Meanwhile, On Another Front

This is what I was talking about in my previous post on the stupidity of closing down the unit tasked with finding Osama been Forgotten.

New York Daily News - Home - Daily News Exclusive: Bin Laden clout on rise?: "Bin Laden has issued five audiotapes since he ended a 14-month silence in January. His deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri has released eight audio- or video-taped anti-Western speeches this year.

Few believe anymore that Al Qaeda tapes signal terror cells to strike, or otherwise foreshadow an impending attack.

But the messages do suggest Al Qaeda leaders are probably able to communicate as easily with henchmen plotting attacks as they are with operatives putting the tapes on the Internet, according to Scheuer and Peter Bergen, two of the foremost American experts on Bin Laden.

'It shows they're extremely unconcerned about releasing them' as a risk to their own security, said Bergen, author of 'The Osama Bin Laden I Know' and one of the first Western journalists to interview the Al Qaeda founder in 1997.

'The heat is not on,' Bergen said.

Al Qaeda's media wing, As Sahab ('The Cloud'), has posted recent tapes directly on Web sites instead of sending them to Arab TV channels to selectively edit. Plus, Bergen said, 'It's hard for the CIA to watch every Internet cafe in Pakistan.'"

Do we have the most incompetent, inept administration in the history of the United States? Is there any other way that they can find to drop the ball? From Iraq to Katrina they have been clueless as to circumstances and consequences. Playing parlor games with Iran while ignoring Korea into a display of substance, reeks of arrogance and an inability to see more than one danger at a time. Thinking that Osama has little or no influence can be fatal.

Hopefully America will not pay too high a price for such a glaring disconnect from reality.

Tags: Osama bin Laden, al Qaeda, Iraq, Katrina, Korea, Scheuer, Bergen