Ace of Spades HQ

February 29, 2008

Whoah: Zawahiri Targeted?
— Ace

Just buzz and speculation, but pretty sweet. Someone got croaked. Just maybe not the Big Z.

Pakistani and US intelligence are attempting to sort out the names of the al Qaeda and Taliban operatives killed in yesterday's airstrike in Azam Warzak, South Waziristan. Initial reports indicated Arabs and fighters from Central Asia were killed in the operation. One report indicates an "al Qaeda fugitive from Egypt" was among those killed, sparking rumors that Ayman al Zawahiri was the target of the strike.
...
While the identities of those killed in the latest strike in South Waziristan are still being sorted out, the nationality of some of those killed is known. Anywhere from eight to 13 al Qaeda and Taliban were reported killed in the strike. Dawn reported four Arabs, two Turkmen, and two Pakistanis from Punjab province were killed. Local Taliban cordoned the area and immediately buried the bodies, which were said to have been badly burned and mutilated.
The presence of Arab al Qaeda operatives in Azam Warzak has led to speculation that a senior al Qaeda figure may have been killed. "An al Qaeda fugitive from Egypt" was reported to have been among those killed, The Nation reported. This has raised the hopes that Ayman al Zawahiri, the Egyptian-borne second in command of al Qaeda was among present during the strike.
But several senior Egyptian members of al Qaeda are known to operate in Pakistan's tribal areas.

Geraghty notes the political angle:

[A] key part of both Hillary and Obama's playbooks is endlessly moaning, "we've forgotten the real war, we're losing the war in Afghanistan, we've been distracted from al-Qaeda." Democrats looked silly when they claimed the Iraq buildup was distracting from fighting al-Qaeda, just as the U.S. and Pakistan captured Khalid Sheik Mohammed.

Posted by: Ace at 10:31 AM | Comments (26)
Post contains 301 words, total size 2 kb.

1 Democrats looked silly

That's a given. Especially when they are talking about national security/defense issues.

Posted by: DrewM. at February 29, 2008 10:33 AM (hlYel)

2
Are you referring to The Mole? Lord, I hate that guy. I remember him ranting in his cage at his trial for the murder of Sadat. Why did they let him go? I hope he suffered.

Posted by: Rinnie at February 29, 2008 10:38 AM (nOMTh)

3 I wonder what was the last thing that went thru Zawahiri's mind?

Posted by: natesnake at February 29, 2008 10:49 AM (YcXTT)

4 "Democrats looked silly when they claimed the Iraq buildup was distracting from fighting al-Qaeda, just as the U.S. and Pakistan captured Khalid Sheik Mohammed."

When/if you present them with this fact, 99% of the next 200 people you meet won't know who the hell you're talking about, or when he was captured, or where, or for what. And that's if you limit your sample to people who actually read newspapers or closely watch the news. So they only looked silly to the people to whom they already look silly.
Not they aren't silly, just that they'll never ever know how silly they are.

Posted by: Stoop Davy Dave at February 29, 2008 10:50 AM (8xWCA)

I wonder what was the last thing that went thru Zawahiri's mind?

I'll bite: White hot shrapnel.

Posted by: Rocketeer at February 29, 2008 11:02 AM (fN7ju)

"I wonder what was the last thing that went thru Zawahiri's mind?"

Hopefully a Hellfire.

Posted by: Crimso at February 29, 2008 11:02 AM (BbB7t)

7 Look at the times on both of our comments, Rocketeer. I think the fair thing would be for you to share the credit...

Posted by: Crimso at February 29, 2008 11:04 AM (BbB7t)

Agreed, then.

White hot Hellfire shrapnel.

Posted by: Rocketeer at February 29, 2008 11:06 AM (fN7ju)

I know it dates me but

shwing!!!!!!

Posted by: ntac at February 29, 2008 11:08 AM (jYyFD)

10 "I wonder what was the last thing that went thru Zawahiri's mind?"

His ass.

Posted by: jadedinga at February 29, 2008 11:09 AM (NPzE8)

White hot Hellfire shrapnel.

I was leaning towards total enlightenment and part of his lower jaw.

Hopefully it was all three.

Posted by: natesnake at February 29, 2008 11:11 AM (YcXTT)

I wonder what was the last thing that went thru Zawahiri's mind?

His sphincter.

Posted by: sherlock at February 29, 2008 11:15 AM (ojW85)

13 How do you say, "Oh Shit!" in arabic?

Posted by: Bid Swede at February 29, 2008 11:35 AM (xEn0I)

the last thing that went through his mind was:

gee, i wonder if we put enough of those "big Al-Qaeda meeting" signs out by the road to guide our out of town brothers to this important meeting.

Posted by: canuk at February 29, 2008 11:40 AM (dOOjm)

15 I have a nephew who grew up addicted to video games. His Mom and Dad would always fuss at him and say "What good is that? What are you going to do with it when you grow up?"

Then he joined the Army and went to Iraq. On his return stateside he was picked for Predator drone pilot training.

So thats what he's doing with that.

Posted by: Kasper Hauser at February 29, 2008 11:41 AM (KeOQp)

16 It never ceases to amaze me that those on the left who demand restraint in the use of the military are all whole hog about overwhelming forces in Afghanistan, and even bombing Pakistan! Isn't that what the Russians and Brits did? The fact that we have had the amazing success there that we have is credit to the strategists behind the Afghan campaign and demonstrates a flaw in the basic understanding of the world by most on the left. DKK

Posted by: LifeTrek at February 29, 2008 12:32 PM (H+/DW)

17 How do you say, "Oh Shit!" in arabic?

Allah Akbar?

Posted by: Eeyore's Swinging Sack at February 29, 2008 12:58 PM (I6QiV)

Is this the story that is being ignored? In 2001, after 9-11, Bush told us we would go after and get the people who did this to us.

Life and war ain't a 2 hour movie. It took 5 long years of war, but we have effectively killed the leadership of al-qaida. In other words, Bush did exactly what he said he would do.

When people say tht al-qaida wasn't in Iraq, I want to say "where were they?" They were all nationalties. They came to Iraq and we killed them. Would these critics rather we went into another country? Because if we had only stayed in Afganistan who do you think would have helped al-qaida? Umm.. that would be Saddam.

It's a crazy world when Bush gets no credit for doing what he said he would do.

Posted by: Rightwingsparkle at February 29, 2008 01:13 PM (vTS2w)

19 target his Islamic-head-bonking-knot and fire for effect

Posted by: Frank G at February 29, 2008 04:21 PM (Ydps9)

Damn, I wish that I had bought a few shares of 73virgins.com back in 2003.

Makes Google look like the housing market.

Posted by: Old Dad at February 29, 2008 05:48 PM (JQwWt)

21 There was a funeral? FUNERAL? Why didn't we BOMB THE FUNERAL!!! MAKE THE RUBBLE BOUNCE!

Posted by: torabora at February 29, 2008 06:08 PM (Z3aDQ)

22 "Makes Google look like the housing market."

Checked the Nasdaq these last two weeks? Google's looking like the housing market all by itself.

Posted by: Stoop Davy Dave at February 29, 2008 07:48 PM (8xWCA)

23 I love that phrase "eight to thirteen"--that means that the explosion was big, and required a sponge to do forensics.

Posted by: nudge, nudge at March 01, 2008 12:50 AM (6BtMV)

While this is great, in a few weeks 2000 plus, United States Marines will be off loading in the Afghan. In a few months the French are actually going to send combat troops and to top it off, some other classified actions are scheduled there for this summer.

Everybody I have talked to that is either there or going there say that this is the year they are going to kick some serious ass if...if the politicians and liberals will just stay out of the way.

We will see...

Papa Ray

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