistani authorities turn their attention back toward India as a result of tensions stemming from the November attacks in Mumbai.

Al-Qaida Still May Endure And Adapt

The claims of dramatic success against al-Qaida in Pakistan will undoubtedly be met with some skepticism.

"In the past 7 1/2 years, al-Qaida's obituary has been written any number of times," says Bruce Hoffman, a terrorism expert at Georgetown University. "We have to be hesitant in assessing the long-term impact of this kind of damage done to al-Qaida."

Hoffman and other al-Qaida analysts note that the network has demonstrated many times over its ability to endure attacks and adapt to new pressures.

Another question is whether the Pakistani government will demand an end to the drone attacks, which have been roundly denounced by Pakistani political leaders as a violation of their country's sovereignty. For now, however, it appears the Obama administration is determined to continue with the attacks.

In a Senate hearing last week, Defense Secretary Robert Gates was asked to respond to recent criticism of the missile strikes by the Pakistani Foreign Ministry.

"I think that the strikes that are being undertaken are …" Gates began, but he did not finish the thought. "Let me just say," he continued, "both President Bush and President Obama have made clear that we will go after al-Qaida wherever al-Qaida is. And we will continue to pursue that."

WHY ARE WE BANKRUPT?

(Compiler's note: In addition to this must read article, you will also want to see http://www.numbersusa.com/about/posters.html. Then work to keep your representatives in Washington DC on the right track! Please remember that the operative word here is "illegal.")

by Larry Williams

You think the war in Iraq is costing us too much? Read this:

I was confused until I read this. I have been hammered with the propaganda that it is the
Iraq war and the war on terror that is bankrupting us. I now find that to be RIDICULOUS.

I hope the following 14 reasons are forwarded over and over again until it finally sinks in so that the reader will get completely sick of reading them. Also included are the URL's for verification of all the following facts:

1. $11 Billion to $22 billion is spent on welfare to illegal aliens each year by state governments.
Verify at: http://tinyurl.com/zob77

2. $2.2 Billion dollars a year is spent on food assistance programs such as food stamps, WIC, and free school lunches for illegal aliens.
Verify at: http://www.cis.org/articles/2004/fiscalexec.html

3. $2.5 Billion dollars a year is spent on Medicaid for illegal aliens.
Verify at: http://www.cis.org/articles/2004/fiscalexec.html

4. $12 Billion dollars a year is spent on primary and secondary school education for children here illegally and they cannot speak a word of English!
Verify at: http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.0.html

5. $17 Billion dollars a year is spent for education for the American-born children of illegal aliens, known as anchor babies.
Verify at http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html

6. $3 Million Dollars a DAY is spent to incarcerate illegal aliens.
Verify at: http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html

7. 30% percent of all Federal Prison inmates are illegal aliens.
Verify at: http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html

8. $90 Billion Dollars a year is spent on illegal aliens for Welfare & social services by the American taxpayers.
Verify at: http://premium.cnn.com/TRANSCIPTS/0610/29/ldt.01.html

9. $200 Billion dollars a year in suppressed American wages are caused by the illegal aliens.
Verify at: http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html

10. The illegal aliens in the United States have a crime rate that's two and a half times that of white non-illegal aliens. In particular, their children, are going to make a huge additional crime problem in the US .
Verify at: http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0606/12/ldt.01.html

11. During the year of 2005 there were 4 to 10 MILLION illegal aliens that crossed our Southern Border also, as many as 19,500 illegal aliens from Terrorist Countries. Millions of pounds of drugs, cocaine, meth, heroin and marijuana, crossed into the U. S from the Southern border.
Verify at: Homeland Security Report: http://tinyurl.com/t9sht

12. The National policy Institute, estimated that the total cost of mass deportation would be between $206 and $230 billion or an average cost of between $41 and $46 billion annually over a five year period.'
Verify at: http://www.nationalpolicyinstitute.org/pdf/deportation.pdf

13. In 2006 illegal aliens sent home $45 BILLION in remittances to their countries of origin.
Verify at: http://www.rense.com/general75/niht.htm>

14. 'The Dark Side of Illegal Immigration: Nearly One million sex crimes Committed by Illegal Immigrants In The United States .'
Verify at: http: // www.drdsk.com/articleshtml

The total cost is a whopping $ 338.3 BILLION DOLLARS A YEAR.

Are we THAT stupid?

If this doesn't bother you then just delete the message. If, on the other hand, it does raise the hair on the back of your neck, I hope you forward it to every legal resident in the country including every elected representative in Washington , D.C. - five times a week for as long as it takes to restore some semblance of intelligence in our policies and enforcement thereof.
_________________
http://nwcreation.net/videos/

http://www.nwcreation.net/evolutionfraud.html

North Korea to 'Test Missile Capable of Striking U.S.'

The Yonhap News Agency in Seoul quoted South Korean officials who described satellite image showing a long cylindrical object being transported on a train through the North Korean countryside. The sinister object has been identified as a Taepodong-2, an intercontinental missile with a range of more than 4000 miles, capable of crossing the Pacific and striking targets in Hawaii or Alaska. ....