Hooray! Grey Lady Does Front Page Exposing Another Secret Operation
Posted on November 10, 2008
Simple wonderful. The Times has a story ripe with anonymous sources who discussed a secret operation allowing strikes against Al Qaeda in countries around the world without permission by those countries, and includes all sorts of “no comments” by people who are named. Secret Order Lets U.S. Raid Al Qaeda in Many Countries
The United States military since 2004 has used broad, secret authority to carry out nearly a dozen previously undisclosed attacks against Al Qaeda and other militants in Syria, Pakistan and elsewhere, according to senior American officials.
These military raids, typically carried out by Special Operations forces, were authorized by a classified order that Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld signed in the spring of 2004 with the approval of President Bush, the officials said. The secret order gave the military new authority to attack the Qaeda terrorist network anywhere in the world, and a more sweeping mandate to conduct operations in countries not at war with the United States.
More than a half-dozen officials, including current and former military and intelligence officials as well as senior Bush administration policy makers, described details of the 2004 military order on the condition of anonymity because of its politically delicate nature. Spokesmen for the White House, the Defense Department and the military declined to comment.
Now, like the operation to shut down the flow of terrorist money that the New York Times exposed, this is one of those ops where you say “well, sure, that makes sense, I figured they had to be doing something like this, and I’m sure Al Qaeda was sure, too.” It’s common sense. But, was it really necessary for the Times to do this just for a story? Hell, FDR would have censored the Times, and, probably have tried the reporters for treason if they had done this under his watch. And, as the saying goes, the devil is in the details
Apart from the 2006 raid into Pakistan, the American officials refused to describe in detail what they said had been nearly a dozen previously undisclosed attacks, except to say they had been carried out in Syria, Pakistan and other countries. They made clear that there had been no raids into Iran using that authority, but they suggested that American forces had carried out reconnaissance missions in Iran using other classified directives.
Super! Now Iran has an idea that American forces have operated in Iran. Before, they certainly knew that agents, spies if you will, worked in Iran. Now they can keep a better eye on their borders and specifically look for American soldiers.
The 2004 order identifies 15 to 20 countries, including Syria, Pakistan, Yemen, Saudi Arabia and several other Persian Gulf states, where Qaeda militants were believed to be operating or to have sought sanctuary, a senior administration official said.
And now these countries have just been given specific intelligence of the operation, and can keep a stronger eye on potential incursions. The countries can file formal and informal protests with and against the United States. And real people, real Americans, can die from this article. Thanks, Grey Lady! The blood will be on your hands.
One thing to note in the story, and that is that the operations were not just “go get ‘em!” The Times does show that folks were careful at all levels, making serious considerations before the go code was given. And, the story shows that the program worked.
Crossed at Pirate’s Cove
» Filed Under Domestic Enemies, Foreign Policy, Iran, Journalistic Malpractice, Middle East, National Security, News, War On Terror
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11 Responses to “Hooray! Grey Lady Does Front Page Exposing Another Secret Operation”
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I question where some of this information came from. Didn’t Obama’s people just meet with Bush on sensitive issues like this? If those [edited] leaked this, it’s just a testiment to what’s in store for the next 4 years.
Can conservatives actually do something besides moan on blogs? We have power thru our money. We need to get conservatives fired up to boycott New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago. We need to support the Investor’s Business Daily or Wall Street Journal. We need to boycott sponsors of ABC,CBS, NBC news, Jay Leno. How about “creepy” Newsweek? Arnold movies should be a thing of the past.We have power to change the game with our money! Are we willing to make even these changes to help our country? Let’s get going.
Why are this people not in jail.bankrupt GE NBC lease holder.This people will get billons in bailout money for pimping for the dnc and the bho.and sell there china made toxic light bulbs for 8.00.how many jobs has GE (nbc) sent offshore same for the ny slimes america
if busch had any balls he would arrest the editor and all reporters involved until they told who gave them the information.that will not happen since treason is no longer punished.i don,t watch any maine stream media or read their crappy news papers if more of us did tat we could put them out of business.
Well, I wake up and read this article today and I think several thoughts…40 million babies aborted since the dems pushed that through, with a disproportionate number in black communities, Gov Schwarzeneger gets 6 billion in state funded stem cell research enacted and yet and we here in Ca are 11 billion short on our budget and he wants to raise taxes to pay for it all…people are upset because we do not have legalized unseemly male on male “activity” sanctioned by calling it marriage…all the while unbelievably brave and skilled men are defending this country against all odds. Did Clinton do this? Will Obama defend this country like this? Did this article do anything but hurt this county? Do the individuals mentioned in this article who authorized this push back on these pigs in Al Qaeda get any praise for for defending the many of us with so few? Bush said after 9/11 that we would attack on all fronts in all ways, some big and for all to see and some hidden for no one to see. What was the need for this article other than to feed the ego of these 2 “writers”. In a time of war, I think this is treason with out a doubt. In my mind we as a people have been taking hit after hit since 1970. Reagan pushed back a little, actually probably as much as he could given the time in history, but Reagan doing what he did with our military paved the way for the technology that this nation used to do what was described in this article. I want that video of that attack!!! Kudos to him, kudos to the Bush admin for pushing back - as for these writers…I hope that the NY times goes under soon.
Why are these people not lined up and shot for treason?
I no longer watch the ABC, NBC, CBS news bull. I only watch Fox News and look up articles on websites like this so their advertisers get less money since I don’t look at NYTimes.com.
I will be canceling my local paper since they endorsed John Murtha, even AFTER he called this area “racist,” oh, I’m sorry “redneck.”
“Why are these people not lined up and shot for treason?”
Mack,
I guarantee that after the coming terror attack, they will all be lined up and shot at the insistence of the public. The next attack will be either nuclear or bio-chemical and it will be devastating. We had Bush to restore the nation’s economy after 9-11. Imagine something 100 times worse than 9-11 with Obama in the White House?
Once we have really been hit, those who were always on the side of the terrorists (the Democrat Party, the main stream media, hollywood, etc) will find themselves in mortal peril.
PS: Obama is planning to read every terror detainee their Miranda rights, and ultimately probably release most of them. When they help to engineer the next huge attack, can we question Democrat Party patriotism then? Then can we use the word “treason”?
Louis? The Times reported the story this am. Or, should I say, exposed a mega-secret program this morning. Once they did that, all the other media started following up.
Nice try, though.
I don’t quite see your point. I think it’s unfair for you to single out only the New York Times; Just because they were the first doesn’t mean they’re the only ones. Should we line up all the people who work for every other news organization which did a story on this against a wall and execute them as well, as some obviously insane people on here have suggested should happen? Since the other media outlets are reporting this- and by your logic they should know full well not to, even though it’s their journalistic duty to report on it, since it goes against international law- shouldn’t they share in the blame for the story getting out also? They all have their respective audiences, after all. And by the way, there was absolutely no mention of the NYT in the report I saw.
I’ll give you some props for not calling me some crazy leftist liberal moonbat though, as it seems is the custom on this site.