TERROR WATCH

Targeting a 'Facilitator'

A commando raid into Syria aimed at Al Qaeda in Iraq.

By Mark Hosenball | NEWSWEEK
Published Oct 27, 2008

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  • Posted By: boscodad @ 11/30/2008 9:32:15 PM

    Gentleman, I appreciate the pain you feel after serving, anf the horro you saw. yes I agree, the ladies in this country who have never served in combat should be sent to the front to espouse their ridiculous ideas. I am sure AQI would love to spill their blood. And by ladies i mean the non-serving """""men"""" in this country. Look at all the major civilizations of History, and the citizen soldier is the builder and backbone of that society. when you quit using citizen soldiers (example the American settlers/farmers who were revolutionary war/civil war troops) you loose the edge that makes your society great. Is this why Rome fell?? Why Greece fell? I work for a company ( a world wide company) who's CEO sent out greeting to members of the armed forces who are currently serving overseas on Veterans Day. Nice, but he didnt aknowledge any other conflict or service, strange. but it just goes to show how true you comments about civilians not being in touch with the people who protect them. As a former Marine Sergeant 5th Maines I Corps Vietnam I salute you. and agree with you. semper fi

  • Posted By: mfenwick @ 10/29/2008 9:44:37 PM

    Too bad Syria doesn't target all those bastards in Washington; I'd like to see their bodies scattered all over the White House lawn and hear the survivors whine for help. Get rid of all the Democrats and Republicans and we will have a better nation.

    • Posted By: tbizzle7861 @ 11/14/2008 4:57:16 PM

      Do you know what you have just committed is treason? In this country we no longer punish treason cause we all have the freedom of speech, but in other countries (especially Sryia) they would cut out your tongue and then kill your family in front of you and then they would remove your head with a knife. Not a sword or an axe. A KNIFE. That takes some time to get through the neck so you can suffer before you die. So if you think it is so bad in America, take your views and live there. I am sure you wouldn't come back alive.

  • Posted By: Airborne life @ 11/14/2008 12:50:37 PM

    I have to start off and say that America is America! To all the people who have not served over in Iraq, Afghanistan, Kosovo, and Africa. Yes all the places I have mentioned, you do not understand the conflicts that each person over there has to deal with daily locals and military.
    I have live through the Gulf War in Israel, when Saddam was shooting missiles over at us. I was only in second grade at the time but I still remember every time the Shabbat siren would go off. (They had used the siren for Shabbat eve but changed it when the war started).
    I have been over to the Afghanistan and seen and interacted with the locals. They are overall great people! But when you need to feed your family and the Taliban or any other group is offering more than the U.S or their Government to pay. What is there to do? There are people in the U.S who do the same thing. They cheat, steal, rob and kill others to keep their families feed, dressed and supported. Do you hear that on the news? Not as much as what you hear from over there.
    I agree with a lot of other people. If can get most of the politics out of the wars it will go a lot smother. The fact of the matter is that we cannot and so that makes everything tougher.
    So what I am trying to say is the Government is doing what they can. Leave the U.S troops out of the equation, because we are just doing what we are told to do. I have seen a lot of things that most people would not understand. So unless you have lived in a war zone, been to a war zone please do not say anything about the raids, or anything that you hear. First off the media put out a lot of white noise= (one sided opinions). I understand that not everyone wants to join the military and that is fine but then at the same time you do not know what it is like to live like we do.
    People say it is hard to be a civilian. I understand that! When I was 20, I had usually held two to three jobs at once, for a few weeks I held five jobs. I understand how life can be as a civilian. Also I am looking for a part time job while in the military. All of us in the military unless joined right at the age of 18, can understand what it is like because we all have been there at one point of time.
    Like I was saying beforehand, please do not bash on the Government. For the simple fact that you do not get the intelligence reports that come from the Military about these groups. So how are you to know if the Government is making the right decisions?

    • Posted By: tbizzle7861 @ 11/14/2008 4:53:33 PM

      Thank you for saying that. I have served a total of 6 years overseas, and I agree with every word you said. I am sure that both of us have seen things that people just will not understand or comprehend. And really they don't know why we do it. They will never wrap their heads around the fact that there will probably never be peace in our life times, and without peace there will be wars everyday. What they also don't understand is that we have to do what we have to do to survive, and ensure that the American way of life continues. And you and I are the ones that have stepped up to make sure that happens. I thank you for saying what needed to be said, and I thank you for standing up for our country. It doesn't seem like too many people want to these days.

  • Posted By: Tabi @ 10/29/2008 8:02:18 AM

    First to Madas Refer, I hope that you manage to fix your caps lock key soon. I had a broken key-board for a while and it was extremely irritating.

    Secondly, for those criticizing the Bush administration for being president while a raid that violates another nation's sovereignty has been conducted: this may be a good time to consider one of Obama's positions. More specifically, the one where he says that he would violate Pakistan's sovereignty to pursue high-value terrorist targets.

    So my question is, is this act illegal because it was conducted under Bush or because it was illegal? Are international laws actual laws or are they conventions? Since a president can send troops to war without a declaration, to what degree does this cover his ability to conduct an act of aggression in a foreign country (an action that is quite a few steps below an invasion)? If we confine ourselves to viewing this conflict mostly by country while Terrorists see it as a conducted struggle, in what ways to we gain advantages and in what ways do we hamper ourselves? And finally, is it more to our advantage to kill enemy targets or to respect countries with precarious positions (both to help their stability and to help our relationship)?

    I'd appreciate if anyone can genuinely answer these questions intelligently.

  • Posted By: tamasla @ 10/29/2008 7:55:50 AM

    Those people are helping forgien fighers enter Iraq. USA is helping forgien fighter -contactors- also enter Iraq. If the former are called terrorests what you call the the latter, freedom fighters??

  • Posted By: ariziowa @ 10/29/2008 12:59:04 AM

    It would be nice is "Osamayescan" would actually write something. Well he/she is about 12 years old. Just listens to what her parents say.

  • Posted By: expatincebu @ 10/28/2008 6:14:24 PM

    This is a clear violation of international treaties and law as well as the UN Charter. The US has once again committed and unprovoked act of war against a sovereign nation. You cannot claim those who were killed were anything but innocent civilians.

    As far as I am concerned Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Iran all would be justified in sending commandos to the US to attack and kill bush and cheney. I really wish they would. I would cheer for them. Bush and Cheney ARE the two worst terrorist in the world today.

    • Posted By: Cliff-N-Cali @ 10/28/2008 9:52:47 PM

      And when they attack......I hope the first bomb they send lands on you!!!

  • Posted By: mccainsupporter @ 10/28/2008 9:21:37 PM

    John McCain is a modern day King Arthur. Instead of pulling a sword out of stone, he has performed the modern day equivalent of surviving relatively unscathed five plane crashes including being shot down over Hanoi. Thousands of pilots have died in plane crashes and it takes real skill to crash land a plane and survive. If you look at the former Airtran and now defunct ValueJet 592 crash in the Florida swamp that killed everyone on board, it did not take a lot of skill to fly the plane nose down straight into the Florida swamp. The 911 United Flight crash in Pennsylvania is also proof of an unskilled crash landing where everyone was killed going nose down first. So John McCain???s having survived those crashes is a testament to his flying skills.
    Like Evil Knievel the former motorcycle dare devil who also survived countless crashes, John McCain has survived five airplane crashes. Like Nascar drivers, who jump back in the cars after crashes John McCain has walked away and gotten back in the pilots seat. John McCain will drive and pilot our economy back to prosperity.
    Vote for John McCain!! Vote John McCain!!!!!!!! Vote John McCain!!!!!!

    John McCain is the one who can come up with solutions to our economic problems. Barack Obama and Joe Biden are mathematically challenged. Send them back to school.
    Joe Biden with his history and political science double major in college and Barack Obama???s major in political science give them absoloutely no economic, scientific, quantitative or analytical background to handle the pressing economic and military problems facing our country. These two mathematically challenged Democrats are supposed to be able to crunch numbers and understand how to cope with our economic and budget crisis. Two people who probably can???t add four numbers together are suppose help solve our economic crisis. Do you know that they offer basic accounting continuing education classes to lawyers because most lawyers do not understand simple accounting. We have had enough mathematically challenged lawyers screw up our country. You at least know that John McCain has the computational and analytic skills to compute fuel loads, cargo weights, wind speeds, and trip distances to keep from running out of gas on missions.

  • Posted By: wordsbybecca @ 10/28/2008 8:58:48 PM

    This is the Administration that entered into a war with dogged, blind aggression based on lies. This is the Administration that practiced torture and suppressed any transparency and shrugged off any accountability. I do not believe for one minute that this was not politically motivated. I do not believe there was an urgency based on any new intel that justified the innocent deaths that resulted. How any American can watch this new travesty piled on to the mountain of travesties perpetrated by this President and not internally writhe with outrage is beyond me....

  • Posted By: wordsbybecca @ 10/28/2008 8:41:32 PM

    I am reading this with a very healthy skepticism. The current Administraton has not had any problems with their collective consciences nor do they have any apparent moral compasses regarding this War, Torture or their disregard for our Constitution. I don't believe this wasn't politically motivated. I don't believe they received any new or pressing intel which made this necessary one week before the election. I don't believe they care that there was pointless and unnecessary collateral damage. Do certain Americans actually wonder why so much of the world has come to hate us?

  • Posted By: MADAS REFER @ 10/28/2008 7:19:36 PM

    YOU WOULD HAVE TO BE OVER THERE TO UNDERSTAND THE COMPLEXITY OF THE TRIBAL/RELIGIOUS/ETHNIC NEED FOR RESOLUTION OF INDIVIDUAL AS WELL AS TERRITORIAL COMPLEXITIES. THE IRAQIES ARE BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE AND THEY THANK AMERICA EVERYDAY FOR THEIR NEW FOUND FREEDOMS. THANK GOD BUSH HAD THE BALLS TO PUSH FOR THE SURGE. WR NEEDED MORE GROUND FORCES FROM THE GET GO AND THIS AREA WOULD HAVE BEENFULL OF HOPE AND DREAMS FOR THE FUTURE LONG AGO

  • Posted By: kunino @ 10/28/2008 2:25:42 PM

    Another embarrassment for the US military and, in fact, nation. As so often before, a military operation goes wrong, and the military or the CIA takes the usual first step for such circumstances, an immediate, untruthful briefing to selected news media by sources who persuade the media representatives that their lying names must not be published.

    This worked some years ago. Nowadays, this familiar tactic usually falls to pieces over days in an internationally recognized and despised pattern.

    Somebody not a liar, not in the pay of the US military, points out that the original claim was dishonest, producing evidence. The Pentagon promises a follow-up investigation, then admits the lie and apologizes. Nobody in Washington cares much and the military is free to kill at random and lie again about the next such incident a few weeks later.

    In this case, even the New York Times was taken in: it carried a lengthy "report"about how the military invaded Syria, killed a wanted Iraqi, and withdrew. The newspaper ornamented this story showing the reality that at least six Syrians had died -- their coffins were shown -- which made complete nonsense of the story.

    Foreign television news crews photographed the corpses lying in Syrian streets, covered with too-small blankets, the funeral for the slain, and a young mother lying in hospital recounting in dazed fashion how the Americans had fired on her point blank and her five screaming children, killing one of them. There was mobile-phone video coverage of the Black Hawks flying over the village. These images, and a statement from the Syrian foreign minister given at a news conference in London were all shown worldwide before the New York Times' unfortunate evidence of its gullibility. Against all this, one lying employee of the Defense Department or the CIA who conned gullible reporters into concealing his or her name.

    Why does the Bush administration still believe such lies work? Why do the Washington news media persist in concealing the name of the liars who have tricked them?

    • Posted By: GoSarah @ 10/28/2008 4:13:13 PM

      This is not embarrasing. This is how it should be done and it should be done more often. They bagged an al-quaida leader, man. What are you talking about, "embarrasment"?
      The White House shouldn't discuss this with reporters as they give out vital data to enemies. I don't want to know the details, only that is was successful. Another one of Obama's friends dead. Boo Hoo.

      • Posted By: iobserver @ 10/28/2008 4:27:47 PM

        GoSarah, you seem writing a good comment at the begining but you ended up embarassing . Yuo are embarassing to think of our ur next would be president, Obama, as a friend of a terrorist. Open your eyes and develop your brain first before you start to post such a nonsense comment.

  • Posted By: gringovejo @ 10/28/2008 3:17:44 PM

    This is but one of the proper uses of US Military Special Forces in the War on Terror. For as long as terrorists continue to use cross boarder incursions to wreak havoc on neighboring states, with little or no intervention from the local or national government. And, it beats the
    hell out of invading and occupying a country..

  • Posted By: Nins @ 10/28/2008 2:30:01 PM

    Here's a video in which Obama discusses fiscal responsibility. Anyone who cares about the economy should see it.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5d4a6RNhCUo

    On this web page, you can calculate the amount of your TAX RELIEF under Obama's plan (This tax calculator is for personal income, not for businesses. Remember that if you itemize, your tax cut will be higher than what the calculator shows. However, Obama's new 1040EZ allows people to get credit for some itemizations without having to fill out the long form and schedules.)

    http://taxcut.barackobama.com/

    You can get even more information on Obama's economic policies from the Blueprint for Change.

    http://www.barackobama.com/issues/

  • Posted By: pmcs @ 10/28/2008 9:11:25 AM

    Bush killed Sadam , but left Osama alive.

    • Posted By: ariziowa @ 10/28/2008 1:40:20 PM

      Yes, Obama bin-Ladin is still alive!

  • Posted By: ryanb @ 10/28/2008 11:34:26 AM

    I don't trust this man financially or by leading the american armed forces into the trouble aheard with the islamic world he is liberal and the equiverlent of our labour party and look what they have do to the england and the reason why i say england is because scotland and wales have benn given devolution and are know longer ruled from whitehall.

    This barrack obama has the name of a muslim. muslims see america as there feircest enemy and hate everything america stands for the same as attilla the hun did about the Roman empire.

    do i trust him certainly not...

  • Posted By: Bass Pro @ 10/28/2008 10:24:15 AM

    If one was cynical, one might ask if we have given the green light to Turkey to eliminate the Kurds from Iraq. The Kurds are a thorn to the Iraqi government's side. What leads me to this surmise is the fact that we owned up to the Syrian raid while denying raiding into Pakistan. Was this admission a coded message to the Turks? We do it so we can't complain if you do it. Every now and then old President bush laments the sluaghter of the Kurds by Saadam. Was that really sincere or just selfserving?

  • Posted By: 8Nobama @ 10/27/2008 7:36:22 PM

    No more goverment hand outs, if you don't have the cash, don't buy it. Save Save Save, Stop spending on wants buy just what you need.

    • Posted By: pmcs @ 10/28/2008 9:25:31 AM

      Bush killed Sadam , but left Osama alive.

      Ronald Reagan started the national wealth REDESTRIBUTION Program. For the last 30 years this program continued the Wealth Redistribution toward the RICHEST 1%.

      Still waiting for this richest 1% to 'trickle' down their wealth onto the rest of population and for Osama bin Laden to convert to Christianity.

    • Posted By: pmcs @ 10/28/2008 9:21:10 AM

      People who sent bush to whitehouse and helped bush bankrupt our country and bankrupt our and our children's future,
      the same folks are shouting angrily to vote for mccain and republicans.

      You redistribute the entire nations wealth toward the richest 1%, and wait for these 1% suckers to trickle down their wealth onto the poor 99% population, you rather wait for osama bin laden to convert to christianity.

  • Posted By: pmcs @ 10/28/2008 9:16:30 AM

    People who sent bush to whitehouse and helped bush bankrupt our country and bankrupt our and our children's future,
    the same folks are shouting angrily for mccain and republicans.

    You redistribute the entire nations wealth toward the richest 1%, and wait for these 1% to trickle down their wealth, you rather wait until osama bin laden converts to christianity.

  • Posted By: pmcs @ 10/28/2008 9:12:35 AM

    Bush ran down all companies he was involved in before becoming President.

    Bush ran down our country and the whole world before leaving the Presidency.

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