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Word Count: 1036 Wanted: And It Had Better Be Alive!
Pakistan did the USA a favor recently ...
All they got for it was a surprise rocket attack on their own soil.
The situation is well-explained by London's Sunday Telegraph in its 29 Jan 06
edition:
Pakistan 'delay let bin Laden escape US raid'
By Massoud Ansari in Karachi (Filed: 29/01/2006)
"Prevarication by the Pakistani trucks & SUVs">government cost America the chance to kill
Osama bin Laden in an airstrike near the Afghan border two years ago, the Sunday
Telegraph has been told.
"A CIA lead that the al-Qaeda leader was hiding in a remote province was
squandered because the Pakistani government delayed giving permission for the
attack on its soil, according to a senior Western diplomat ...
"By the time US officials got the go-ahead, bin Laden had left the
suspected hideout in Zhob, in the Baluchistan province of south-west Pakistan.
"The near-miss was cited by the diplomat as the reason why America chose
not to consult Islamabad before the US missile strike in Pakistan's Bajaur
region two weeks ago. The January 13 attack, prompted by a tip that bin Laden's
deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, was hiding in a local village, killed 13 civilians.
"According to his account, which was backed by sources within Pakistani
intelligence, the CIA picked up electronic traffic suggesting that bin Laden and
his bodyguards had sought temporary shelter in Zhob, which is dominated by
Pathan and Baloch tribesmen sympathetic to al-Qaeda and the Taliban.
"Fearing that a commando raid would cause massive casualties to both sides,
with no guarantee of success, the US decided to launch a strike by laser-guided
missiles, fired from Predator drones.
"If he was in Zhob at the time it would have been the first known occasion
that he had been firmly in America's sights since his escape from Tora Bora in
Afghanistan, where he slipped through a cordon of US troops in 2001 ..."
Coincidentally, another article appeared in that same edition of the Sunday
Telegraph which underscored the effect bin Laden's words can have:
Author shoots from obscurity to infamy after plug from bin Laden
By Philip Sherwell (Filed: 29/01/2006)
"To William Blum's surprise and apparent disappointment, he found that his
name had not been added to the US 'no-fly' list when he travelled from his home
in Washington DC to Ohio last week to deliver one of his frequent anti-American
lectures on a campus.
"Mr Blum is revelling in what he calls his '15 minutes of fame.' To many of
his compatriots, that should read 15 minutes of infamy after Osama bin Laden
declared that he was a fan of the previously obscure Left-wing author and
virulent America-basher.
"The 72-year-old writer admits he was delighted by the plug for his book,
Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only Superpower, in the Saudi terror
mastermind's latest taped audio message. After bin Laden's recommendation, the
book soared from 205,763rd to 26th place on Amazon.com's list of most-ordered
books. 'I thought I might have ended up on the no-fly list after that. Anything
is possible in this country today,' Mr Blum told the Sunday Telegraph, perhaps
over-estimating his importance in the eyes of the US authorities. But he is
strikingly honest about his new-found notoriety.
"'I am not at all sorry to have been mentioned by bin Laden,' he said. 'In
fact, I'm pleased. I'm part of a movement whose goal it is to slow down if not
stop the American empire from what it's doing around the world ...'
"In his taped message, bin Laden recommended that President George W Bush
read Mr Blum's Rogue State, a sharp critique of US foreign policy.
"The al-Qaeda mastermind then quoted an extract in which the author wrote
that, if he was president, he could stop terror attacks against the US
permanently by apologising 'very publicly and very sincerely, to all the widows
and orphans, the impoverished and the tortured, and all the many millions of
other victims of American imperialism.'"
Mr Blum's agenda notwithstanding, the best thing that happened to America's war
on bin Laden is that they didn't kill him. Anyone cognizant who has ever been
even remotely exposed to the culture of bin Laden's target audience knows that
his words would have a tenfold impact if he became 'martyred.'
If he can raise a fringe author's book almost 200,000 places in Amazon's world
with a simple utterance, think of what would happen if his words became 'finite'
by his demise. The term 'exalted' comes to mind. Their inspirational impact
would be hugely amplified by the fact that he, too, died for his cause, just
like he's urged his followers to do.
In their unilateral and so-called 'war on terror,' the USA has spent billions of
dollars on revenge and the toppling of a dictatorial blowhard. The opposition
has only spent thousands but seemingly has not lost much ground (Afghanistan and
Iraq are still in relative states of anarchy, after all); they are fueled by the
charisma of a man who, as I've said before, is nothing more than a common
criminal who has wrapped himself in an extreme fundamentalist cause and then
been elevated to celebrity status by his mighty adversary.
I don't think the USA can afford to kill him. They need to capture him alive. He
never was the terrorist mastermind of al-Qaeda, he was only the banker and the
face to their cause. Having him at large until he's captured is not going to
significantly alter any of their activities. Only if bin Laden's empty agenda is
exposed by being formally brought to justice will there be any chance of
effectively revealing his true colors as a charlatan. There needs to be the
ultimate occasion where he can be reviled by the true keepers of Muslim faith
for perverting their religion. Only in a court of law can this happen, and if it
comes to pass, it will happen.
So, thank you, Pakistan, regardless of your operatives' motives.
J Square Humboldt is the featured columnist at Longer
Life's website, which provides information designed to improve the quality of
living. He's at longerlifegroup.com/cyberiter.html
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