Media Update

My piece in today's Washington Post comparing the 1885-1886 Geronimo Campaign and the hunt for bin Laden is online. 

Also, for those who missed my interview with the CBC's "Day 6" show, it is available online here. Their producer did a really incredible job with the pre-interview.  It sounds as if the host has already read my book, and he (and some good editing) were able to carry the interview through some parts where my inexperience left me less than coherent.

Top Fives

The "Top Five" list is an old gimmick, but it works.

Herein, Peter Bergen's "Five Myths about Osama bin Laden."  Bergen is the most authoritative voice on bin Laden, but I think he's guilty of one simplification.  He is right that President Bush used the "they hate us for our freedoms" trope quite frequently, but nobody ever acknowledges that it didn't originate with Bush.  Actually, on August 20, 1998, while addressing the nation on the missile strikes that initiated the 13-year hunt for bin Laden, President Clinton said:

Our target was terror, our mission was clear -- to strike at the network of radical groups affiliated with and funded by Osama bin Laden. . . . They have made the United States their adversary precisely because of what we stand for and what we stand against. . . . And so this morning, based on the unanimous recommendation of my national security team, I ordered our armed forces to take action to counter an imminent threat from the bin Laden network.

 In other words, "war on a noun," the idea that al-Qaeda hated us for our values, and the doctrine of pre-emption, all themes for which George W. Bush was mocked, were also found in the preceding administration's vernacular.

Also today, Hampton Sides is in the Wall Street Journal's excellent book section, listing the "Five Best: Manhunt Tales" (non-forthcoming category, no doubt).  Hampton's "Hellhound on His Trail"-- about the search for James Earl Ray after the Martin Luther King assassination -- get great reviews, and is actually about number three or four on my "To Read" list.  When I've read his book I'll come up with a comparable list of my own.

Awlaki Targeted Thursday

If the Wall Street Journal's account is correct, we got close enough to Anwar al-Awlaki in Yemen to fire missiles at him twice in 45 minutes.  All the news accounts of Thursday's attack say it was not related to any intelligence gleaned from Osama bin Laden's computers.

Catch Me on CBC Radio on Saturday

If you are in Canada and want to hear me discussing "Wanted Dead or Alive" and the Abbottabad Raid that killed Osama bin Laden, I'll be on CBC Radio tomorrow (Saturday the 7th) at 8AM and 7PM (EST, I assume).

Alternatively, if you are in the State and have Sirius Radio, the CBC is available on channel159.

Leaders in the Next Round of the War Against al-Qa'ida

A good summary of the candidates to succeed Osama bin Laden (and thereby become an even more prominent target than they already are) by Bill Roggio over at The Long War Journal.

Fortunately, in America's corner, we have Admiral William McRaven.  Although the Washington Post doesn't mention it for some reason, Adm. McRaven also commanded Task Force 121 when it captured Saddam Hussein in December 2003.  Not a bad resume:

• Killed Osama bin Laden
• Captured Saddam Hussein

As a March 2004 Newsweek profile of McRaven noted:  “Bill is reputed to be the smartest SEAL that ever lived,” says a former commander who knows McRaven well.  “He is physically tough, compassionate and can drive a knife through your ribs in a nanosecond.”

Today in Manhunting History -- May 6, 1998: A Plan to Capture Bin Laden

As early as 1997 the CIA had developed a plan for a group of Afghan tribal elements to capture Osama bin Laden and hand him over for trial either in the United States or in an Arab country.  By the spring of 1998, this plan centered on a propopsed raid on Tarnak Farms, bin Laden's compound on the outskirts of Kandahar comprising about 80 concrete or mud-brick buildings surrounded by a ten-foot high wall.  One team of Afghans would enter the compound through a drainage ditch that ran under the fence while another team would sneak through the front gate, using silenced pistols to eliminate the guards.  When they found bin Laden, they would hold him a provisioned cave thirty miles away until the Americans could take cusotdy. 

In a May 6, 1998, cable to CIA headquarters, the Islamabad station chief, Gary Schroen (who after 9/11 would led the first CIA paramilitary team, a.k.a. "Jawbreaker," into Afghanistan) declared the Afghans’ planning “almost as professional and detailed . . . as would be done by any U.S. military special operations element.”  He and the other officers who had worked through the plan with the Afghans judged it “about as good as can be.”

(Years later, Schroen told the 9/11 Commission he meant that the chance of capturing or killing bin Laden was about 40 percent). 

Who Opposed Killing Bin Laden?

As the Weekly Standard asks, just who the heck are the other 14 percent?

Apparently, the Dalai Lama was cool with it.

UPDATED: Apparently, the Dalai Lama link didn't work before.  Sorry, I'm still relatively new at this blogging thing.  It is good now.