Analysts: Iraq a 'magnet' for al Qaeda

[onehandle]

Iraq is becoming a "magnet" for al Qaeda terrorists, who now pose more of a threat than remnants of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party, analysts said after Tuesday's bombing of the U.N. headquarters in Baghdad. "If you are a terrorist in the Middle East and you have a mission to kill Americans, Iraq is now the place you're going to want to go," said James Rubin, a former U.S. deputy secretary of state.

(Above from CNN Main Page)

http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/08/19/sprj.irq.al.qaeda.magnet/index.html

It's a 'magnet' for al Qaeda NOW! MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!

[Beetwasher]

1. EVERYTHING the anti-war activists predicted is coming to pass

while every piece of "evidence" presented in support of the invasion has been shown to be shit....

[Old and In the Way]

2. Can't wait for the WH spin on this.

Almost everyone person on the DU predicted this would happen month's before the invasion started.

I'm sure somehow this is a good thing...it was part of the master plan....draw them into Baghdad and Nuke 'em with a Nuetrino bomb.

[Cha]

6. Not almost everyone on DU. I remember some DUers who

thought it was a great idea for us to go over there and pre-emptively strike at Iraq! I was aghast!

[Old and In the Way]

7. Maybealmost everyone was a stretch, but the majority of posters understood

the dynamics of a post war Iraq would set up conditions for a resurgence of Islamic fundementalism. BTW, any of those pro-war posters still on the board?

[kainah]

13. I am on public record predicting it

Before the war, I was on Wyoming Public Radio to talk about what Stand Up for Peace was doing and why. A friend of mine called the other day. She had just listened to her tape of the interview and wanted to tell me I sounded pretty prescient.

Pretty hard to feel good about it, though. :sigh:

[molok555]

9. If you read any of the RW bloggers

,like andrewsullivan.com, you'll see that this is the "flypaper" strategy. The main idea being to give the "evildoers" a central location to collect and then WHAM! take 'em out! Oh don't worry about it failing so far, it's a good spi--errr plan.

[Robbien]

11. If this was the plan, it would have been nice to let the soldiers in on it

They are sitting over there wondering when they are going home since the war is over, but little do they know they are magnets.

I hate how the military is treated!

[kainah]

14. Remember that the bushies didn't even tell the soldiers

that the bombing was going to start. I remember the night the war started, that Wednesday when they tried their strike against Saddam, and all the embedded reporters were talking to all the troops who were all saying, "We don't know anything about it. Yeah, I'm surprised it started tonight." They didn't even tell Blair. I knew then it was going to be worse than I even thought.

[QuietStorm]

24. need to know

they get a command they do it. period. these are the grunts they are the guys who know the least basic training and pure patriotism. they could not assess strategy not now, maybe once more seasoned and they have risen up in rank. but the boys just out of basic training. Need to know. the DoD could care less for these guys. Look at the VA a sham, they even want to cut their pay for god sake, they have them on amephetamine, if the DoD decides they will test something on them. Look at Panama, I encounter soldiers that fought in Panama will tell you the Panama Deception is hogwash didn't happen that way.

These are boys taking orders some on the fly.

[StandWatie]

31. welcome to your new job, soldier..

Judas Goat.

The "flypaper" strategy is just stupid, one way or another not every sympathizer in the world is going to head to Iraq. Some of them are going to stay behind to get the Great Satan where he lives and that's all it takes.

[Lexingtonian]

18. uh huh.

So Al Qaeda sends in, say, 500 of its members. How many of these are going to be members of the inner circle- the top 20- of the organization? Yes, Virginia, maybe TWO. How many does the AQ leadership figure they can expend? Probably 50% or 60%, or 200-300, all foot soldiers.

Oh boy, that's some flypaper there. Baited with American GIs who are shooting a lot more demonstrators and journalists than guerillas these days. And a massive American/collaborator Iraqi bureaucracy sitting in the middle of a chaotic Arabic city, just begging for infiltration and a generous expenditure of high explosives. I'd call the situation a death trap- for Iraqi civilians and Americans of all stripes, far less so for guerillas and bombers.

[OldCurmudgeon]

23. that's right, flypaper...

and, as bloggers noted, it made about as much sense as setting up a "dirty hospital" to draw in the germs and "deal with them on our terms".

Q: why are repthugs moronically hypocritical?

A: the ones that aren't had their heads explode YEARS ago...

[ahimsa]

33. maybe we're stuck in THEIR flypaper

just a thought

[DuctapeFatwa]

3. LOL And Al Qaeda is mutating....

Oooooh look! It's mutated into... you, me - everybody!

[David Zephyr]

4. The White House Will Spin That al Qaeda Was ALWAYS There.

Which is what, I think, OldandintheWay was hinting above.

[Rose Siding]

29. I didn't see it but in another thread

someone said Paul Bremer was on the Today Show and said that Al Qaeda had been operating in Iraq for the last 10 years. Tell the big lies often enough.....

[Cha]

5. That's what we said! Before the fucking Attack on Iraq!

I am really sorry it didn't go the way the storybook ending that bush had for us with rose petals and shit!

[stickdog]

8. Thank God we invaded Iraq to free all the helpless al-Qaeda terrorists

from the harsh rule of that despot Hussein!

[proud patriot]

10. Thanks Bush ...We are not safer today

bush has destabilized the world with his game ..ENOUGH !

I hold bush in contempt of America the rule of law
and his Constitutional duties .

IMPEACH BUSH NOW ...

[JackSwift]

12. Destabilization and terror recruiting were always

among Bush's goals. He makes lots of money and gets lots of votes with it.

[dArKeR]

15. I do NOT believe this! Use your heads and think about it!

The CIA/NSA has our bases now to work out of in Iraq. The CIA/NSA is obviously trying to infiltrate the guerilla network. You're a guerilla cell and some Joe Blow from another country and region shows up and wants to join your cell? What else would you guys swallow? These are all Iraqi guerrillas who have total 99% support of the common people.

Lucky I heard something to back up my opinion a few days ago. WBUR in Boston had 4 'professional' guests. I believe 2 of them said the same as I. The others who didn't speak out I assume meant they all agreed. I found the link and listened to it but then I lost the direct link. Maybe another DUer gots it or you can search here. It was recent. I think the 18th. I also posted it in another persons thread so you can do a search on 'darker wbur' maybe that will work? I don't have search, sorry.

http://www.wbur.org/archives/

[QuietStorm]

22. i agree with that 100 percent

the common people support the guerillas they understand this is a war against islam. If the friggen PNACers had an actual reconstruction plan and had restored utilities and got their lives back perhaps the common people would be more amiable, but none of that happened and now to boot, there are mass graves with military casualities familes are trying to identify and 6,000 or more civilian deaths. Please. sounds to me like the occupation is hostile and the common people know it.

CNN is still pitching a friendly liberation. That is bullshit.

[dArKeR]

32. Who's Fighting Back in Iraq? - Taped radio show Boston WBUR, Great!

http://www.onpointradio.org/shows/2003/08/20030815_a_main.asp

[QuietStorm]

16. I just don't know about CNN

the resistance in the last week has not just focused on killing americans it blew up an oil pipeline and a water pipeline and I still waiver on the UN but there is a strong possibility it could have been iraqi resistance without alq. CNN is a whore too. they will be the alq drum stronger for PR sake. not that there is no truth there I just find them hardly indepth enough and they seem to be still selling this war as a peace missions and initiatives, becomes hard to take them seriously.

[QuietStorm]

17. the experts don't really know either.

Last few paragrahs of this article holds much vascilation

"On the other hand," Pollack said, "this may simply reflect an increase in the capabilities of ... indigenous groups" such as Saddam loyalists, Sunni Muslims and Islamic extremists.

"We know that their operations against U.S. and other coalition forces have been getting increasingly more sophisticated," said Pollack, author of the 2002 book "The Threatening Storm: The Case for Invading Iraq."

L. Paul Bremer, the U.S. civilian administrator in Iraq, blamed Tuesday's bombing on backers of Saddam's regime.

"We know in general terms who's behind it," Bremer said. "It's people who are fighting against the liberated Iraq that most Iraqis have welcomed. It's people who do not share the vision of a free Iraq with a vibrant economy.

[stickdog]

19. "It's people who are fighting against the liberated Iraq."

I couldn't agree more.

[QuietStorm]

21. do you agree with this quote

"the liberated Iraq that most Iraqis have welcomed"

most iraqi's remain in solidary with the occupiers. they were hesitant at the beginning not as many turned coat as was expected. See they are stil skewing this stuff. I don't in a million years feel that most iraqi's feel at home with the occupiers. I think that is PR shit and it is just what they want American's to believe.

[stickdog]

25. I believe whoever blew up the UN is against a liberated Iraq.

And right now US/Chalabi black ops is the prime suspect.

[QuietStorm]

26. what liberated iraq?

do you believe we really went into liberate iraq. where are their utilities. why so many dead civilians. what liberated iraq. I guess there are fine points I am still missing here. A liberated iraq what does that mean? liberated under the authority of an american occupation. if you are against a liberated iraq what does that mean?

my question was whether the common people, who I am sure are glad to be liberated from saddam, are behind the occupation authority or do they see right through it. So would that mean they are against a liberated iraq.

US/Chalabi black ops is for dominance in the region itself they want control of that oil. that has little to do with a liberated iraq.

LOL

[stickdog]

27. I agree.

The US is against a liberated Iraq, at least until we get the oil.

[Star]

20. I overheard one older man (retired) today.

He was talking about the UN bombing in Baghdad, and said "At least they're bombing places over there, because otherwise they'd be bombing us over here".

See? It was good we invaded Iraq because now AQ can attack our troops over there and we the people are safer over here. Yessir, Bush* is sure lookin' out fer us all. <sarcasm off>

[JPace]

28. The people do not want us there.....

that is why bush won't let the people vote,
he knows they would vote in Islamic
Fundamentalists (their own people). It
would go the way of Iran and take another
20 to 30 years to evolve into a base
that would desire democracy. We need to
get out of there before thousands more
of troops get murdered for absolutely
nothing! Democracy has to come from within
and cannot be imposed.

[ignatius]

30. The Bushistas have made the world a cess pool of violence and

fear. By enforcing their right wing, neo-con ideology with violence they have unleashed a monster and are clueless as to how to cage it.