July Surprise?

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A friend sent me this article link from the New Republic.

Pakistan for Bush - July Surprise? New Republic

I'm am quoting the comments that worry me in italic type.

PAKISTAN FOR BUSH.
July Surprise?
by John B. Judis, Spencer Ackerman & Massoud Ansari
Post date: 07.07.04
Issue date: 07.19.04

But The New Republic has learned that Pakistani security officials have been told they must produce HVTs by the election. According to one source in Pakistan's powerful Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), "The Pakistani government is really desperate and wants to flush out bin Laden and his associates after the latest pressures from the U.S. administration to deliver before the [upcoming] U.S. elections." Introducing target dates for Al Qaeda captures is a new twist in U.S.-Pakistani counterterrorism relations--according to a recently departed intelligence official, "no timetable[s]" were discussed in 2002 or 2003--but the November election is apparently bringing a new deadline pressure to the hunt. Another official, this one from the Pakistani Interior Ministry, which is responsible for internal security, explains, "The Musharraf government has a history of rescuing the Bush administration. They now want Musharraf to bail them out when they are facing hard times in the coming elections." (These sources insisted on remaining anonymous. Under Pakistan's Official Secrets Act, an official leaking information to the press can be imprisoned for up to ten years.)

A third source, an official who works under ISI's director, Lieutenant General Ehsan ul-Haq, informed tnr that the Pakistanis "have been told at every level that apprehension or killing of HVTs before [the] election is [an] absolute must." What's more, this source claims that Bush administration officials have told their Pakistani counterparts they have a date in mind for announcing this achievement: "The last ten days of July deadline has been given repeatedly by visitors to Islamabad and during [ul-Haq's] meetings in Washington."[/ Says McCormack: "I'm aware of no such comment." But according to this ISI official, a White House aide told ul-Haq last spring that "it would be best if the arrest or killing of [any] HVT were announced on twenty-six, twenty-seven, or twenty-eight July"--the first three days of the Democratic National Convention in Boston.

I am displeased to see any possible action re Al Queda as a matter of political contrivance, but the quote surely makes it seem a matter of action-timing on political demand.

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That story sounds just a little too juicy...besides even if bin Laden is captured or any of his top dudes, it isn't going to be an end to anything pertaining to the war.

It might give Bush a little boost for about 15 minutes but everyone knows that AQ is in several countries including the US.

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I think it would give the administration a big boost politically, but sure, I agree that things are more complicated in terms of dealing with terror behavior.

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Quote:

WASHINGTON - Indications are that al-Qaida leadership, not some lower level supporters acting on their own, are behind the suspicions of a large-scale terrorist attack against the United States ahead of the presidential elections, Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge told NBC News on Friday.

Source

The build up has begun. New terror threats that allow the administration to put Al Qaeda back in the headlines. Notice that the focus is on "Al Qaeda leaders"!

Yes folks the Bush administration will use everything and do anything in order to win. Of course the "liberal" media won't be asking why they haven't bothered to focus on them the last 2 years. Notice that they are still keeping OBL out of it, you recall the man Bush was going to bring in "Dead or alive".

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ossobuco:

I am sure what you have stated in your opener is only the tip of the iceberg...

Don't be too sure George w. really wants to get bin Laden. Politics and big business make strange bedfellows.

By the way, I love the veal dish Osso Buco.

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Yes, I agree with not being too sure on that. I am not sure the other way either, though: he might want to get him, if only for political points. I am not a GWBush fan, hey, I wasn't all that keen on GHWB either, but I am not completely positive that he wouldn't have genuine patriotic reasons too (as distinguished from political patriotic reasons), whatever my many doubts.
It's hard to know people's hearts, though one can conjecture.

Nimh started a new thread on this subject today, not seeing this one, and he is vastly superior to me in ability to carry on a political thread discussion - I'll be back with a link.

http://www.able2know.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=28418

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