On February 13, 2008, “The U.S. Senate, in a 51 to 45 vote, approves a bill restricting the CIA to only those interrogation techniques explicitly authorized by the 2006 Army Field Manual. The legislation would bar the CIA from using waterboarding, sensory deprivation, or other coercive methods to break a prisoner who refuses to answer […]
2/11/2008
While being held at Guantanamo, “On February 11, 2008, [alleged 20th hijacker Mohammed] al-Qahtani was charged with war crimes and murder by the Office of Military Commissions. He would face the death penalty if convicted. Three months later, the charges against him were dropped. His attorney, Gitanjali Gutierrez of the Center for Constitutional Rights, described […]
2/10/2008
” ‘In my opinion the jihadi threat from Pakistan is the biggest emerging threat we are facing in Europe,’ said Baltasar Garzón, Spain’s leading antiterrorism judge [in a New York Times article on February 10, 2008]. ‘Pakistan is an ideological and training hotbed for jihadists, and they are being exported here.’ ” – Ahmed Rashid, […]
2/10/2008
When Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) was interviewed on Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer on February 10, 2008, regarding the surge of troops in Iraq, “she said, ‘There haven’t been gains, Wolf. The gains have not produced the desired effect, which is the reconciliation of Iraq. This is a failure. This is a […]
2/8/2008
“The Army has drafted a new operations manual that elevates the mission of stabilizing war-torn nations, making it equal in importance to defeating adversaries on the battlefield. …’Army doctrine now equally weights tasks dealing with the population–stability or civil support–with those related to offensive and defensive operations,’ the manual states. ‘Winning battles and engagements is […]
2/8/2008
“At a checkpoint just south of Fallujah [Iraq], Nadim Kaffi, a 44-year-old Awakening [counterinsurgency] member, said al-Qaeda in Iraq was not nearly as close to the people as the Awakening councils. ‘Al-Qaeda is almost done and finished. It no longer scares anyone,’ he said. ‘It is like an old man on the verge of his […]
2/1/2008
On February 1, 2008, “the number three man in the al Qaeda hierarchy, Abu Laith al-Libi…was killed in a missile strike on a tribesman’s house near Mir Ali, in North Waziristan [Pakistan]. At least seven other Arabs died with him. Libi, who had been a leader of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, was a key […]
1/30/2008
According to a January 30, 2008, article on the British website The Register: “By 2007, over two hundred domestic extremist groups, and some two thousand individuals, were being investigated by MI5 [the U.K.’s counter-intelligence and security agency].” – James Bamford, The Shadow Factory, Page 220 […]
1/28/2008
“…Congress in January 2008 established the Commission on Wartime Contracting [signed by President Bush on January 28, 2008], as part of the National Defense Authorization Act. The commission was asked ‘to study, assess and make recommendations concerning wartime contracting for the reconstruction, logistical support, and the performance of security functions in Iraq and Afghanistan.’ The […]
1/23/2008
“Dell Dailey, the State Department’s counterterrorism chief, said the U.S. [Bush] administration was displeased with ‘the gaps in intelligence’ it was receiving from Pakistan. ‘We don’t have enough information about what’s going on there. Not on al Qaeda. Not on foreign fighters. Not on the Taliban,’ Dailey said in January [23] 2008.” – Ahmed Rashid, […]