Missile Strike in Pakistan May Have Killed "High-Value Target"

While many in the media, including Rachel Maddow, have acted surprised that there was a missile-strike into Pakistan under President Barack Obama's watch, I am not surprised. This was a part of candidate-Obama's foreign policy position dating back to August of 2007 during the contentious Democratic primary. It is also, in my humble world view, the right position. It reaffirms out commitment to dismantling Al-Qaeda without having to rely on unreliable Pakistani-security services or sending soldiers into Pakistan.

These most recent strikes were done so due to actionable intelligence, and one Pakistani security official believes that a high-level target might have been taken out.

* Setrak's diary :: ::
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The Washington Post has a must read article in today's paper that offers a far more objective view of the subject than most of the commentary that we have heard thus far. In it, one Pakistani security official offers the following;

A Pakistani security official said in Islamabad that the strikes appeared to have killed at least 10 insurgents, including five foreign nationals and possibly even "a high-value target" such as a senior al-Qaeda or Taliban official.

Another Pakistani official put a possible name to the man; suspected Al-Qaeda operative Mustafa al-Misri. It's unclear how significant of a figure he was, or if that was even his real name.

These are the people that former President George W. Bush promised to get. This is Al-Qaeda and their closest allies within the Taliban. These are the guys that would gladly murder innocent civilians, as they have demonstrated in the past. These are not people that respect the rule of law, but rather use it to their own whims. If we are going to get them, we have to get them by any means necessary. We can't send boots into the tribal areas of Pakistan without causing a huge firestorm of controversy and risk of a wider conflict. We also can't rely on the compromised Pakistani security forces, despite some reform, or the anti-Taliban militia that we have been assisting. And before anyone pretends like President Obama's actions are genuinely angering President Zardari, think again. People should always remember that President Asif Ali Zardari is the widower of Benazir Bhutto.

President Barack Obama may not see the end of bin Laden as the end of Al-Qaeda, but the end of bin Laden and his network is closer than ever before. There is no longer any safe-haven.



Source : http://www.dailykos.com