Warning: Constant ABSPATH already defined in /home/public/wp-config.php on line 27
Another Number Two Erased — Why Now?
On-line Opinion Magazine…OK, it's a blog
Random header image... Refresh for more!

Another Number Two Erased

Pencil

Yes, another al Qaeda Number 2 has been eliminated. This one was called Abu Qaswarah and was a Moroccan Swede who trained in Afghanistan before setting up operations in Iraq. He is on everyone’s terrorist list which means he probably wasn’t required to take off his shoes or hand in his pudding when he traveled, as those indignities are reserved for law-abiding citizens.

Again we are told that this will be a real blow to al Qaeda, except it never is.

18 comments

1 Jack K., the Grumpy Forester { 10.15.08 at 10:24 pm }

…there’s only one Osama bin Laden, but the supply of # 2’s and #3’s seems to be inexhaustible…

2 Bryan { 10.15.08 at 10:46 pm }

I would assume that they are using a “cell” structure – i.e. a handful of people know one person above them and their own cell members and operate independently. A central headquarters knows all the names and ways of contacting the cells, but the cells don’t know each other. When a cell is taken out, a new leader is appointed to fill the gap.

The only way to seriously disrupt this type of organization is by identifying someone as a member and tracing their movements, the movements of those they contact, and eventually you get a picture of the entire organization and can dismantle it.

If you just blow people up when you find them, you never finish the job.

3 Badtux { 10.15.08 at 11:04 pm }

Now now, Bryan, you’re talking like an intelligence and law enforcement geek, not like a real manly man. Everybody knows that you gotta blow the terrorists up when you find’em or at least give’em a free ticket to Gitmo else, well, OMG you’re coddling terrorists! At least, that’s what my copy of “Being Republican For Dummies” sez…

Damn, I’m gonna be glad when adults are back in charge again.

– Badtux the Adult Penguin

4 Bryan { 10.15.08 at 11:43 pm }

I just hope we can find some adults willing to rejoin the government. We are running out of military lawyers as they refuse to participate in the Gitmo farce and resign.

This is such a mess, it is going to be tough getting competent people to take over.

5 Kryten42 { 10.15.08 at 11:48 pm }

Note to self: swallow coffee before reading posts! I almost had an accident… Hard to swallow when a sudden bout of laughter strikes!

Errrm… I wasn’t planing on making any comment… Just thought I’d reinforce my mental note about coffee + laughter = big mess to clean up! 😉 LOL

So… yeah… continue with the amusing posts Bryan. Thank you. 🙂

BTW… Is there an election soon or something? Just asking. 🙂

6 Bryan { 10.16.08 at 12:15 am }

There was an election yesterday in Canada, but it won’t take as they left the Tories in power during an economic crisis, always a bad idea, but we each learn in our own way.

I hear that there’s supposed to be one around here, but normally there are signs along the roads when that happens, and I haven’t seen any. The only thing people are thinking about locally is how long they can last while waiting for business to pick up. Another bad summer season is over and Christmas may not make an appearance if things don’t start happening.

People have just figured out that the hard times are here and it isn’t going to get better for a year or more.

7 hipparchia { 10.16.08 at 2:21 am }

you don’t have any signs?!?!?!?! come over to my county and steal some. please.

and on the inexhaustible supply of #2s — i think read somewhere [probably thanks to k42] that there are 1.5 billion muslims in the world [or was it 4.5? i forget]… granted most of them are not radical westerner-hating jihadists, but if we keep picking them off one-by-one like this, we could very well turn them all into radicals by the time all is said and done.

8 fallenmonk { 10.16.08 at 7:10 am }

I am just wondering how they determine when they have toasted another number two. Do these guys carry cards? Maybe a tatoo? Do they have to take a test to make number two? Maybe it is set up like the Boy Scouts and you have to prove your proficiency at a number of different skills before you get promoted.

9 Kryten42 { 10.16.08 at 8:54 am }

I think they all look like ‘Mini Me’ 😉 That’s how the Bush *paint by numbers* type of intellectual giants running these operations would think. 🙂 “Mini Me was #2, therefore, everyone who looks like Mini Me must be a #2”. 🙂

It’s like in the USA… “Evil people disagree with us, therefore, everyone who disagrees with us is evil”. 🙂 The *us* being of course the Bushmoron GOP’s. No other viewpoint is acceptable to the *narcissists-in-charge*.

10 Bryan { 10.16.08 at 10:16 am }

This concept of looking for his “merit badge sash” and jamboree patches along with his press releases to determine his numbering is a bit disconcerting, FM. Maybe there’s an International Terrorists Union that gives proficiency ratings, or league tables.

Or they could just be making it up to score points with headquarters, an old and too often honored tradition in the military to explain a lot of dead people.

Almost all of our local races are decided in the primary, Hipparchia, so people don’t get carried away in the general.

Frankly I think they show ratings preference for foreign fighters in Iraq, Kryten. There were probably a lot of Iraqi up-and-comers who were every bit as evil as this Moroccan Swede but they lack accent.

11 jams O'Donnell { 10.16.08 at 3:01 pm }

Yegods Bryan Al Qaeda has more number twos than a hospital toilet during a dysentry outbreak!

12 Kryten42 { 10.16.08 at 5:42 pm }

Hah! Yes Bryan… 😉

The truth of course is that nobody (apart from the morons in charge) actually knows. There is never any concrete proof given. I wouldn’t be surprised if they just execute some schmuck they have stuck in one of their prisons around the World when they need a distraction, like an upcoming election say. 🙂 Or, maybe it’s someone that was ‘accidentally’ terminated during ‘interrogation’. *shrug*It always seems to happen when they need some *good news* Amazing… I guess being ‘Righteous, God fearing people’ has it’s benefits… LOL

I notice nobody talks about the US casualty figures any more… 😉 Or whenever the Pentagon (or any official) does, they never use a combined Iraq/Afghanistan figure. Usually one or the other… sounds a little better that way I guess.

Obviously, nobody with any brains believes anything these clown say. Their credibility hit zero long ago. I guess they didn’t get the memo. 😉

13 hipparchia { 10.16.08 at 8:09 pm }

our local races are frequently decided in the primaries too. this year has been a bit of a novelty — i don’t think i got to vote in a single republican primary this last time, darn it.

14 Bryan { 10.16.08 at 9:08 pm }

That is really bad, Jams. You should be proud of yourself. 😉

Kryten, after a while you get tired of tracking down the truth through the maze of lies they have erected, like the Iranian IEDs that seemed to have parts from South Florida. They have been hiding the real number of deaths since the wars began, and Afghanistan now exceeds the toll from Iraq on a daily basis. The people need to know what wars cost so they’ll avoid them. The Hedgemony has been hiding the real costs in lives and money since this started.

I drove a different route today and saw a couple of political signs on a side street, but they were out numbered by “For Sale by Owner”.

15 hipparchia { 10.16.08 at 11:16 pm }

the political signs are still outrunning the for sale signs here, but not by much.

I notice nobody talks about the US casualty figures any more…

including me [and i’m feeling guilty about that]. i’ve suspended my protest blog and letter-writing campaign for now, and i noticed that the warcomeshome.org counter on my blog hasn’t been updated for a couple of months either.

16 Bryan { 10.16.08 at 11:33 pm }

Everyone acts like the war is over. They don’t know much about withdrawals.

I can’t wait for the State Department coming to grips with the reality that after withdrawal they will be dependent on the Iraqi government for security and the mercs will have to leave.

17 Kryten42 { 10.17.08 at 12:28 am }

I’ve been visiting Shocked & Awfulregularly for years as my source for what’s happening that the MSM would rather nobody know about. 😉

Like this item today: Muslim scholars issue fatwa prohibiting any long-term US/Iraqi pact (Sorry, S&A don’t have direct links to posts… It’s the 4th item down, currently). Or this (of what is becoming very typical): Virginia’s GOP Head Compares Obama to Bin Laden

It’s just so comforting to see that the Worlds (potentially) most dangerous Nation is being run by kindergarten dropouts. 🙂

18 Bryan { 10.17.08 at 8:07 am }

The real problem of “running with scissors” is too often other people get “stabbed”.

McClatchy still reports from Iraq, as they have since the start under the Knight-Ridder brand. Juan Cole uses them as a source for a lot of his reporting.