Which Side Are They On?
BY JAMES TARANTO
Best of the Web Today
Thursday, January 19, 2006
Rumors flew last week that a U.S. missile strike in eastern Pakistan had killed Ayman al-Zawahiri, al Qaeda's No. 2 man. Reports of Zawahiri's death turned out to be exaggerated, but yesterday came the news that the missile appears to have hit another important target:
<<< ABC News has learned that Pakistani officials now believe that al Qaeda's master bomb maker and chemical weapons expert was one of the men killed in last week's U.S. missile attack in eastern Pakistan.
Midhat Mursi, 52, also known as Abu Khabab al-Masri, was identified by Pakistani authorities as one of four known major al Qaeda leaders present at an apparent terror summit in the village of Damadola early last Friday morning.
The United States had posted a $5 million reward for Mursi's capture. He is described by authorities as the man who ran al Qaeda's infamous Derunta training camp in Afghanistan, where he used dogs and other animals as subjects for experiments with poison and chemicals. His explosives training manual is still regarded as the bible for al Qaeda terrorists around the world. >>>
"The bible for al Qaeda terrorists," huh? Someone's having a little fun over at ABCNews.com. Over at The Weekly Standard, the Manhattan Institute's Dan Darling elaborates on Masri's importance:
<<< If [Abu] Khabab can be said to have had a lasting effect on the development of Islamist extremism, it would be that he moved the possibility of Islamists using unconventional weapons out of the theoretical and into the practical. Those wishing to view his legacy need look no further than the extremely crude but deadly chemical and biological experiments set up under the auspices of Ansar al-Islam in northern Iraq prior to the U.S. invasion. >>>
Or as the Democrats call it, northern Iraq which has nothing to do with northern al Qaeda.
Anyway, the TigerHawk blog has a roundup of reaction from left-wing blogs, before it was reported that Masri was hit:
AmericaBlog:
<<< "At least when Clinton 'lobbed cruise missiles at tents' he wasn't blowing up entire innocent families in small villages who had no idea what was about to happen to them." >>>
"mcjoan," DailyKos.com:
<<< "What this strike has achieved is the further alienation of Pakistan, and provided further proof of the Bush administration's utter ineptitude. It's a reminder that the disastrous Iraq debacle diverted resources from the critical effort to contain al-Qaeda and calls into question exactly what it is that our intelligence agencies are doing." >>>
Juan Cole:
<<< "Ooops. The bombing of a village in northern Paksitan [sic], apparently done in hopes of killing al-Qaeda #2 Ayman al-Zawahir, missed its intended target." >>>
"Scrolling through perhaps a dozen big lefty blogs, I did not see a single post that actually expressed regret that we had not killed al Zawahiri," TigerHawk notes. And it's not just the bloggers; consider this column from Derrick Z. Jackson of the Boston Globe:
<<< The airstrike in Pakistan reaffirms how our behavior is plummeting in the direction of the evil we proclaim to fight. At home, we are appalled by drive-by shootings that take out innocent children. Abroad, the fly-by airstrike is the source of no remorse, with dead children and mothers taken very lightly. >>>
It strikes us that some of these people are so consumed with hatred for President Bush that they have crossed the line into reflexive anti-Americanism. As a prominent politician once said:
There is nothing patriotic about hating your country, or
pretending that you can love your country but despise
your government. There is nothing heroic about turning
your back on America, or ignoring your own responsibilities.
The speaker: Bill Clinton, May 5, 1995.
opinionjournal.com
abcnews.go.com
weeklystandard.com
tigerhawk.blogspot.com
americablog.blogspot.com
dailykos.com
juancole.com
boston.com
clintonfoundation.org |
