Saturday, May 07, 2005
Of Course, They Waited Until The Weekend To 'Fess Up To This
Remember how the Bush Junta trumpeted its capture last week of "the #3 man in Al-Qaeda"? And how he was going to lead us straight to Bin Laden? Actually, in a revelation that reeks of weekend news dumping, the dude in question is a lightweight:
Al-Libbi’s arrest in Pakistan, announced last Wednesday, was described in the United States as “a major breakthrough” in the hunt for Osama Bin Laden. Bush called him a “top general” and “a major facilitator and chief planner for the Al- Qaeda network”. Condoleezza Rice, secretary of state, said he was “a very important figure”. Yet the backslapping in Washington and Islamabad has astonished European terrorism experts, who point out that the Libyan was neither on the FBI’s most wanted list, nor on that of the State Department “rewards for justice” programme. [...] “Al-Libbi is just a ‘middle-level’ leader,” said Jean-Charles Brisard, a French intelligence investigator and leading expert on terrorism finance. “Pakistan and US authorities have completely overestimated his role and importance. He was never more than a regional facilitator between Al-Qaeda and local Pakistani Islamic groups.”Why am I not surprised?
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