05/20/2007 11:11:53 AM EST

Money from Iraq financing a resurgent Al Qaeda in Pakistan

posted by bfaul

Check out this article about Al Qaeda in Pakistan.  I'll quote the very beginning:

"A major CIA effort launched last year to hunt down Osama bin Laden has produced no significant leads on his whereabouts, but has helped track an alarming increase in the movement of Al Qaeda operatives and money into Pakistan's tribal territories, according to senior U.S. intelligence officials familiar with the operation.

In one of the most troubling trends, U.S. officials said that Al Qaeda's command base in Pakistan is increasingly being funded by cash coming out of Iraq, where the terrorist network's operatives are raising substantial sums from donations to the anti-American insurgency as well as kidnappings of wealthy Iraqis and other criminal activity.

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I keep wondering what might have happened had we simply continued to dog Bin Ladin and Zawahiri into the tribal areas of Pakistan, instead of stopping the chase and attacking Iraq.  If we had been able to kill one or both, I feel certain that the most of the people in the Middle East would have felt it was inevitable and that they had it coming.  There was actually an undercurrent of sympathy for Americans for a brief time in the Middle East after 9/11, a feeling that Al Qaeda had gone too far.  It would have been a perfect lesson and a powerful statement showing just how far the hand of American power could reach out and grab these kinds of people by the throat.

Look at what has happened instead:  We're mired down in Iraq like "a dinosaur in a tar pit" (to quote Arnold Shwarzkopfe).  It's become an abject lesson to all the wrong people on the limits of American Power.  And now, we've got evidence of money being funneled to Al Qaeda in Pakistan from Iraq.  Who among us would be surprised to find that some of the funds intended to rebuild Iraq , or Iraqi oil money (remember all those missing billions?) were actually being diverted to Al Qaeda?  It would be so goddamned typical, wouldn't it?

< George Bush's approval ratings tank | Note to Self: When leaving Iraq don't forget to take the oil. >
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Money from Iraq financing a resurgent Al Qaeda in Pakistan | 3 comments (3 topical, 0 hidden)
Yes!!!! (none / 0)
We are funding them over there so we don't have to fund them over here.

It just gets better and better. Doesn't it?

by z1p101 on 05/20/2007 02:10:50 PM EST

Oil for food had changed to Oil for Guns (none / 0)
Billions of oil revenue money has come up missing. Guess we know where that went.

--- Truth To Power

by Leeberal on 05/20/2007 02:32:48 PM EST

[ Parent ]
Related story from the New York Times (none / 0)

Here is another related story.  We're paying Pakistan a billion dollars a year for operations against Al Qaeda but we're not sure what we're getting, if anything, for that money.  Commanders on the ground are apparently skeptical about Pakistan's enthusiasm for chasing down leads in the tribal areas.

Now excuse me while I go beat my head against a tree somewhere until that feeling of unreality goes away. 

by bfaul on 05/20/2007 03:06:57 PM EST

Money from Iraq financing a resurgent Al Qaeda in Pakistan | 3 comments (3 topical, 0 hidden)
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