Bell Curve The Law Talking Guy Raised by Republicans U.S. West
Well, he's kind of had it in for me ever since I accidentally ran over his dog. Actually, replace "accidentally" with "repeatedly," and replace "dog" with "son."

Wednesday, September 05, 2007

Meanwhile back in Pakistan...

Arrests in Germany this week point to Pakistan, rather than Iraq (again), as the main center of Al Qaeda training and planning. Three men, two German converts and a Turk, were arrested in Germany supposedly just before they launched a bomb attack on a US Air Force base in Ramstein, Germany. Check out the story here.

I think this will be good for Obama. He was recently dragged over the coals for suggesting that the US hunt for Al Qaeda leaders should not be overly concerned about the sovereignty claims of Pakistani leaders. His argument was that since we are pretty sure that Bin Ladin and other Al Qaeda big shots are in Pakistan, we should just go in a get them and stop letting the Pakistani government protect them.

Bush will also take this opportunity to crow about "the terrist threat" etc. He will of course not remind us that his argument in favor of the war in Iraq is that we are fighting them there so we don't have fight them here. Well, Germany's a long way from Iraq.

What do you all think?

PS: It's also worth noting, give our recent debate about the relevance of observed cultural differences, that two of the three arrested bomb plotters were ethnic German converts not Arabs. Granted, when dealing with individual actions it is best to rely on psychology rather than either political economy or anthropology.

1 comment:

Raised By Republicans said...

I've been trying to follow a series of stories in a Danish online paper called Politikken. See them here: http://politiken.dk/system/topicRoot/Terrorsag_i_K_benhavn/

There were also a number of arrests on Monday/Tuesday evening in Copenhagen. 8 men ranging in age from 19 to 29 were arrested after raids on 11 addresses. Of the 8, 2 were charged with violating a range of terrorism laws and are now in police costudy. The other 6 were released. Part of the laws being applied allows the Danish police to hold these men secretly for 27 days (13 in solitary confinement).

The news sources I've seen describe the two men being held as clean cut, well dressed men of "average Middle Eastern appearance."

All 8 were born outside of Denmark. 6 of the 8 are Danish citizens.

Danish police intelligence investigators say that they suspect connections with Al Qaeda in Pakistan.