The Times of London keeps hope alive - Bush leads a lying, incompetent Administration that can't win the war on terror. Specifically, they dig up some Euro intelligence agents to deride the recent capture of al-Libbi in Pakistan:
THE capture of a supposed Al-Qaeda kingpin by Pakistani agents last week was hailed by President George W Bush as “a critical victory in the war on terror”. According to European intelligence experts, however, Abu Faraj al-Libbi was not the terrorists’ third in command, as claimed, but a middle-ranker derided by one source as “among the flotsam and jetsam” of the organisation.
Well, as we noted in an earlier post, the Pakistanis promoted him to Number Three last year, and no one squawked at the time. And the NY Times kicked the stories of the "terrorist inflation" theme, as we excerpted.
But let's add this - the Council On Foreign Relations has taken up the same issue:
"Abu Faraj al-Libbi's one of the hardcore al Qaeda members," Bruce Hoffman, acting director of the RAND Center for Middle East Public Policy, told the Christian Science Monitor May 5. "He's not as well known to Americans as many of the 9/11-era al Qaeda members, but … he has become an increasingly important player--stepping into the role vacated by [Mohammed]," Hoffman said.
The WaPo also tackled this.
Now, I can imagine why some Euros would prefer to denigrate the significance of this capture (and if they ever capture anyone, we will be sure to applaud politely).
And I can imagine why the Pakistanis and the Administration would prefer to hype this capture.
But I am a little more puzzled as to why the Pakistanis would inflate al-Libbi's significance at least seven months before actually capturing him - per the Daily Telegraph, he was being described as the Number Three last September.
Well. Hosannas and other reaction at Memeorandum.
[A] middle-ranker derided by one source as “among the flotsam and jetsam” of the organisation.
Well, nobody ever said the Peter Principle doesn't apply to terrorist organizations. The guy's a long time bin Laden confidant who apparently got promoted when more qualified people got captured, right?
Posted by: Crank | May 09, 2005 at 11:05 AM
Call this one arena where we applaud the Peter Principle! Thanks Crank.
Posted by: Forbes | May 09, 2005 at 11:26 AM
There was a multi-million dollar reward at stake. As usual, "follow the money"
Posted by: Pablo | May 10, 2005 at 02:24 PM
So now we must resort to 2nd and 3rd tier terrorists as new captives.
Perhaps we could get some of the International Answer folks to host a party of up and coming terrorists so the American people and check 'em out. An "American Idol" for terrorists perhaps, or just a few cocktail parties to allow them to get better name recognition.
It seems pretty obvious that this al-Libbi guy just hasn't had enough "face time" with the European terror experts. Sort of gives you the feeling that he hasn't gotten his Terrorists Express membership card yet either.
Posted by: Neo | May 11, 2005 at 12:03 AM