• US tries to ID hundreds of al Qaeda contacts thanks to Yemen raid
    13 replies, posted
[QUOTE]Several US officials told CNN Thursday that the US is now taking action to locate and monitor hundreds of people or "contacts" found as part the intelligence retrieved during the deadly raid last month in Yemen targeting al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. Some of these people are believed to be in the West, but not in the United States. The government is taking action to find and monitor these AQAP-linked individuals because of the threat they may pose to Europe, the officials added. The fact that officials said they are actively pursuing leads uncovered from the [B]raid indicates that the intelligence was indeed actionable despite some media reports to the contrary[/B]. The terabyte's worth of intelligence gathered from computers and cell phones is now being reviewed at the National Media Exploitation Center outside Washington, which analyzes documents, electronic media, cell phones, video and audio tapes seized on overseas missions.[/QUOTE] [URL="http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/02/politics/yemen-raid-al-qaeda-intelligence-contacts/index.html?sr=twpol030217yemen-raid-al-qaeda-intelligence-contacts0730PMVODtopLink&linkId=35060148"]http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/02/politics/yemen-raid-al-qaeda-intelligence-contacts/index.html?sr=twpol030217yemen-raid-al-qaeda-intelligence-contacts0730PMVODtopLink&linkId=35060148[/URL] What!?
Watch them "find" cells in the US after all and use that as an excuse to further ramp up anti-muslim policies.
I can't wait to see the variety of excuses people use to try to discredit this because it doesn't support their personal biases. No reasonable person should find it impossible to believe that every now and again a US military operation will actually succeed in its objectives, or that initial media reporting on sensitive subjects might be erroneous.
We have unnamed sources saying nothing actionable was found and unnamed sources saying we hit the motherlode. Hopefully its the [del]former[/del] latter.
[QUOTE=Raidyr;51902592]We have unnamed sources saying nothing actionable was found and unnamed sources saying we hit the motherlode. Hopefully its the former.[/QUOTE] Why would it be better if the raid was pointless and nothing of value came from the loss of life?
[QUOTE=DaMastez;51902632]Why would it be better if the raid was pointless and nothing of value came from the loss of life?[/QUOTE] Well that's awkward, meant to say latter, now I look like an asshole.
[quote]The fact that officials said they are actively pursuing leads uncovered from the raid indicates that the intelligence was indeed actionable despite some media reports to the contrary.[/quote] Wow, it's almost as if the unnamed sources are full of shit! How strange!
[QUOTE=catbarf;51902586]I can't wait to see the variety of excuses people use to try to discredit this because it doesn't support their personal biases. No reasonable person should find it impossible to believe that every now and again a US military operation will actually succeed in its objectives, or that initial media reporting on sensitive subjects might be erroneous.[/QUOTE] Who knows, at this point. I think the goal all along is to just say one thing, then say another, while saying the news is fake, and doing that for weeks and weeks on end to saturate it so that no one can discern what the fuck is happening anymore
I can Imagine Trump tweeting, "CNN is Fake news!" and then someone tells him that this shows him positively, and him going "fuck"
[QUOTE=DaMastez;51902632]Why would it be better if the raid was pointless and nothing of value came from the loss of life?[/QUOTE] It's six in one half-dozen in the other, really. On one hand, if the raid did provide actionable intel of great value, then that seal's life didn't go up in smoke. But it also means we will in all likelihood end up marching right back to war while we're still one-boot-in-the-field regarding leaving the war. On the other hand, if the raid didn't turn up anything worthwhile, CPO Owens died for nothing. But it gives us a massive chunk of evidence towards trump's incompetence should impeachment proceedings ever begin.
Late to the party on that reply.
[QUOTE=catbarf;51902586]I can't wait to see the variety of excuses people use to try to discredit this because it doesn't support their personal biases. No reasonable person should find it impossible to believe that every now and again a US military operation will actually succeed in its objectives, or that initial media reporting on sensitive subjects might be erroneous.[/QUOTE] Given the dozens of dead civilians, I fucking [I]hope[/I] they got some good Intel. It wouldn't change the fact that this operation was a colossal disaster, but at least it would mean there was some small silver lining to it. [editline]2nd March 2017[/editline] [QUOTE=TestECull;51903010]It's six in one half-dozen in the other, really. On one hand, if the raid did provide actionable intel of great value, then that seal's life didn't go up in smoke. But it also means we will in all likelihood end up marching right back to war while we're still one-boot-in-the-field regarding leaving the war. On the other hand, if the raid didn't turn up anything worthwhile, CPO Owens died for nothing. But it gives us a massive chunk of evidence towards trump's incompetence should impeachment proceedings ever begin.[/QUOTE] Owens wasn't the only life lost. Two dozen women and children also died during the raid. I'm not accusing you of ignoring that, but I think it's critical to keep that in mind. Tge greater tragedy of this fuckup was not the loss of a soldier's life, but the deaths of dozens of civilians who were caught in the middle of a poorly planned and executed operation, and the very real damage that does to the efforts against extremism in general. We have given incredible fuel to extremist propaganda. This will push hundreds, perhaps thousands of people closer towards extremist ideology. You cannot indiscriminately kill civilians, nor let civilians die as a result of poor planning or execution of combat operations.
Claims based on nothing more than anonymous sources once again proven to be meaningless.
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