U.S. believes it can now destroy al Qaeda

[Frank Fire]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States will aim to destroy al Qaeda's central organization now that its leader Osama bin Laden has been killed and its capabilities degraded by U.S. operations, a top White House adviser said on Tuesday.

Since the 2001 attacks on New York and Washington, al Qaeda has spawned affiliated groups in the Middle East and North Africa and inspired attacks by so-called home-grown militants in Europe and the United States.

But White House counterterrorism chief John Brennan said bin Laden's death was the latest in a series of U.S. operations that have delivered "severe body blows" to al Qaeda's central network in Pakistan and Afghanistan over the past year.

"We're going to try to take advantage of this opportunity we have now with the death of al Qaeda's leader, bin Laden, to ensure that we're able to destroy that organization," Brennan told NBC's Today show. "We're determined to do so and we believe we can."

"We believe that we have damaged the organization, degraded its capability and made it much more difficult for it to operate inside of Pakistan as well as beyond."

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry said in an MSNBC interview on Monday that U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas had killed as many as 17 senior al Qaeda leaders before bin Laden's death.

Brennan spoke a day after world leaders and security experts urged increased vigilance against possible retaliatory strikes by al Qaeda.

CIA director Leon Panetta warned on Monday that bin Laden's death would "almost certainly" prompt his Islamist supporters to attempt some sort of retaliation.

But Brennan said U.S. officials were aware of no specific threat, nearly 48 hours after bin Laden's death.

"But what we're doing is, we're taking all those prudent measures that we need to whenever there's an incident of significance like this," Brennan said in a separate interview on ABC's "Good Morning America."

"Right now, I think we feel pretty confident that we are at the right posture."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110503...zZWMDeW5fdG9wX3N0b3J5BHNsawN1c2JlbGlldmVzaXQ-

 

[Hot Mega]

Me too.:2 cents:

 

[D-rock]

Hasn't Al Qaeda basically been just a name and a rallying point for years now and not so much a organization that functioned well? I don't think it will get too much more destroyed than it was already.

 

[Rey C.]

Being a political terrorist is so 2001. Everybody knows that the best kind of terrorism for 2011 and beyond is narco-terrorism. If I was going to become a terrorist, I'd join the Zetas, not Al Qaeda. You get to drive cool (stolen American) cars, get the prettiest girls (that you can kidnap), nobody is going to ask you to strap a bomb to your body (you strap bombs to other people's bodies!) and you don't even have to abstain from eating pork (and I like pork!). Plus, you can still have a say in how a government runs and there's not much chance that the Gringos will send planes or special ops to blow your ass up... no matter whether it's a Democrat or a Republican in the White House. Shit, you're golden.

 

[Facetious]

Re: U.S. believes it can now destroy al Qaeda

Is this more bidding on the part of the obama admin to win a second term in office? :1orglaugh

Well, as long as it's Brennan doing the talking, I'll be cautiously optimistic about our ability to 'destroy' al Qaeda . . .




. . . the big question is, what terrorist entity will fill the gap (?)
Is al Qaeda really the head of the snake?

 

[HeartBroker]

Destroy al Qaeda ?

That's been the plan from day one.

Is it easier now that the CEO is toast?

Who knows?

Keep killing them and 20 or more years now we'll see if they've been stomped out or not.

 

[Lt. Dangle]

It would be great to get rid of them for good, but there's always going to be some dickheads who replace them, less organized probably, but they'll be there, trying to compromise our freedom.

 

[D-rock]

Is al Qaeda really the head of the snake?

It might be more accurate to say that it's one of the many heads of a hydra. Evil always seems to come back and overcoming it for good is very hard both from ourselves and our enemies.

 

[Johan]

Destroy Al-Qaeda, what a joke !
This is one more clue to make me say the US intellengy know nothing about Salafist terrorism : Al-Qaeda's an hydra, when you rip on of its heads, 3 more appears. Bin Landen's dead but his death will create hundreds of new terrorists who will seek revenge for their former leader.

 

[vodkazvictim]

Al Qaeda's already pretty much dead. When was the last time they pulled anything big off?
Infidel boots are on Moslem soil right now, AQ have no retort on the same scale and haven't since 9/11

 

[Hot Mega]

Destroy Al-Qaeda, what a joke !
This is one more clue to make me say the US intellengy know nothing about Salafist terrorism : Al-Qaeda's an hydra, when you rip on of its heads, 3 more appears. Bin Landen's dead but his death will create hundreds of new terrorists who will seek revenge for their former leader.

It doesn't matter who replaces OBL or whether his death ends anything. HE needed to be brought to justice and those in league with him too. If some other criminal syndicate arises in AQ's stead...we'll just have to deal with them too. Good thing is we'll be better prepared now.

We're not trying to stop these clowns from hating the US per se. We are trying to keep them from organizing mass murders.

At some point if they keep getting whacked and their plans become more and more difficult to undertake...they'll go somewhere and lay down. If not, we'll just have to keep busting caps in their noggins and dropping Hellfires on them.:dunno:

 

[PJpenny]

this is one massive organizition that will never be destroyed for good. we cut the snakes head off by killing Bin Laden, but all that willl happen is that a new snake will take over as the leader in time, and the new leader will be planning attacks right away. Our intellegence is some of the best esp. when teamed up with other countries intel, so no one in the world can slack on that if the Al-Queda people are going to be stopped and killed some more

 

[Hot Mega]

this is one massive organizition that will never be destroyed for good. we cut the snakes head off by killing Bin Laden, but all that willl happen is that a new snake will take over as the leader in time, and the new leader will be planning attacks right away. Our intellegence is some of the best esp. when teamed up with other countries intel, so no one in the world can slack on that if the Al-Queda people are going to be stopped and killed some more

Except, knocking OBL's dick in the dirt...or sea as it were isn't the same as mowing down legions of doped up jihadis.

Taking out OBL and presumably confiscating intel he had on him will lead to us knocking off more of their leadership pretty quickly here.

The good thing is apparently there was no sophisticated communications coming in or out of the compound so OBL wouldn't have been able to get word out to others. Hopefully that gives us the jump..

 

[Danglyparts]

can we do it? "yes we can!"

 

[Jon S.]

This is such an oversimplification. al Qaeda can not be destroyed because it really isn't an orginization....it's a mindset! Just like the mob and mob bosses.....you can take one family down or a mob boss down....but there is always going to be someone there to take their place. al Qaeda....or that mindset is based in a deep rooted hatred of Israel and anyone who supports them! How is taking one "organization" down going to do anything to deal with the root problem.....namely the deep rooted mindset? It isn't! Like I said....a great oversimplification indeed!