Score one for the good guys:
Pakistan has arrested a senior al Qaeda figure with a bounty of up to $25 million on his head, Interior Minister Makhdoom Faisal Saleh Hayat told CNN television Thursday.
He said the suspect had been captured during a raid in central Pakistan a few days ago. He did not identify the captive but said he was “a person who is most wanted internationally.”
Al Arabiya satellite news channel quoted Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf as saying the suspect was arrested Sunday.
“The Pakistani president said the arrested person is Tanzanian who is married to an Uzbek woman, and who is wanted by the United States,” the station said.
Al Arabiya said the suspect may be Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani. Ghailani is the only Tanzanian on the FBI’s most wanted “terrorists” list, for his alleged role in the 1998 bombings by al Qaeda of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
Now, if we can only keep him away from an International Court.
*** Update ***
The usual suspects are calling this the “July Surprise,” which is silly for numerous reasons:
1.) Of course we are pressuring Pakistan to turn over terrorists. That kinda is the goal of the War on Terror- to find and kill/neuter/prosecute terrorists. Oddly enough, it is a goal of the Kerry-Edwardsticket- to work with our allies in the fight to keep America secure. Imagine that.
2.) This will have no impact on the election whatsoever, and not even bump Kerry’s acceptance speech off the headline of ANY paper.
3.) Only the kool-aid drinkers who think that we really were ‘distracted’ by the War in Iraq would think that we have ever stopped aggressively persuing these scum.
I am just happy we caught the a-hole, and it is not going to impact my opinion on the election at all.
*** Update ***
Ezra, in his usual calm, reasoned self, resonds in the comments:
Liar. We’re questioning it because a TNR report came out three weeks ago saying the Bush Administration was pressuring Pakistan to deliver them DURING the convention. Liar liar liar. This is beneath you.
Actually, I had no idea there was such a report. The link in your post today only mentioned pressure to deliver targets ‘before the election,’ which of course is a no-brainer.
At any rate, I stand corrected. But you really need to upgrade the meds, Ezra. I guess the only innocent mistakes in the eyes of Democrats are when you slip and stick your dick in an intern or shove secret documents down your pants.
Really- being civil with the political opposition pays off, doesn’t it?
Ezra
Liar. We’re questioning it because a TNR report came out three weeks ago saying the Bush Administration was pressuring Pakistan to deliver them DURING the convention. Liar liar liar. This is beneath you.
Mason
JOHN LIED! EZRA CRIED!
Ezra
Civil? All you in one post to me:
“I am going to start a general literacy program for Democrats, sicne the schools seem to be failing them and they simply can not comprehend even the smallest of sentence…
Anything more than “Taxes good, Bush bad” seems to be beyond the level of reading comprehension of the modern left anymore. Ezra (who wrote this, and not Jesse- the mistakes point that out quickly)…
I think the notion that previous Presidents went to individual soldiers has been de-bunked, regardless of how bad Ezra’s reading comprehension is…
Let’s look at Ezra’s follish projection again…
Generally, I ignore the basic ignorance of the military and military tradition when the left babbles on and on. In my mind, being stupid about the military is a radical improvement from the 60’s, 70’s and early 80’s, when they were not only stupid but overtly hostile. Stupid, as in the case of Ezra here, is a dramatic improvement…
I am going to refuse to even discuss this disgusting agitprop from our friends on the fringe left until they can come up a coherent argument better than the one provided here by the lightweight lunatic Ezra Klein…”
Glass houses. Stones.
Anyway, you’re stillfor TNR to have Pakistani sources saying there’s pressure to deliver high-level targets, well, today, and then we find out that Pakistan captured one days ago and decided to mention it today, hours before Kerry’s speech and right in time for the post-convention spin”
jesse wrote: “during the Democratic Convention?”
And the TNR article we linked to wrote: “A third source, an official who works under ISI’s director, Lieutenant General Ehsan ul-Haq, informed tnr that the Pakistanis “have been told at every level that apprehension or killing of HVTs before [the] election is [an] absolute must.” What’s more, this source claims that Bush administration officials have told their Pakistani counterparts they have a date in mind for announcing this achievement: “The last ten days of July deadline has been given repeatedly by visitors to Islamabad and during [ul-Haq’s] meetings in Washington.” Says McCormack: “I’m aware of no such comment.” But according to this ISI official, a White House aide told ul-Haq last spring that “it would be best if the arrest or killing of [any] HVT were announced on twenty-six, twenty-seven, or twenty-eight July”–the first three days of the Democratic National Convention in Boston.”
I mean, you can keep lying, but it doesn’t make it less true. Don’t blame us — we wrote it twice in the post and, if you followed the link to the original post containing the article, you got right to the source. Civility, John? I’ll settle for honesty. Or at least a bit less hypocrisy from the guy who called me a “lightweight lunatic”.
Ezra
Messed up a paragraph, should read:
Anyway, you’re still lying. I wrote: “for TNR to have Pakistani sources saying there’s pressure to deliver high-level targets, well, today, and then we find out that Pakistan captured one days ago and decided to mention it today, hours before Kerry’s speech and right in time for the post-convention spin”
John Cole
Ezra:
I was referring to this post:
The stuff from today I dismissed as your conjecture.
At any rate, fuck off, you little piss-ant. I admitted I am wrong, I am not sure what else you want from me. I could pull a Sandy Berger and erase the post, but I am man enough to admitwhen I am wrong.
One day, when you grow up, you might learn how to do the same thing.
John Cole
BTW- The quotes you pulled from me above belong to this post– a post in which I proved you wrong beyond any reasonable doubt,and you still have neveradmitted that you had no idea what you were talking about.
You rememberthat, right? When you were sprwading the vicious lie that Bush, unlike any other President, refuses to recognize war dead or visit the injured in the hospital because it would be bad PR. You remember that, right? If not, it is right there in the links.
It is ok- being a liberal means never having to say you are sorry- you meant well.
Ezra
You know how the net works, John, you click on the link that was above the quote to get the source. My reply came because, instead of saying you were wrong, you blamed us for not explaining why we were upset. Only…we said it twice in the original post and had the source link up. And then you had the audacity — and after how you’ve flipped out in past discussions it really is aduacious — to fault me for incivility when I called you a liar because you were, well, blatantly misrepresenting my argument. I love our dialogues, but if you want to dish it out like you do, get ready to take it.
So what do you think of the story? Seem suspicious to you?
Ezra
By your argument, me calling you a lying liar (nowhere near the invective you sprayed at me) is appropriate because you were spectacularly, flagrantly, wrong. I stand by my position on the other post, but we’re not rehashing that — the issue at hand is your authority to accuse anyone of incivility. It is, I think, fairly nonexistent, particularly when my rebuke was so light in comparison to your ball of rage. Then you get angrier because, in fact, jesse and I did spell out our complaint and link to the original source.
Hey, I respect your admission that you were incorrect. I’m happy to move the discussion over to the issue at hand — mainly, the unsettling timing of all this. But considering how many times you’ve attempted to beat up on me for perceived slights, you’ve really got be more of a mensch about this. Civility pretty much bars the word “pissan” from the conversation.
Joe Buck
Let’s stop the name-calling and focus on the point. TNR quoted an ISI agent weeks ago as saying that they were pressured by the White House to deliver a suspect on July 26, 27, or 28. They had this guy before the window opened. They are announcing his capture today. If there were nothing to it, it could have been announced when the capture happened.
This represents a foreign power, run by a dictator, trying to help swing a US election.
Russ
Frankly, when I heard about the TNR piece a week or so ago, my first thought was “of course TNR is going to publish something like this – they want to do a little preemptive conspiracy-mongering.”
Y’know, just in case we really do catch a major target.
To paraphrase a Tom Clancy character, “Why should I believe you? You’re a reporter.”
I have little faith in the [allegedly unbiased] media, and virtually none at all in the self-declared liberal organizations. They [not all of them, of course, but a very definite subset of the people working therein] have an agenda that pretty clearly puts National Security distantly behind Electoral Success on their list of priorities.
And yes, if you think that because of those priorities I’m calling that particular subset of people “unpatriotic,” you read me loud and clear.
John Cole
Ezra-
1.) Yes, I do know the nets- which is why I assuumed you included the most important graf in the post. You did not.
2.) Because I waws uncivil to once does not erase by ability to detect future incivility on your part. I merely note that your website continues to refer to me as a lying liar, when you clearly have noted here I was merely wrong.
3.) My previous incivility to you was in response to your continued willingness to spread a vile and awful false-truth regarding the President and war dead and injured. I will note here that depsite offering you numerous times to retract the utterly false statement, you continue to dismiss your malfeasance and focus on my anger. Anger that is wholly justified and deserved.
4.) Is the timing unsettling? Perhaps. It may be possible that this operation, which started over 5 months ago, may have only recently received actionable intelligence and thus we are only now able to act on it.
I find it more unsettlling that ISI sources are even talking to TNR, to be honest.
Is it entirely possible that there are those within the administration who would want to time this for political impact. Of course- and that is distressing. However, I will wait to find out what reaslly happened before I drink the Josh marshall kool-aid and blame this on Bush or Cheney.
BTW- I might note that in your post today there was no relief that the man had been caught- only the predictable outrage that this had been timed. Certainly you have room for both. Perhaps not.
kimagu
May 10th,
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2004_05_09.php#002941 :
“There is chatter in Pakistani intelligence circles that the US has let the Pakistanis know that the optimal time for bagging ‘high value’ al Qaida suspects in the untamed Afghan-Pakistani border lands is the last ten days of July, 2004.”
Jon Henke
The timing does seem suspicious.
On the other hand, his capture is hardly major news. Iirc, the column called for the capture of Zarqawi, OBL, or (one other guy). If you define HVT down this far, quite a few have been captured.
And–assuming this was a genuine conspiracy–you’d think the TNR story would have scared them off the plan, wouldn’t you? I mean, what’s the percentage in catching a mid-level AQ officer on the night of John Kerry’s speech?
They’ve preempted nothing, and garnered quite a lot of backlash. What’s their percentage?
Frankly, though this is certainly a strange case worth examining further, I’d want to investigate the reliability of the so-far unnamed sources. Something a little more credible than “I heard it from…well, he was just this guy, you know?”
Karen
I think you’re all getting carried away with the timing thing. The average American doesn’t even know who this guy is and this will have zero effect. I don’t know what the Democrats are worried about anyway; from the ratings it doesn’t look like anybody’s watching the convention anyway.
HH
The story states clearly that they were trying to get this guy for five months… He is also again, only a big capture for those who have studied al Qaeda. By no stretch of the imagination does this “steal Kerry’s thunder” as far as the media or public opinion is concerned.
Terry
What a load of crap this “Ezra” jerk is trying to peddle! Stories such as the one he refers to have been hitting the web with all the frequency of crabs being found on Oliver. As someone else also noted, this guy is hardly a household name and I doubt that this capture registers at all in the public’s thinking.
JPS
Oh, ye gods.
What’s the frickin’ alternative?
“Hey. Pervez, make sure your boys DON’T capture anyone important in late July, otherwise it might look like I’m trying to upstage my opponent.”
Sinbad
So, just want to be sure I have this straight.
Based on anonymous sources claiming that the Bush administration has been pressuring the Pakistanis to speed things along vis-a-vis capturing terrorists, partisan rag TNR editorializes that this is Nefarious(tm) because the capture of a terrorist by the administration’s deadlines could help Bush’s re-election chances and/or knock the Democrats out of the news.
Assorted idiots like Ezra guzzle the TNR Kool-Aid, and then, hilariously, after spending the better part of a week trying to convince America that their party realy does want to capture and/or kill terrorists, freak right the fuck out when a terrorist is actually captured.
Remind me again why I should take any of these people seriously?
John Cole
At the same time, though, look at the other side. If the National Review reported in 1996 that the Clinton administration waspressuring theSudan to turn over atop level terrorist during the RNC, and then it happened, you know what would happen.
There would be calls for impeachment proceedings.
Let’s everyone calm down.
Dean
In further conspiracy theories, it is now reported that Union generals Grant, Sherman, and Sheridan were ordered to hold off their fight with the Confederate forces of Robert E. Lee and Braxton Bragg until the crucial weeks before the November election.
President Lincoln, running scared in the face of famous war hero George B. McClellan, was reportedly ordering Secretary of War Stanton to keep tight wraps on any prospects of good news for a crucial October bounce.
Grant, who was well on his way to Richmond, apparently was told to pull up his forces around Petersburg, and lay siege instead….
Bruce
Ezra quotes some rumor mongers and calls it ‘facts’… LOL! ROFL!
Come on Ezra, find some facts you can quote.. Some rumor that some one thought they heard some one say is hardly earth shaking. Just because we caught some one means nothing. Why is it bad? Why is the timing ‘bad’? Did Ezra not want these guys caught? Of course not. He is a loon on the left. He does not believe there is any war. He thinks it was all made up.The fact that the US went in to Iraq with the world behind us and then we got stuck there for 12 years while Saddam led Cintoon down the primrose path…So W decided to get us out of Iraq, finally, and you idiots on the left keep saying Bush Rushed to war in Iraq… Because, as every loon knows, 12 years is not a long time…
jeff
John,
while your maturity in admitting you were “wrong” is admirable, there’s no proof you were wrong about anything.
It’s all anonymous sources and NOTHING about this report has ever been confirmed.
You gotta love the left. Stealing and destroying classified documents isn’t bad, but possibly leaking that the guy is under investigation is.
Catching terrorists, no big deal, but doing it during a convention is bad.
And these mental-midgets wonder why the majority of the people don’t trust them in the war on terror.
rea
“They had this guy before the window opened. They are announcing his capture today.”
And note, for those of you who dismiss this as simply leftie conspiracy-mongering, that the capture was announced after midnight, Pakistan time–just in time for news deadlines in the US.
Jon H
“On the other hand, his capture is hardly major news. Iirc, the column called for the capture of Zarqawi, OBL, or (one other guy). If you define HVT down this far, quite a few have been captured.”
Er, no. It just means the Bush folks wanted high value targets, and this guy was the best the Pakistanis could come up with.
Time was running out, and they ran with what they had.
rea
“Actually, I had no idea there was such a report.”
E.G., he doesn’t read Josh Marshall or Paul Krugman, although he feels free to make disparaging remarks about what lefties are supposedly saying . . .
Sinbad
“And note, for those of you who dismiss this as simply leftie conspiracy-mongering, that the capture was announced after midnight, Pakistan time–just in time for news deadlines in the US.”
Rea, here’s a free clue: Islamabad is GMT +5, while New York and Washington are GMT -5. “After midnight”, Pakistan-time is approximately mid-afternoon on the East Coast, not “just in time for news deadlines in the US”.
Loosen the tinfoil. It’s obviously cutting off blood flow to your brain.
Jon Henke
“Er, no. It just means the Bush folks wanted high value targets, and this guy was the best the Pakistanis could come up with.”
– – -Fair enough, as a theory. There is still the problem that this “announcement” serves–and could serve–no forseeably useful purpose.
In fact, it worked against them politically. They both lost the prestige of a (semi, at best) “major capture”, and got backlash for announcing it when “they” did. (assuming, arguendo, that the administration was behind it)
It’s a great theory, until you get to motivation, and then it starts getting a bit irrational.
rea
“Rea, here’s a free clue: Islamabad is GMT +5, while New York and Washington are GMT -5. ‘After midnight’, Pakistan-time is approximately mid-afternoon on the East Coast, not ‘just in time for news deadlines in the US’.
Sinbad, here’s a clue: standard newspaper deadline is 4 p.m.
M. Scott Eiland
My nominee for the most deranged reaction to this story–the much fawned-over Josh Marshall:
This is just the latest, but perhaps the most blatant, example of how this administration has placed politics and, really, political dirty tricks above national security itself, and along the way persisted in defining political deviance down until tactics we used to associate with banana republics start to seem commonplace here.
And while we’re at it, this is yet another example of how truly important it is that we democratize the Middle East. Because once we have, some of them will be able to come back here and redemocratize us.
Take a Thorazine and chill out for a while, JM–it’s a bad sign when you start to sound like Kimmitt on crack.
Sinbad
“Sinbad, here’s a clue: standard newspaper deadline is 4 p.m.”
So we’ve gone from (according to TNR) “sometime during the DNC” to (according to you) “just in time for the news deadlines” to (again, according to you) “standard newspaper deadline”. The precision that the Bush administration can command from the Pakistanis is more and more astonishing with your every post, rea, specially since, according to you guys, the administration’s foreign policy is so utterly inept.
But here’s another free clue: even if the Pakistanis had delayed the announcement until first thing the following morning (say, 8am, Islamabad-time), the story still would have made the late U.S. broadcasts, and print media — not wanting to be left out — would have found a way to carry it. “Standard newspaper deadlines” are malleable things when it comes to breaking stories.
So kindly don’t piss on my head and tell me it’s raining: the only way you and the rest of the Tinfoil Beanie Brigade wouldn’t be bitching about the timing of the story is if today was November 3rd.
M. Scott Eiland
No, even then they’d either be claiming that GWB was rubbing it in, or that–in an appalling alternate reality–trying to detract from the victory celebration of the Ticket of the Lesser Johns. In Moonbatland, *everything* is part of Shrillary’s Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy.
Al Maviva
Um, no offense, Ezra, but getting #22 on our most wanted list, while quite nice, isn’t exactly delivering Osama to CNN headquarters three minutes before Kerry’s keynote speech.
By the way, I suppose the lucky catch of Al Qaida’s top courier by Homeland Security, a South African based woman picked up in an airport in Texas, was also similarly engineered? I really wonder how the Republicans managed to time that one…
capt joe
So, some anonymous source from a an intel agency with a very checkered past (mostly against us) comes out with a conspiracy story.
So the left side of the blogosphere sops it up like gravy. If the right side of the blogosphere said this there would be general laughter.
So please excuse me if your religion is my horselaugh.
Furhtermore, with the general nature of the belief in a conspiracy, there is virtually no period where the left would not see as fulfilling their conspiracy.
This sort of belief is called a clustering illusion and more specifically “the texas sharpshooter fallacy”
http://skepdic.com/texas.html
Ken Hahn
Let’s just remember the rules. Any news helpful to Bush during the campaign can be ignored by pointing to the timing. Berger, captures and anything else is simply a dirty trick. St. John and St. John Jr. have all virtue. Anything which might reflect poorly on them is the result of a vast conspiracy.
After the last Democratic President, the charges of Bush lying are vastly amusing.
BTW, I don’t particlarly like Bush, but Kerry makes him look like Abe Lincoln.