Article

2003-10-30 India-Pakistan

Tribesmen take cash, count âblessingsâ from Al Qaeda

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Posted by tu3031 2003-10-30 10:50:06 AM|| || Front Page|| [2 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 Sounds like Waziristan needs some attention from Super Hose, metaphorically speaking. Sprinkling washwater around for a blessing. That's rich! There should also be a price to pay for harboring ~~the riff-raff rat club~~ mujahideen.

Posted by Alaska Paul 2003-10-30 11:14:04 AM|| 2003-10-30 11:14:04 AM|| Front Page Top

#2 'They have a huge quantity of arms and ammunition and are continuously buying arms from the market, where the weapons are readily available. That has resulted in prices shooting up," says a tribesman. "Prices of Kalashnikovs have risen almost 100 percent and a Russian bullet, known as Zahrilla [meaning âdeadlyâ], now costs 300 percent more."'

well at least somebody is discussing the price of kalishnikovs in (or near) Peshawar!!

Seriously, this is a difficult situation. OBL is surrounded by rings of defense - his 300 loyalists, then the local hired gunnies - all mixed in with a civilian population that includes lots of sympathizers - and the remainder too intimidated to inform for the Paki police - though from this it at least seems the Pakis are trying. You could go in and level the place - but the destruction of so many civilians would threaten the fragile Paki state. So instead you try a game of attrition - difficult, cause the baddies are killing anyone who collaborates with you - and the informants are your best asset. So you keep trying to build up an intel net anyway, and you kill baddies whenever you can find them, and you build roads to make the area more accesible. A long slog, as it were. Yet the noose tightens.

Posted by liberalhawk 2003-10-30 11:30:16 AM|| 2003-10-30 11:30:16 AM|| Front Page Top

#3 Uncle Sam is offering 1,450,000,000 rupees for Osama's washwater...

Posted by seafarious 2003-10-30 11:30:44 AM|| 2003-10-30 11:30:44 AM|| Front Page Top

#4 Where the hell is the CIA when you need them? These convoys beg for ambushing. Or, follow them and see what a few "errant" MOABs can do.

Posted by Spot 2003-10-30 11:43:31 AM|| 2003-10-30 11:43:31 AM|| Front Page Top

#5 Sounds like those bags of rice and supplies are just begging for a GPS to be thrown in with them...

Posted by CrazyFool 2003-10-30 11:54:29 AM|| 2003-10-30 11:54:29 AM|| Front Page Top

#6 If the market is awash in arms the price shouldn't be going up, it should be going down...

Posted by Yank 2003-10-30 12:10:48 PM|| 2003-10-30 12:10:48 PM|| Front Page Top

#7 "They have a huge quantity of arms and ammunition and are continuously buying arms from the market, where the weapons are readily available. That has resulted in prices shooting up," Evidently AQ's steady purchases are enough to drive the price up. THe huge quantity they HOLD is effectively off the market. The weapons may be "available" but evidently not in unlimited quantities at steady prices.

Posted by liberalhawk 2003-10-30 1:10:35 PM|| 2003-10-30 1:10:35 PM|| Front Page Top

#8 Unless of course this man is talking out of his ass to make Al-Q seem 'bigger'.

Posted by CrazyFool 2003-10-30 1:31:49 PM|| 2003-10-30 1:31:49 PM|| Front Page Top

#9 I wouldn't doubt the validity of this article. It's difficult to find ANYBODY in mountainous terrain. Time for some very SERIOUS reconnaissance, using heat-sensitive imaging systems. Problem is, the best ones we have operate too high to pick out individual people, and aren't designed to operate at low altitudes - what you get below say 25,000 feet is a huge smear.

Almost impossible to send anyone into those mountains, as the Russians learned. The people that live there would discover them in two minutes. There are only two ways to fight this crowd - the way we're doing, and by making it too expensive to aid Al Qaida. That requires bombing to dust anyone that shelters or helps them, and the village they came from. We just don't think that way, and that option's off the table.

Right now, we're building up a database, inch by inch, mountain by mountain. Within say two years, we'll know every bit of that territory almost as well as the natives, and will be able to see anything that's out of place. THEN we can target individual caves, hideouts, and gathering points. In the meantime, we keep doing what's worked so far, whacking the bad guys where and when we can, and trying to build up Afghanistan to where it can start whacking on its own. It won't be a rapid success - we may need to be there ten or twelve years. In the end, though, if we don't pull out and run, we'll win. There's no other option, and anyone that wants to furce the US to pull out should be hanged from a DC lamp post.

Posted by Old Patriot 2003-10-30 2:00:05 PM|| [http://users.codenet.net/mweather/default.htm] 2003-10-30 2:00:05 PM|| Front Page Top

#10 Osama may have been hiding in the disguise of a woodcutter on the mountains surrounding South Waziristan

What is this turning into: The Peshawar Chainsaw Massacare?

Posted by Mike 2003-10-30 2:52:52 PM|| 2003-10-30 2:52:52 PM|| Front Page Top

#11 O.P.,
Good Comment, and good points.

Posted by CrazyFool 2003-10-30 7:01:05 PM|| 2003-10-30 7:01:05 PM|| Front Page Top

#12 I'm provincial as hell.... but I'm still curious about the massive use of cooking oil in the ME, these folks absolutely seethe when the grease is decreased. What do they use it for? Is butter halfal? I mean where I live Wesson is not one of the first things you think of after a hurricane.

Posted by Shipman 2003-10-30 8:47:03 PM|| 2003-10-30 8:47:03 PM|| Front Page Top

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