A great gathering of facts by DUer "oblivious", who asked I post all this (oblivious hasn't time today to do so). WELL DONE, oblivious!
Has bush YET AGAIN mixed up people's Arabic names?bush has been going on and on about this captured Libbi being the #3 al Qaeda "commander".
Problem is, that's what BUSH says, but -and this will sound familiar- Middle East and European intelligence agents say that is not the case:However, some European and Middle Eastern intelligence officials raised questions about Mr. Libbi's importance to the Qaeda organization.
Three officials said they were surprised to hear senior officials in the United States and Pakistan characterize Mr. Libbi as a highly ranked Qaeda commander. One Middle Eastern intelligence official said:
"We don't have information that this man is or was the No. 3 man of Al Qaeda. This man was important for operations in Pakistan, but he is not the No. 3 man in the organization."A senior German official suggested
there may have been some confusion with Abu al-Liby, a Libyan-born senior Qaeda commander who was indicted for an "operational role" in the August 1998 bombings of two American embassies in east Africa.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/04/international/asia/04cnd-pakistan.html?hp&ex=1115265600&en=e190d5eb9d779215&ei=5094&partner=homepageSo my question is; WHO is bush getting his "darn good intell" from THIS time? :eyes:
Another name problem mixed in with another curious thing;For a guy so important, you'd think he might be on the US most wanted list, right? Nope. He wasn't. No
Abu Faraj Farj al Liby on the US Most Wanted. Yet he's supposedly the #3 al Qaeda commander?
BUT:"Washington had offered a multi-million-dollar reward for Liby, but he does not figure on the US "most wanted" list —
although a namesake, Anas al-Liby, wanted in connection with the bombings of two US embassies in East Africa in 1998, is on the list."The same guy the German intell agent spoke of, who suggested bush has mixed up the names. (Wouldn't be the first time bush has done that.)
The Big Question for Pakistan is "where the hell did we catch this guy, anyway?"Apparently they're not sure. Or rather, they're sure...but each official is sure Liby was caught in a different location than each of the other officials think.
No. 1: Intelligence officials said Liby was caught in the
tribal region of South Waziristan, where hundreds of al Qaeda militants and their local supporters have been fighting Pakistani security forces since early 2004.
No 2.: But another intelligence official said the terror mastermind was arrested on the
outskirts of Mardan — a town in North West Frontier province — around 350 km north of South Waziristan. http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-050405qaeda_lat,0,3429999.story?coll=la-home-headlinesNo 3.: Nightline had former CIA operative Gary Schroen (who led the hunt for Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks) on plugging the official story, but he too contradicted Pakistani officials on where the guy was caught:
KOPPEL: It's right along the border with Afghanistan?
SCHROEN: It's along the border of Afghanistan, but
north of Peshawar, far north of Waziristan, where we have been looking for bin Laden. ...
So the capture in Bashour I think is significant.http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/story?id=728820&page=1So we have intell agents saying this Liby is NOT al Qaeda's #3 commander; we have this Liby whom bush calls the #3 al Qaeda commander but who is NOT on the US Most Wanted List; but we DO have a different Liby on that list...but we don't have that listed Liby captured; and no one in Pakistan seems to agree just where in Pakistan this Liby was caught by Pakistan.Something smells. Dontcha think?
For oblvious' theory and conclusion;
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=3600674#3601501