A surprising number are criticizing Obama’s decision to close Guantanamo

Many revolutionary organizations demand good treatment of their captives, or capture hostages to be used as a bargaining chip for their release. Not Al Qaeda.

When you talk of suspicions timing, most people only think of the Madrid commuter train bombing that vastly changed a Spanish election vote, and bin Laden on the internet goating President Bush for continuing reading the little goat to school kids right after the Twin Towers were attacked on 9/11, which increased Bush’s support among some angry Americans, that along with election hanky panky, helped Bush win in 2004.

There has been other strange coincidences that are rarely noted. Republican Senate Leader Bill Frist was in charge of reviewing the additional Abu Ghraib photos Congress privately viewed. He was making a grim televised report and was going to call for bipartisan detention reform, but he never finished. He was cut off the air by news bulletin about al Qaeda posting Nick Berg being beheaded,
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2004-05-11-iraq-beheading_x.htm
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2004-05-12-congress-abuse_x.htm

Iraq held an election in 2005, bin Laden on the Internet demanded that Iraqi’s not vote. The vote in non Sunni areas was large and this was cheered as a little victory against al Qaeda. However in Afghanistan election workers quietly tend to disappear in the night where this cut down of people willing to vote in a significant way. Before bin Laden went on the Internet, there was a lot of antiwar organizing around the theme that the war in Iraq had nothing to do with fighting terror. After bin Laden made his demand, organizing around that theme slowed considerable.

Right before the start of the Iraq War there were huge antiwar protests in Britain, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/February_15,_2003_anti-war_protest
I and a friend were watching live coverage of a huge British protest on TV with awe. Suddenly it was cut off the air by a news bulletin of a terror attack in Turkey, http://research.lifeboat.com/turkey.htm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3222608.stm
When the protest went back on the TV screen, my friend blurted out under his breath, “Why don’t they protest that”, meaning the terror attack. The peace movement was growing fast perhaps if the attack hadn’t occurred at that moment Britain might have hesitated and perhaps lead the to the US hesitating as well. Tom Fox a Quaker went to Iraq to declare peace. Instead of being cheered like Jane Fonda was during Vietnam, he was beheaded. Doctors Without Border’s physicians being beheaded in Afghanistan also cooled the antiwar movement, the opposite of what North Vietnam’s cheering the antiwar movement of accomplished. PS you won’t get different flavor of the periods I discussed without checking out the links.

We forget that the Twin Towers was considered the financial capital of the world, bin Laden hoping to wound the US economy more than it did. In one attack in Britain, al Qaeda overplayed its hand relying on only doctors to conduct it. Cryptically warning three months earlier that “those who heal you will kill you”. Germany was crying because foreign super-skilled workers couldn’t work in Germany because of immigration laws. If the doctor’s attack had worked, many skilled scientists and others would have been sent home out of both Britain and the US which would be hard on the economy. Many years ago the peace movement dwelt on how incredibly expensive war and the military budget is. Today the war and the economic teetering is discussed as two separate issues, despite the fact that drone airplane and backup gear to prevent pilots from being killed costs millions dollars a piece.

Whether or not they are correct, I believe that the bin Laden wing of al Qaeda believes that the total collapse of the dollar into junk currency would mean unconditional victory of their part. Al Qaeda is probably mistaken. When the US decided is wouldn’t play police against piracy, India took over. If the US were in collapse, China and Russia, unless they collapsed as well, wouldn’t let al Qaeda inherent Pakistani nukes.

Bush and bin Laden both preferred to fight in Iraq rather than here in the US or in Pakistan. But al Qaeda being cornered and isolated by Obama surely will make al Qaeda want to attack. Though perhaps there are sleeper-cells hair triggered to go off just as soon as massive US troops go into Pakistan and they will patiently wait no matter how long it takes.

For updates, comments, and corrections go to,
http://capitolhillblue.com/cont/node/14654

Comments

Of course...

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sat, 01/31/2009 - 12:07pm

Of course, Obama doesn't plan to simply free to Guantanamo Bay prisoners. He's stated that he plans to have them securely transferred to the United States, where they can be appropriately charged, tried, and sentenced. Let's hope he does this with the hundreds (thousands estimated in previous counts) of "ghost detainees" currently held in US "black sites" around the world, or currently detained without charge in Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan, and with all prisoners whom the US has sent to foreign countries for torture interrogation by using "extraordinary rendition."

For more information on this, see:
http://www.amnesty.org/en/campaigns/counter-terror-with-justice/issues/close-guantanamo

After the Guantánamo Bay detention center is closed, the next step will be to return the land that base is on to its rightful owners in Cuba!

The War on Terror & the War on Drugs has sometimes been equate

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sun, 02/01/2009 - 2:12am

There are real reasons for doing so. Marijuana is nothing like speed and crack, and Hamas is very different from al Qaeda which dreams of a permanent Muslim warring class. But am scared that a bigger difference is that a law enforcement official busts a lot of crack and meth the price goes way up and the amount of money needed to steal to pay for it goes way up. With more crime, all around, the aggressive prosecutor is accused of not doing his job.

Bush and Bin Laden thought that Iraq was a good place to fight. So maybe the reason for no terror attack under Bush was that bin Laden didn't think it would help al Qaeda radicalize the Muslim world. But with Obama cramping its style directly and drying out new recruits they have every reason to want to make it look like Obama is a failure.

Before 9/11, most Muslims were disgusted with the Taliban not letting people listen to music, or woman to visit doctors, with no woman doctors allowed. Many (if anyone remembers) thought Muslim militancy would die out in a generation or two since so few young people seemed interested.

A more pointed version of these comments at the following: Please scrawl down for my comments,
http://www.opednews.com/populum/diarypage.php?did=5163

http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_richardk_071227_can_we_win_the_war_f.htm
http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/3961
I commented on Adam Elkus' article in the comment section.

RichardKanePA

Ethnic origins of the Taliban

Submitted by Rich Gardner on Sun, 02/01/2009 - 9:06am

"The overwhelming majority of the Taliban movement were ethnic Pashtuns from southern Afghanistan and western Pakistan"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taliban

You're right, many people were disgusted with the Taliban, but keep in mind that their support among their own group was always quite strong. It was foreigners who were disgusted.

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