ABC News: Only 100 al Qaeda Now in Afghanistan

[Nikki Stone1]

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/president-obamas-secret-100-al-qaeda-now-afghanistan/story?id=9227861

As he justified sending 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan at a cost of $30 billion a year, President Barack Obama's description Tuesday of the al Qaeda "cancer" in that country left out one key fact: U.S. intelligence officials have concluded there are only about 100 al Qaeda fighters in the entire country.

A senior U.S. intelligence official told ABCNews.com the approximate estimate of 100 al Qaeda members left in Afghanistan reflects the conclusion of American intelligence agencies and the Defense Department. The relatively small number was part of the intelligence passed on to the White House as President Obama conducted his deliberations.

President Obama made only a vague reference to the size of the al Qaeda presence in his speech at West Point, when he said, "al Qaeda has not reemerged in Afghanistan in the same number as before 9/11, but they retain their safe havens along the border."

A spokesperson at the White House's National Security Council, Chris Hensman, said he could not comment on intelligence matters.

[arcadian]

1. I guess Obama really is a liar.

[FrenchieCat]

4. You drink ABC/Disney Corp Koolaid to call Obama a liar?

Good on you!

Why you think they report this all of the sudden out of literally nowhere?


Hey...Drudge's got a story for you.
Better go swallow that up too.

[arcadian]

5. I hate to tell you this.

But their stories meet strict guidlines as far as requirements for sources.

[berni_mccoy]

7. HAHAHAHAHAHAH AHAHAHAHA AHAHAHA OMG HAHAHA OMG AHHAAH

You aren't serious... HAHAHAH oh, wait, you are.

Wow.

[arcadian]

8. So all MSM is one big lie?

Here is a forum for you:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topics&forum=125

[Capn Sunshine]

26. pssst. Don't tell this guy about Santa

couldn't take it, I'm sure.

[arcadian]

28. Naaa, berni's alright if not a little deluded.

:D

[janx]

49. We have a conspiracy theory forum at DU?

:rofl:

Oh man, I didn't know that! :rofl:

[berni_mccoy]

6. Well Frenchie, Joe Wilson finally has a place here at DU.

[arcadian]

10. Yeah, suck up to the head cheerleader.

Maybe she'll make you a co-captain in the squad. :rofl: <-@U

[TexasObserver]

33. You sell Koolaid.

[FrenchieCat]

38. NO, this is fucking Koolaid.

Smell it and taste it now, cause you obviously forgot!
Notice not one Democratic Official in any of the stories.
Nada.

That's not what's been happening now while the
Obama administration is in office.
So why is that?



War Cabinet Argues for Iraq Attack
Bush Advisers Cite U.S. Danger

By Mike Allen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, September 9, 2002; Page A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A54988-2002Sep8?language=printer




Friday, June 7, 2002. Posted: 16:26:54 (AEDT)
Cheney targets Iraq over weapons of mass destruction
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200206/s576586.htm


ABC's George Stephanapolous on The Daily show,
selling Bush's war. (video)
September 2002
He laughs a lot, but he still spouts the lies in the enemies' den.
http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/wed-september-25-2002/george-stephanopoulos




Top Bush officials push case against Saddam
September 8, 2002 Posted: 8:46 PM EDT (0046 GMT)

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Top officials in the Bush administration took to the Sunday television talk shows to argue the president's case that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein is a global threat and must go.

With a former U.N. weapons inspector in Baghdad saying the U.S. position on Iraq is overstated, the vice president, two Cabinet secretaries, the national security adviser and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff pressed the point that a military intervention could be the only way to topple Saddam's regime.

"There simply isn't a case that this is a peace-loving man who wants to be left alone," national security adviser Condoleezza Rice said on CNN's "Late Edition With Wolf Blitzer."

On NBC's "Meet the Press," Vice President Dick Cheney accused Saddam of moving aggressively to develop nuclear weapons over the past 14 months to add to his stockpile of chemical and biological arms.

"Increasingly, we believe that the United States may well become the target of those activities," Cheney said.

"And what we've seen recently that has raised our level of concern to the current state of unrest ... is that he now is trying, through his illicit procurement network, to acquire the equipment he needs to be able to enrich uranium -- specifically, aluminum tubes," Cheney said, referring to one of the elements for making nuclear weapons.

Citing Bush administration officials, The New York Times reported Sunday that Iraq tried to buy thousands of high-strength aluminum tubes.

The tubes, Rice said, "are only really suited for nuclear weapons programs, centrifuge programs."

Centrifuges are one way to separate weapons-grade uranium from natural uranium.

White House sources also tell CNN that Saddam has in recent months met several times with Iraq's top nuclear scientists and encouraged them to continue their work.

Sources say Iraqi defectors who used to work for Iraq's nuclear weapons "industry" tell administration officials Iraq's top priority is acquiring nuclear arms.

Rice acknowledged that "there will always be some uncertainty" in determining how close Iraq may be to obtaining a nuclear weapon but said, "We don't want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud."

A senior administration official involved in Iraq policy tells CNN classified briefings to congressional leaders in recent days included evidence of "procurement issues" relating to Iraq's nuclear programs, including the aluminum tubes.

The official said the evidence is likely to be included in briefings the president promised to the leaders of Russia, China and France as the White House seeks U.N. Security Council support for a tougher posture toward Iraq, and a clear understanding with the United Nations that if weapons inspectors do return to Iraq that the Bush administration would view any interference from Baghdad as grounds for immediate military strikes.

But Bush -- who will address the U.N. General Assembly about Iraq on Thursday -- has not decided whether to use military force, Rice said. "The one thing he has determined is we simply cannot afford to do nothing," she added.

General: 'We have the forces'
Cheney also said the president has made no decision, but he and other officials leaned in that direction as they stressed Saddam's failure to obey U.N. resolutions, Iraq's attacks on its neighbors and the development of weapons of mass destruction they fear could be used against the United States.

Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Richard Myers said the U.S. military was ready if called upon to strike Iraq.

"U.S. armed forces and our allies will prevail," Myers said on ABC's "This Week." "... We have the forces; we have the readiness."

As for the Iraqis, Myers said military analysts "think their capabilities are much less than they were in Desert Storm. We think is much weakened militarily."

After Iraq's defeat in the Persian Gulf War in 1991, U.N. weapons inspectors entered the country with a mission to certify that it had destroyed its weapons of mass destruction. The United Nations ordered the inspectors out in late 1998 -- just before U.S.-British airstrikes -- with U.N. and U.S. officials contending Iraq was uncooperative.

In the four years since inspectors left, officials said Iraq had been trying to expand its chemical and biological weapons and acquire materials needed to develop nuclear weapons.

But Scott Ritter, a former U.S. Marine intelligence officer and chief weapons inspector in Iraq, said that inspectors had certified the country was 90 percent to 95 percent disarmed when they left.

"So if Iraq has weapons today like President Bush says, clearly they would have had to reconstitute this capability since December 1998," Ritter said. "This is something the Bush administration needs to make a better case for, especially before we talk about going to war." (CNN Access)

Rumsfeld: Inaction not a choice
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld insisted that the United States can't underestimate Iraq's weapons activities.

"After the Iraq war, Desert Storm, after they invaded Kuwait ... we went in and were able to find out that they were within six months to a year away from developing a nuclear weapon," Rumsfeld told CBS' "Face the Nation."

He said intelligence estimates at the time indicated Iraq was at least two, and as many as six, years away from possessing nuclear capabilities.

"Until you're down on the ground, you can't know precisely," Rumsfeld said. "The intelligence we have is clearly sufficient for the president to say that he believes the world has to recognize the Iraqis have repeatedly violated these U.N. resolutions."

If inspections were resumed, they must be "intrusive" enough so at the end, the inspectors can say, "He's disarmed," Rumsfeld said.

Secretary of State Colin Powell, speaking on "Fox News Sunday," said skepticism about the usefulness of weapons inspectors is "well-deserved."

"They did quite a bit of good work, but we also discovered that once defectors came out, they told us more information than the inspectors ever had found," Powell said.

Ultimately, the secretary said, the Bush administration believes that the best way to disarm Iraq "is with a regime change."

Cheney said he hopes Congress votes before it recesses in October on whatever option Bush chooses.

"We're at the point where we think time is not on our side," Cheney said.
http://archives.cnn.com/2002/ALLPOLITICS/09/08/iraq.debate/
----------------------------------------------------------------------

You'll see no stories about Obama without a bunch of Republican
elected officials saying things all through it.

You don't see any of that in any of the stories I've posted,
and there are more where they came from.


So my question is, why do you choose to believe those who
already lied to you already, like ABC at this very moment?

Is this a case of koolaid, or you believe what you want to believe.
But go ahead, buy what the media sells you.....that'll just make you
that much more wrong later. :shrug:

[saracat]

39. Uhh, Bush isn't president anymore and using old news to prove a point doesn't work well.

Funny how MSM is the devil when it doesn't totally agree with your guy but is wonderful when promoting him. I can't stand ABC because they are discriminating against Adam Lambert but have no other reason to dislike them more than any other coprorate schill.

[Nikki Stone1]

47. Hey saracat, I believe that this indicates an inner sanctum fight between the military and other CFR

types like Brzezinsky, who has actively promoted pulling out of Afghanistan. That's why the M$M may be floating the truth for once.

[Sebastian Doyle]

44. ABC/Disney didn't pull that number out of Mickey Mouse's ass

Actually, I'm pretty sure I first heard it on Thom Hartmann's program. And he ain't no right winger.

[YouTakeTheSkyway]

9. How so?

[arcadian]

12. Well, let's see, only 100 Al Qaeda

Maybe the situation isn't as urgent as Obama portrays it, but I'm sure you believe that politicians don't lie, oh no wait, you're guy doesn't lie to YOU. right?

[YouTakeTheSkyway]

15. Sigh, if we could discuss this without you putting words in my mouth, that'd be wonderful

Quite frankly, I think you're misinterpreting the reasoning behind the surge. I think everyone (Obama included) understands that al-Qaeda is in a weakened position. However, we can't finish the job and bring its leaders to justice until we find a way to solve the Taliban problem. Nor can we stabilize Afghanistan until we solve it.

[arcadian]

17. That is a cop out.

Obama, the DoD, you will always find a reason behind your particular issue. The blind adulation is what's sickening.

[YouTakeTheSkyway]

23. It's not blind adulation. There's a very clear logic behind it, one I've been arguing in favor of

on this board since well before Obama announced what his plan for Afghanistan was going to be.

[arcadian]

25. So when are you shipping out?

[YouTakeTheSkyway]

29. Hm, your inability to discuss the merits of the surge are duly noted.

[arcadian]

32. Again I ask, when are you shipping out?

Certainly you are going over there for a cause in which you clearly believe in.

[YouTakeTheSkyway]

35. I believe we should explore the outer reaches of space also

yet I'm not gearing up to work for NASA. Interesting fact, people believe in things they're not directly involved with all the time. In fact, I *bet* you do it too.

Now, if you'd like to get back to the topic...

[arcadian]

36. Here's a little help to guide you on your way.

http://www.goarmy.com/ChatIndex.do?redirect=true


I believe they speak Pashtu in Afghanistan:

[YouTakeTheSkyway]

37. We could go in circles like this all night

Though, really, this is a bit off topic. Would you like to get back to discussing the number of al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and its bearing on the surge or not?

[babylonsister]

2. And they know this how? What a bogus headline. And who was

'the senior US official'?

Ugh.

[YouTakeTheSkyway]

11. I assume that this is their estimate based on sources within the local populace

as well as surveillance on the ground, in the air, and of communications from in and out of the areas the al-Qaeda members are suspected of being. Frankly, the figure doesn't surprise (and I say that as someone who favors the surge).

[Rosa Luxemburg]

16. besides we are supposed to fighting the Taliban who are different

they might wear similar clothes

[arcadian]

19. The only Al qaeda I've ever seen wear Western style clothes

and reside in the West.

[YouTakeTheSkyway]

21. You're unfamiliar with al-Qaeda attributed attacks throughout the Middle East and South Asia?

[arcadian]

24. Do you have photographs of those perpetrators?

[YouTakeTheSkyway]

27. I'm curious as to what you consider "Western clothes", as what many might consider "Western"

is common throughout the world. Are khaki pants "Western"? White dress shirts? Because I've got news for ya, the world over has pretty much embraced those things. Now if you're talking "Co-Ed Naked" shirts or Daisy Dukes, that's a different story, but you and I both know the 9-11 hijackers weren't sporting those.

[arcadian]

30. Yes, those are traditionally Western style clothing

as opposed to what people in Afghanistan traditionally wear. :eyes:

[YouTakeTheSkyway]

34. And, again, those clothes are common throughout the globe.

So what does their clothing style prove, in all actuality? I'd say nothing.

Secondly, al-Zawahiri, bin Laden, etc. generally tend to favor more traditional attire and they're the big wigs.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

40. yes

just a small band of thieves

[YouTakeTheSkyway]

20. We're fighting both. Have been from the start.

[berni_mccoy]

3. "A senior U.S. intelligence official told ABCNews.com" -- unlikely.

I smell b.s.

[arcadian]

13. Please cite a source for your assertion.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

14. There weren't many in the first place

in fact most of them were patsies.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-hYorNi0nA&feature=resp...

[YouTakeTheSkyway]

18. I wouldn't say they were "patsies". I'd say they were conventional fighters

who were aligned with bin Laden. Generally speaking, those are the folks who could be found in the training camps. Not a huge threat outside of their immediate area and, frankly, not the aspect of al-Qaeda (or whatever you want to call it) the U.S. has ever typically been concerned with.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

42. they were kind of 'rented'

[1]

22. 100? shit. our boys and girls will be home by christmas...

[Rosa Luxemburg]

41. it won't take long

[Sebastian Doyle]

46. They might be.... if that had anything to do with why they were there.

Unfortunately, it never had all that much to do with the Easter Bunny Mythological Terraist Army in the first place.

The energy bastards want their pipeline. The CIA/Bush Crime Family want their opium. That's the sickening reality of it.

[TexasObserver]

31. Recommend

[mike_c]

43. minor correction....

I believe the national security estimate was that there are "fewer than 100 al-Qaeda" members in Afghanistan. That's a potentially significant distinction. Not so different from the ABC report if there are 99, but a whole lot different if there are ten. Or two. Or zero.

[Nikki Stone1]

45. Good point, Professor Mike.

And a fully gratuitous "CHANCELLOR REID SUCKS!"

[charlie]

48. Given the intelligence community's predilection

for inflating threats, if it was only 2 bottlewashers and cooks from a disbanded camp, it wouldn't surprise me.

[Nikki Stone1]

50. LOL!

:D

Notice the unrecs already

[charlie]

51. I can hear them clicking

Click hard and fast enough and you can make it untrue, I guess.

[Nikki Stone1]

52. I guess....

LOL!

[earth mom]

53. K & R for truth!

:kick: