They’re going to say all sorts of things, and some of them might even be true
By Thoreau
As I understand, it’s being said by some (for reasons of fact and/or convenience) that Al Qaeda is behind the attack on Benazir Bhutto. Now, normally I’d be the first to remind everybody that Al Qaeda is just a name of convenience that the authorities attach to any group of 2 or more angry Muslims with explosives (or even just a few Haitians with a vague plan that might at some point involve explosives). However, in this case, it’s at least plausible that the connection might be real. Given the known relationships between Bin Laden’s organization, the Taliban, Pashtun militants, Pakistani intelligence, and various other factions, it’s entirely possible that some of the people involved in this attack really will turn out to be linked to Al Qaeda.
So we should be careful here, lest we deny things that turn out to be true.
However, what of those links? One thing to keep in mind is that a real Al Qaeda link would be (1) very convenient for people in Pakistan and elsewhere (read that however you like) and (2) probably quite feasible for somebody in Pakistan (or somebody elsewhere with friends and clients in Pakistan) to orchestrate, given the relationships between Al Qaeda and other shadowy factions in Pakistan.
Even if Al Qaeda was indeed involved, lots of other people could also be involved. Pakistan is a complicated place that way.
Comment by foolishmortal —
December 28, 2007 @ 4:54 am
Shorter OP: None of us knows a damn thing.
Comment by wade —
December 28, 2007 @ 7:00 am
As long as we’ve got a carefully thought out and meticulously prepared for plan B covering what to do if Pakistan goes into a full blown civil war, including plans to render unusable Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal, then i’m sure everything will be fine, for us. What could possible go wrong?
Comment by Dave Woycechowsky —
December 28, 2007 @ 7:36 am
or even just a few Haitians with a vague plan that might at some point involve explosives
No, that was the US government that conceived and set into motion that plan. They just wanted it to look like AQ. Not that that necessarily has any application in the case of Ms. Bhutto’s assasination.
Comment by Barry —
December 28, 2007 @ 8:44 am
Heck, if anybody in the government of Pakistan, or Musharreff’s (sp) party was involved, then there were ties to both the Taliban and Al Qaida, since the government was backing them (and almost certainly still is).
Comment by Doug —
December 28, 2007 @ 10:03 am
Dave,
Still of your chump, eh?
Comment by Doug —
December 28, 2007 @ 10:04 am
er…off
Comment by Dave Woycechowsky —
December 28, 2007 @ 10:11 am
My understanding, Doug, was that the US government agents told the Haitians that they were AQ, and that they wanted a building blown up, and that they wanted a picture to help get the building blown up and that they had the Haitians swear an AQ oath and then gave them a camera to take the picture.
My interpretation of these facts is that US government agents pretended to be AQ and set into motion a plan to blow up a building.
Are my facts wrong, or just my interpretation?
Comment by Doug —
December 28, 2007 @ 6:25 pm
Yes.
Comment by roger —
December 30, 2007 @ 12:51 pm
Pakistan is a complicated country. So it might not have been a good idea for the U.S., in December, 2001, to give Osama bin Laden a pass to go there – including, conveniently,not even guarding the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan – on the theory he was an easy pickup later for a good old 2004 October surprise, plus – extra points! – a terrorist on tap to keep money pumping into the Pentagon machine and to provide an all around excuse to invade countries. It might turn out that was a bad idea. It might turn out that OBL fit into Pakistan like a plug and play software feature. It might turn out that of the 3 to 4 trillion American’s spent on the GWOT, which did remove the terror that stalked the American Defense industry – yikes! lower profits! – maybe some of it should have gone to actually doing something about the handful of terrorists who the U.S. actually needed to fight. I don’t know – seems to me that helping train the Taliban, making enough vids to remain popular in Pakistan, and pooling knowledge about how to blow up things real good has given OBL, Inc. a second wind. Sorta like Wii – not terribly sophisticated in comparison to its techno rivals, but, uh, somehow calmly surviving and thriving.
But now is not the time to ask questions – now is the time to figure out a terror linking so we can give banks 3 or 4 trillion dollars so that they don’t get all pouty about betting their assets on pure shit and losing them. After all, what else is corpokleptocracy for?