Officials: Hunt For Al Qaeda Ineffective

(CBS)  Despite billions of dollars spent and more than 500 U.S. soldiers having been killed in Afghanistan in the hunt for al Qaeda, there's increasing evidence that the terror group is making a comeback just across the border in Pakistan's lawless tribal territories, where the Pakistani government has little or no control.

Pakistan's latest attempt to oust al Qaeda and the Taliban from their safe havens in the frontier area has been, according to U.S. officials, ineffective.

Pentagon consultant Seth Jones of Rand Corp. says it's not even close to what's needed, reports CBS News national security correspondent David Martin.

One militant leader was actually tipped off to the coming offensive by sympathizers within the Pakistani military.

"What's needed in the tribal area is a much longer approach, clearing territory and holding it," Jones said.

This offensive is focused in the area of the Khyber Pass, where the Taliban publicly execute suspected American spies and mount cross-border raids into Afghanistan, Martin reports.

"The command-and-control structure of every major insurgent group is in the Pakistani side of the border," Jones said. "So this is critical to success in Afghanistan."

In June, more American soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan than in Iraq.

"It's reasonable to argue that the situation is far worse today than it was four or five years ago," said CBS News homeland security consultant Paul Kurtz.

That goes not only for Afghanistan, but also for the U.S. "The most likely area that's going to be linked to an attack in the United States is coming from this area," Jones said.

U.S. troops call in air and artillery strikes at anyone shooting at them from Pakistan, commandos sometimes cross the border on covert operations aimed at finding Osama bin Laden, and unmanned predator drones launch missiles at senior al Qaeda leaders - but the sanctuaries remain, Martin reports.

"I don't think the limited strikes from Afghanistan or predator strikes will ever accomplish what is needed that is a clearing of territory and holding it," Jones said.

With the war against terror now in its seventh year, U.S. officials acknowledge there is no real strategy for digging al Qaeda and the Taliban out of their safe havens, Martin reports.

So why haven't members of the military been more aggressive about going after these terrorists in Pakistan?

Because U.S. Government policy wouldn't allow them to. What it's meant is they've had to stay on the Afghan side of the border and watch militants come across the border, shoot at them, kill them, bomb them and escape to safety and they could do nothing about it, CBS News chief foreign affairs correspondent Lara Logan reports.

And the U.S. government's relation with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has something to do with it. Now that his power has been weakened significantly, it could leave a window of opportunity for the U.S. to change its strategy.

As Logan says: "It's also a critical window when you look at the reality of what's developed in the tribal areas. However, there's a power vacuum in Pakistan. The government is ... divided, there's no consensus. So it's a very difficult time for us as well. But it's an opportunity that really we can't afford to waste."

[samsel3]

And the Extermination continues......

More than a year and half before 911 the CIA Special Activities Division was conducting operations in Afghanistan, trying to topple the Taliban regime for the Caspian Sea Oil & Gas Pipelines...........We now call such activities terror.



February 12, 1998 John J. Maresca vp of UNOCAL oil appeared before a House sub committee. The purpose of the meeting was to gain support for exploitation of oil & natural gas resources, for the rights purchased by BIG OIL in the Caspian Sea area.

In his testimony he stated, "The key question is how the energy resources of Central Asia can be made available to nearby Asian markets ". The exploitation option stated : "One obvious route south would cross Iran, but this is foreclosed by American companies because of U.S. sanctions (with Iran ) . The only other possible route is across Afghanistan, which of course has it''''s own unique challenges. " He continued saying, " the pipeline we have proposed across Afghanistan could not begin until a recognized government is in place that has the confidence of governments,lenders (world monitary fund & world bank ) ,and our company "......"

UNOCAL and other American companies are prepared to undertake the job ".

[floydzepp2]

A spokesman for Obama says the senator did not know that he had invested in either company.

Posted by Barocalto at 09:44 AM : Jul 01, 2008
-------------

Which could very well be true if the money is in a blind trust.

[jn122736]

In reference to;
Posted by Barocalto at 09:44 AM : Jul 01, 2008
Posted by Barocalto at 09:38 AM : Jul 01, 2008
Posted by Barocalto at 09:36 AM : Jul 01, 2008
Posted by Barocalto at 09:35 AM : Jul 01, 2008
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I have not seen this poster%u2019s (Barocalto) ID before, but the technique; posting Anti-Obama comments on a subject that is in no way about him, is very familiar.

One obvious thing about the four separate comments posted in succession is that they were pre-formatted/planned, and posted on the first convenient article.
The comments are totally irrelevant to the subject of this article; so therefore, they are intended solely as a smear attack, and should be judged accordingly.

[barocalto]

We''ve got to make sure that people who have more money help the people who have less money."

Barack Hussein Obama

Less than two months after ascending to the U.S. Senate, Barack Obama bought more than $50,000 worth of stock in two speculative companies whose major investors included some of his biggest political donors.

One of the companies was a biotech concern that was starting to develop a drug to treat avian flu. In March 2005, two weeks after buying about $5,000 of its shares, Obama took the lead in a legislative push for more federal spending to battle the disease.

He also bought more than $50,000 in stock in a satellite communications business whose principal backers include four friends and donors who had raised more than $150,000 for his political committees.


A spokesman for Obama says the senator did not know that he had invested in either company.

[barocalto]

We''ve got to make sure that people who have more money help the people who have less money."

Barack Hussein Obama

And change is what you''ll have left over when I''m done.

[barocalto]

We''ve got to make sure that people who have more money help the people who have less money."

Barack Hussein Obama

[barocalto]

Barack Obama was born of Communist activists, mentored by a communist writer and activist, spent his college days hanging around radical activists, worked as a radical community organizer learning the radical tactics of Alinsky, kept contact with radicals through the years, attends a radical church, and today lends his political skill to the international goals of radical activists, and has radicals working on for his campaign. Marxism
1972
to
1979 Accuracy in Media has an in-depth profile of a leftist who influenced Obama during his high school years. In an article entitled, "Obama''s Communist Mentor," Cliff Kincaid identifies a member of the Communist Party USA, who has been influential in Obama''s life and education, Frank Marshall Davis, who was a communist -- and born in Kansas.

[fstop100]

With G.W. and Mr. Cheney running the ship would you expect anything more?

[whitemale08]

Of course it''s ineffective because Bin Laden is a mythical figure used to force America to spend trillions of dollars on some phoney operation called the "War on Terror".

Soon we will be forced to borrow trillions from the IMF and World Bank which will officially make this country a third world nation.

Then Standard & Poors will come in and downgrade our credit rating so that not only will be unable to payback the debt but also have to rely on the International Red Cross for charity and AIDS prevention programs like that in Africa.

This is same thing that the British East India Company did to the Soviete Union with Al Qaida only this time its going to be far worse for us.

[donevis-2009]

Of course its ineffective, There is no "Al-Qaeda!! There hasn''t been any proof that it exist. Its been mentioned so many times linking the dead Osama to it we''re programed to believe in it. Translated the term
Al-Quaeda means to relieve ones self, as in going to the bathroom. Im sure no organization would align itself with this terminology. Just another made up ghost created for us to be afraid of so the administration could power up the "Homeland Security" dept to further intrude on our rights. "God Speed USA"