Real World

This is rather interesting. Personally, I think this supports my position that we don't want Bin-Laden, and that we need to handle Pakistan with kit gloves. I think the issue here would be the public backlash (inside pakistan) at the Paki govt helping us tab UBL inside there borders. Such an event would probably result in mass riots, and even a coup. Now, you have to ask yourself what is more important, keeping Pakistan as an ally with a pro western government & not making a martyr out of UBL by letting him live, or zapping UBL, which would probably result in a coup in Pakistan, and would incite radicals accross the globe to terrorize the world.




Pakistan Denies Bin Laden Gets a Pass

September 06, 2006 6:20 AM

Brian Ross Reports:

The government of Pakistan today denied it would allow Osama bin Laden to avoid capture under terms of a peace agreement it signed with Taliban leaders in the country's North Waziristan area.

"If he is in Pakistan, today or any time later, he will be taken into custody and brought to justice," the Pakistani ambassador to the United States, Mahmud Ali Durrani, said in a statement.

The ambassador said a Pakistani military spokesman, Major General Shaukat Sultan, had been "grossly misquoted" when he told ABC News Tuesday that bin Laden would not be taken into custody "as long as one is being like a peaceful citizen." The comments were recorded in a telephone interview with ABC News.

Q. ABC News: If bin Laden or Zawahiri were there, they could stay?

A. Gen. Sultan: No one of that kind can stay. If someone is there he will have to surrender, he will have to live like a good citizen, his whereabouts, exit travel would be known to the authorities.<p>

Q. ABC News: So, he wouldn't be taken into custody? He would stay there?<p>

A. Gen. Sultan: No, as long as one is staying like a peaceful citizen, one would not be taken into custody. One has to stay like a peaceful citizen and not allowed to participate in any kind of terrorist activity.

General Sultan said today it was "hair splitting" to speculate whether troops would be sent in if bin Laden was found in North Waziristan.

"If someone is found there, we will see what is to be done," General Sultan said today. "Pakistan is committed to the war on terror, and of course we will go after any terrorist found to be operating here," he said.

Under the terms of the peace agreement, the Pakistani Army promised to cease action in the area and to return captured Taliban weapons and soldiers.

Former White House counter-terrorism czar Richard Clarke, an ABC News consultant, said "What this means is that the Taliban and al Queida leadership have effectively carved out a sanctuary inside Pakistan."

General Sultan said today he "rejected" the idea that Pakistan had created a safe haven for terrorists.

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"The most difficult subjects can be explained to the most slow-witted man if he has not formed any idea of them already; but the simplest thing cannot be made clear to the most intelligent man if he is firmly persuaded that he knows already, without a shadow of doubt, what is laid before him."
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patsfan13

Since the Pakistani gov is ceding control of the area to the Taliban. I wonder if we could use the abscense of the Goverment in this region to do special ops to target OBL, Zawahiri and others.

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"Some guys play in all-star games, some guys don't. I don't know who picks all those all-star teams. In all honesty, I don't know who picks the combine, for that matter," Belichick said. "How does (Miami-Ohio offensive lineman Brandon) Brooks not get invited to the combine? How did Vollmer not get invited to the combine? I don't know. We can't really worry about that. We just have to try to evaluate them the best we can."

Real World

I think that already goes on. I think the issue is obviously a delicate one. My position has been that we don't want UBL. Maybe Zawahiri, maybe, but not UBL. I think we'd rather he die naturally. His death or capture at the hands of the Americans would do more to hurt TWAT, than to help it. What they seem to be doing is targeting the hierarchy as opposed to the face. This way they reduce both the capabilities and efficiency of the regime. while not pissing off too many of the radical populace.

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"The most difficult subjects can be explained to the most slow-witted man if he has not formed any idea of them already; but the simplest thing cannot be made clear to the most intelligent man if he is firmly persuaded that he knows already, without a shadow of doubt, what is laid before him."
Leo Tolstoy, 1897