Showing posts with label Guy Taylor. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Guy Taylor. Show all posts

Thursday, May 21, 2015

Oh, The Poor Terrorist...

May 21, 2015 Guy Taylor , Osama bin Laden 0 Comments
Osama bin Laden Was Frustrated, Isolated 

By Guy Taylor - The Washington Times - Wednesday, May 20, 2015

Al Qaeda mastermind Osama bin Laden spent his final years pleading with followers to stay focused on the goal of large-scale attacks against Americans, and avoid getting sucked into the regional wars and Muslim-on-Muslim violence that have come to define so much of the global jihadi narrative since his death.

While U.S. intelligence officials say the trove of bin Laden files declassified Wednesday represent only a fraction of what Navy SEALs retrieved from the terror leader’s Pakistan lair in 2011, the documents appear to show a terrorist leader so isolated in hiding that he was losing control of his flock.

Letters and memos show bin Laden pushing back against jihadi offshoots impatient to form an Islamic state and warning that small wars to topple governments in the Middle East would distract from the big-picture goal — striking the United States.

Read the full story: www.washingtontimes.com

Join us - become an Elderado today at: LarryElder.com

Follow Larry Elder on Twitter
"Like" Larry Elder on Facebook
By - No comments:
Labels: , ,

Monday, June 2, 2014

EXCLUSIVE: Pentagon Knew Bergdahl’s Whereabouts But Didn’t Risk Rescue For ‘Deserter’ --Not for "deserter"

June 02, 2014 Afghanistan , Guy Taylor 0 Comments
Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl
By Guy Taylor, Jun. 2, 2014, Washingtontimes.com

 The Pentagon on several occasions had ground-level intelligence on where Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl was being held captive at various times — down to how many gunmen were guarding him — but special operations commanders repeatedly shelved rescue missions because they didn’t want to risk casualties for a man they believed to be a “deserter,” sources familiar with the mission plans said.

 Commanders on the ground debated whether to pull the trigger on a rescue several times in recent years, according to one of the sources, a former high-level intelligence official in Afghanistan, who said the conclusion each time was that the prospect of losing highly trained troops was too high a price to pay for rescuing a soldier who walked away from his unit before being captured by the enemy.

 A second source told The Washington Times that the rescue operation plans were “high risk” and became even less attractive in recent months when officials in the Pentagon’s Joint Special Operations Command grew convinced that the Taliban and the militant Haqqani network, whose operatives were holding Sgt. Bergdahl, were eager to cut a deal for his release.

 “Joint Special Operations Command always had the rescue mission on the table and it was entirely under their ownership, but the big question centered on whether Bergdahl was somebody you risk lives for when you still have time and space to maneuver diplomatically,” said the source, a high-level congressional aide, who, like the former intelligence official, spoke only on the condition of anonymity.

 The aide also said there was frustration among some on Capitol Hill that the Obama administration had botched an opportunity to exert leverage over the Taliban, particularly since the U.S. military could have used force to secure Sgt. Bergdahl’s release.

 “The prisoner swap was being built up as the only option that was available. But there’s been knowledge of the general vicinity of where Bergdahl was, down to how many guys were guarding him,” said the aide.

 The catch, the aide added, is that special operations commanders and others at the Pentagon never sought approval for the rescue mission from the White House because they believed in the pursuit of a diplomatic deal.

 The aide said military officials in Afghanistan spent recent months pushing for a stronger deal than was ultimately struck, but were “superseded” by the White House and State Department. The aide would not comment on what the parameters of a “stronger” deal may have looked like, beyond saying they would have involved the Pakistani government.

 The former intelligence official who spoke with The Times corroborated that assertion but declined to offer further details, saying only that the deal turned out the way it did because “the administration wanted to close the door on this no matter what the price was.”

 Separately, the former official said, “Military commanders were loath to risk their people to save this guy. They were loath to pick him up and because of that hesitancy, we wind up trading five Taliban guys for him.

 “The mentality was, ‘We’re not going to lose more of our own guys on this,” the former official said.

 Both of the sources said military officials across the special operations community were appalled by the terms of the deal that ultimately got struck over the weekend between State Department-led negotiators and the Taliban, effectively securing Sgt. Bergdahl’s release from Haqqani network custody in exchange for the release of five former Taliban commanders from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

 U.S. Special Operations Command declined to comment on the revelations provided to The Times.

 But The Associated Press reported that after weeks of intensive searching for Sgt. Bergdahl in 2009 the military decided against making an extraordinary effort to rescue him, especially after it became clear that he initially was being held in Pakistan under the supervision of the Haqqani network, a Taliban ally with links to Pakistan’s intelligence service.

 Nonetheless, individual units pursued leads as they came in, according to the AP report, which cited an unidentified Pentagon official as saying: “I know for a fact that we lost soldiers looking for him.”

 Read the full story:  www.washingtontimes.com
Follow Larry Elder on Twitter
"Like" Larry Elder on Facebook
By - No comments:
Labels: , , , , , , ,