Al-Qaeda Bombmaker Wasted

UPDATE

CBS not to be outdone comes up with THIS headline:

“Pakistan: Airstrike Killed Terrorists But U.S. Attack Near Afghan Border Still Upset Pakistanis”

Sigh…

END UPDATE

Isn’t it funny how the MSM played up the “it was a family dinner the US bombed” in Pakistan but now have to concede that it was actually what we said it was all along? A meeting between high level Al-Qaeda members:

PESHAWAR, Pakistan – Pakistani intelligence agents hunted Wednesday for the graves of four al-Qaida militants believed killed in an airstrike near the Afghan border ? including one authorities suspect was a high-ranking al-Qaida figure.

ABC News reported that a master bomb maker and chemical weapons expert for al-Qaida was killed in the attack on the village of Damadola last week. He was identified as Midhat Mursi, also known as Abu Khabab al-Masri, who ran an al-Qaida training camp and has a $5 million reward on his head.

According to ABC, Pakistani officials also said two other terror network officials were killed: Khalid Habib, the al-Qaida operations chief for Pakistan and Afghanistan; and Abdul Rehman al Magrabi, a senior operations commander for the group.

[…]Sherpao said the government had not retrieved the bodies of any of the four foreign militants reported killed in the raid. He said the bodies may have been taken by a local pro-Taliban cleric, Maulana Faqir Mohammed, who also is being hunted by authorities.

[…]Intelligence officials say the dead foreigners could be aides of al-Zawahri, who is thought to have sent them in his place to an Islamic holiday dinner to which he’d been invited in Damadola on the night of the attack.

Hours after the attack, an Associated Press reporter visited the village, which consists of a half-dozen widely scattered houses on a hillside about four miles from the Afghan border.

Residents said then that all the dead were local people and no one had taken any bodies away. However, it appeared feasible bodies or wounded could have been spirited away in the darkness after the attack, which took place about 3 a.m.

Islamic custom dictates that bodies be buried as soon as possible, and the reporter saw 13 freshly filled graves with simple headstones and five empty graves alongside them ? apparently prepared for more dead. When the reporter returned the next day, the five empty graves were filled in, apparently because no more bodies had been found in the rubble.

[…]On Wednesday, more than 5,000 people marched through the Afghan border town of Spinboldak, chanting “Death to Pakistan” and “Death to al-Qaida” to protest a suicide attack at a fair this week that killed 21 people.

Afghan officials claim the bomber ? the latest in about 25 suicide attackers to strike in Afghanistan in the past four months ? trained in Pakistan. Islamabad denies giving sanctuary to terrorists.

The fact that the MSM would run their usual smear campaign against the Administration just proves their bias. They don’t have all the facts in but will air reports from those loyal to Al-Qaeda in the town where this bombing took place. Why? Because they WANT to believe the US is eeeeeviiiiilllll. God help us if some Korans got damaged during this bombing, how insensitive can we be?
The intelligence we have in Pakistan must be heads over heels better then even the Pakistani’s have since they had no idea who was in this house, as Ed Morrissey also stated:

Pakistan now admits that the dinner was instead a summit for al-Qaeda leadership, perhaps a planning session, demonstrating that American intel in the Damadola region may outstrip that of the Pakistanis themselves. Included in the dead were two other key AQ leaders: Khalid Habib, the al Qaeda operations chief for Pakistan and Afghanistan, and Abdul Rehman al Magrabi, a senior operations commander for al Qaeda. The purpose of the meeting was to plan for attacks on American positions in Afghanistan.

Which is a good thing. It proves our intelligence capabilities are improving and will continue to improve even more if the lefty’s finally get it through their pea-sized brains that most Americans WANT a better intelligence gathering organization, even if it means a few American traitors will be listened to when they phone Al-Qaeda.

The Counterterrorism Blog has some great intel on the bomb maker we wasted:

Since the late 1980s, Abu Khabab has served as a top military aide and deputy to Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri in Afghanistan. Mursi was responsible for co-managing Al-Qaida’s notorious Derunta military training complex near Jalalabad, where he maintained his own elite terrorist graduate school aptly named the “Abu Khabab Camp.”

In November 1995, Abu Khabab organized his first major terrorist plot in response to an international crackdown on the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, dispatching two suicide bombers from the Derunta training camp to target the Egyptian Embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan. The twin car bombs killed 17 people and wounded 59 others. In later memoirs regarding Abu Khabab’s 1995 operation, Ayman al-Zawahiri explained, “The basic objective was to attack the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad, but if that proved difficult to do, then to strike at any other U.S. target in Pakistan. However, following intensive and detailed surveillance, we discovered that bombing the U.S. Embassy was beyond our capability.”

Following his success in Islamabad, Abu Khabab teamed up with other veteran Al-Qaida commanders (including Abu Musab al-Suri, who was recently captured in Pakistan) to train a new generation of terrorist sleeper cells destined for targets in the Western world. One of these fresh recruits was Algerian Ahmed Ressam, who was later detained when he attempted to cross into the United States from Canada with a trunkload of explosives. Ressam told investigators that, while in Afghanistan, he was selected by Al-Qaida commanders for advanced technical training. In October 1998, Ressam traveled to Abu Khabab’s Derunta camp in order to learn more about electronics, chemicals, and how to build explosives. Ressam admitted to attending training courses at Derunta in crude chemical warfare (including cyanide experiments on dogs) and further claimed that the camp featured instruction on the specific use of poisons to assassinate prominent political leaders and intelligence agents. Ressam reported that his fellow Al-Qaida recruits enrolled at Derunta included French nationals, Italians, Germans, Swedes, and Britons of Jamaican origin.

So first we say that we killed some bigwigs. Then the MSM announces that no, we killed women and children. But now we know we DID kill some bigwigs. My question is, the guy we were really after, namely Zawahiri, could he have been in that house after all? Our intel was obviously very good so maybe Al-Qaeda is attempting to make us believe he is still alive, just like Osama.

What other’s had to say:

The Kellino Zone

This is indeed great news regarding the war on terror, assuming that you’re on the side of the free world.

Now any side can make mistakes by pre-judging information before all the facts are in. I’m not trying to say “I told you so” to the Kos Kids and their ilk. But the point is that we shouldn’t be quick to assume that the “villagers” were innocent. I explained this in more detail in a post yesterday

Sensible Mom

It is unfortunate if women and children killed (I’ll wait for evidence before believing it since the US is always accused of attacking wedding parties that aren’t).

The truth is that we killed Mursi and probably other terrorists. And the terrorists themselves deserve the brunt of the blame for putting their families in dangerous situations.

If the US is to avoid bombing the terrorists or expected to tread lightly around them for fear that a child may be present (and I believe we are very careful in those circumstances already), then terrorists will just use their own children as bullet-proof vests similar to the way they store their munitions in mosques and schools.

Boghie On Your Six

Millions well spent?

To those overspending Republicans in Congress a hearty Thank You?

Thank you for buying the 10 Hellfire missiles we needed to splat Midhat Mursi, al Qaeda?s Chemical Weapon Terror Turd.

And would President Clinton have pulled the trigger?

Red Satellites

As usual, you have to wait for the dust to settle. The US liberals and moonbats have screamed, the Pakistani Muslim extremists have howled….but in the end: It was damn well worth it.

Suhhhhh-weeet!

Sister Toldjah

Now lemme see ? will those who screamed it was ?Bush?s fault? when the news outlets were reporting that the missile strike killed a bunch of innocents based on ?wrong information? now give him credit for what appears to be several good catches? Nah ?.

Point Five

The ACLU and other organizations are questioning the use of ?blunt force trauma? on the part of the CIA, and suggesting that such treatment may constitute a violation of Mursi?s rights under several provisions ?which emanate from a penumbra? of the Geneva Conventions.

Curt

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