Cooperative Terrorists are Left in Legal Limbo

Here is a fascinating story from the Washington Post that indicates why things are never black and white in the shadowy world of intelligence. Mohamedou Ould Slahi and Tariq al-Sawah are two high-value terrorists who decided to switch sides and cooperate with the American military after they were sent to Guantanamo.

Both former terrorists have fought in Afghanistan and had links to Al-Qaeda leadership. One of them confessed to being a skilled bomb maker and they have probably killed Americans. However they are cooperating and have provided useful information. In reward, they have been given comfortable living quarters including well-stocked refrigerators and televisions.

Sawah seems to be an outgoing fellow who has developed a talent for painting. He also wants to write his memoirs. The problem is what to do with them. Some authorities are arguing that since they have cooperated and provided useful information, they should be put into the Witness Protection program. Their former Al-Qaeda comrades probably want to put them six feet under.

Unfortunately both men have committed numerous crimes and are wanted by authorities in several countries. Their lawyers also argue that they have been tortured. Salahi was tortured under orders from former Sec. of Defense Donald Rumsfield. So right now, they are stuck in legal limbo and remain in comfortable prisons.

Doing business with killers might seem distasteful, but that is how things are done in the Intelligence business. The people you recruit are usually traitors, thieves, killers and turncoats, who are willing to sell their own side out.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/24/AR2010032403135_3.html?sid=ST2010032403323

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U.S. Foreign Policy, War on Terror Doom Us to Vicious Cycle

Helen Thomas tried to get to the root causes of terrorism

Sometimes it seems the the War on Terror is akin to a game of Whack-A-Mole, only the hammers are cruise missiles and predator drones, and the moles have suicide vests.

The attempted Christmas suicide bombing and recent suicide bombing of a CIA station in Afghanistan indicates that these are not isolated incidents. There were also several incidents of both domestic and foreign terrorism under the Bush administration.

About six years ago, I was at a conference with Carlton Pearson, an evangelical preacher who been invited to the White House by President George W. Bush. Pearson said that the president was been misguided by his advisors, and didn't appreciate the complexity of the war he had entered. He said Americans would not truly understand the consequences of the War on Terror until they had to undergo bomb searches before they went into large gatherings.

An article by Ray McGovern, a former CIA officer turned minister, says the U.S. is missing the point on the War on Terror. He cites veteran journalist Helen Thomas, who pressed White House officials for a reason why young Muslims were willing to blow themselves up.

In his article McGovern says that counter terrorism advisor John Brennan waffled with the answer and laid the blame on Al-Qaeda perverting Islam and warping the minds of susceptible young men. McGovern says that the Brennan and the White House are missing the point. He argues that young Muslims are being radicalized not only by Al-Qaeda, but also in response to America's foreign policies.

The war in Iraq was once described as Al-Qaeda's greatest recruiting tool. Muslims are also angry at the U.S.' support of corrupt and dictatorial regimes in the Middle East, the bombing of civilians in Afghanistan and Israel's mistreatment of Palestinians. PR nightmares like Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo only fueled Muslim outrage towards the U.S.

The pragmatic attitude towards this problem would be sit down and negotiate some kind of equitable settlement, i.e. land for peace or withdrawing American troops from the Middle East. But that will be very difficult for President Barack Obama to do as he is dealing with a military industrial complex which sees war as good business, and a political and media class who sees talking to the enemy as being wimpy. Additionally, as Obama mentioned in his Nobel speech, I am not sure if you can negotiate with fanatics.

Another problem that Obama has to deal with is the fact that a large segment of the United States populace believes that Israel's policies are backed by God, and Jesus cannot return until Israel has reconquered all of it's original land.

I am not sure if the current War on Terror can be won by bombs and guns. The more Muslim terrorists we kill and the more innocent civilians killed by collateral damage, only creates more people willing to become suicide bombers.

The widow of the Jordanian doctor who detonated a bomb at a CIA base in Afghanistan said she is proud of him because he is now a martyr. With attitudes like that on one side, and attitudes like the ones expressed on FOX News (which advocate bombing, torturing and profiling, everyone who looks "Arab/Muslim.") I am afraid we are doomed to be stuck in a cycle of killing and revenge for a long time. Didn't anyone watch "Munich?"

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Liberman calls for War in Yemen

Members of the Saudi royal family visit Saudi troops who are

helping to fight rebels in Yemen

Yeah, I had to look at this story twice. Former Democrat, turned RINO, turned Indepdendent Joe Lieberman is calling for the over-streteched U.S. military to open up another war front in Yemen.

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Nigerian terrorist who tried to blow up a KLM plane in Detroit on Christmas Day, was apparently armed in Yemen. The Yemeni government is currently fighting a long-standing war against terrorists and seperatists, with assistance from American special forces teams who are alleged to be on the ground in Yemen training local troops and calling in air strikes. This is the way the war should have been handled in Afghanistan!

Where does Lieberman think we are going to get the troops from? We are already fighting two unfinished wars, and our troops are currently on their fourth rotations. (In World War II most troops only saw about two tours of duty.) America is also relying on hired guns, like Blackwater, to fight its wars. There are currently more contractors in Afghanistan than uniformed military. The mercs are largely unregulated and often cost much more than regular troops.

If the war is this serious, the obvious answer would be to reintroduce the draft. But that would be political suicide. At least it might get apolitical college students off their asses ...

http://www.examiner.com/x-15870-Populist-Examiner~y2009m12d28-Joe-Lieberman-Yemen-is-tomorrows-war-we-need-to-be-preemptive

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CIA Used Phony Software to Detect Terrorist Messages

Former CIA Director George Tenet

It's only now that we are learning how messed up the Bush administration's War on Terror was. First it was the failure to capture Osama Bin Laden at Tora Bora, and then it was the erronous invasion of Iraq, in search of non-existence Weapons of Mass Destruction.

Well, here another doozy. A Playboy story reports that sometime around 2003, the CIA started using software developed by Dennis Montgomery of eTreppid, which claimed it could decode terrorists messages hidden in Al-Jazerra television broadcasts. Yes, really.

The software was later discredited by French intelligence, but not before Homeland Security had issued several warnings. If the CIA had investigated Montgomery, they would have learn that he only had two years of college training, no science background and was a veteran conman with a gambling problem. His own lawyer described him as "habitual liar." With these guys protecting us, it's no wonder that the 9-11 attacks happened.

http://www.playboy.com/articles/the-man-who-conned-the-pentagon-dennis-montgomery/index.html?page=1

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