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  •  That's Very Good (none / 1)

    And thanks for the reminder, I think there are several of these characters we've "caught" several different times, only to find they're still at large.

    People were questioning whether this was the right guy as early as Thursday, as this NY Times story shows:

    [S]ome intelligence officials in Europe expressed surprise at hearing Mr. Libbi described as Al Qaeda's third-highest leader, pointing out that he does not figure on the F.B.I.'s most-wanted list.

    There is another Qaeda operative on the list with a similar name, Abu al-Liby, also a Libyan, who was indicted for an "operational role" in the bombings of two American embassies in East Africa in August 1998. (The surname, in its various transliterations, means simply the Libyan.)

    Our miilitary obviously is in desperate need of a crash course in Arab nomenclature.

    As to why they trumpted this capture so loudly, I think it's simply a case of so many things were going bad, they wanted to believe something had finally gone right and bragged about bagging this huge catch before ascertaining that he was indeed who they think he is.  Given that he probably isn't who they think he is, expect this to quietly be forgotten.

    "L'enfer, c'est les autres." - Jean Paul Sartre, Huis Clos

    "L'enfer, c'est le GOP!" - JJB, from an idea by oratorio

    by JJB on Sun May 08, 2005 at 05:46:12 AM PDT

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    •  arabic nomenclature problems (4.00 / 2)

      I wonder if the government hadn't fired a number of Arabic language specialists for being gay if things would be a little better in this regard?

      I think there are more than language problems here though and I can't see how it can be resolved. How on earth is anybody going to know that they have the right guy when somebody is turned in? There are language issues, cultural issues, and issues of mistrust.  

      by mimi9 on Sun May 08, 2005 at 09:37:20 AM PDT

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