April 19, 2010 — The U.S. military may have delivered the biggest blow in the war against Al-Qaeda in Iraq Monday with the killing of two of the Islamist militant group’s top commanders.

In route to White House Monday I received an e-mail saying Vice President Joe Biden would open the daily briefing with an announcement. 

Biden told a packed briefing room in the West Wing, “Iraqi security forces with the support of U.S. forces killed the two most senior leaders of al Qaeda Iraq during a series of joint security operations near Tikrit, Abu Ayyub al-Masri and Abu Umar al-Baghdadi.  The former leaders of AQI are the ones who plotted, planned, and executed terrorist attacks against the Iraqis in recent past, as well as against Americans.”

This announcement comes in the wake of an Iraqi panel investigating looking into the recent claims of fraud in last month’s parliamentary elections.  A manual recount has been ordered in all votes cast in Baghdad. 

But this along with the fact that elections have taken place and the Iraqi people have taken the lead is good news. 

The Obama administration is planning to pull combat troops from Iraq by August, and the  plan is still in place Biden confirmed in his remarks.  “We remain committed to end our combat mission in Iraq this summer, by the end of August 2010, and in accordance with the U.S.-Iraqi security agreement that was signed a couple of years ago to remove all U.S. forces from Iraq by the end of 2011.”

Today’s announcement was characterized by the White House as “potentially devastating blows to al Qaeda Iraq.”  The vice president gave credit to the work of the Iraqi security forces. “This action demonstrates the improved security strength and capacity of Iraqi security forces.”

“The Iraqis led this operation, and it was based on intelligence the Iraqi security forces themselves developed following their capture of a senior AQI leader last month,” Biden said.

General Raymond Odiemo, commander of the U.S. forces in Iraq told reporters, “The death of these terrorists is potentially the most significant blow to al-Qaeda in Iraq since the beginning of the insurgency.”

By Pamela Gentry, Senior Political Analyst

Jan. 6, 2009 – Following President Obama’s meeting with members of his national security team, intelligence team, homeland security and law enforcement agencies he told reporters . “We face a challenge of the utmost urgency,” and he has called for expanded security measure since the failed terrorist attack on Christmas Day.  

Taking full responsibility for getting to the bottom of the “screw up,” the president spoke of accountability while keeping focus on fixing identified problems. The president said since the failed attack on the flight from Amsterdam to Detroit he has ordered new screening and security for all flights, more explosive detection teams at airports; more air marshals on flights; and deepening cooperation with international partners.   

“I called these leaders to the White House because we face a challenge of the utmost urgency.  As we saw on Christmas, al Qaeda and its extremist allies will stop at nothing in their efforts to kill Americans.  And we are determined not only to thwart those plans, but to disrupt, dismantle and defeat their networks once and for all,” the president pronounced.

The reviews are just part of a more expansive plan of action the president noted.  He said there will be more announcements later this week. Here is an excerpt from his remarks:

“The bottom line is this:  The U.S. government had sufficient information to have uncovered this plot and potentially disrupt the Christmas Day attack.  But our intelligence community failed to connect those dots, which would have placed the suspect on the “no fly” list.

In other words, this was not a failure to collect intelligence; it was a failure to integrate and understand the intelligence that we already had.  The information was there.  Agencies and analysts who needed it had access to it.  And our professionals were trained to look for it and to bring it all together.

Now, I will accept that intelligence, by its nature, is imperfect, but it is increasingly clear that intelligence was not fully analyzed or fully leveraged.  That’s not acceptable, and I will not tolerate it.  Time and again, we’ve learned that quickly piecing together information and taking swift action is critical to staying one step ahead of a nimble adversary.
 
     So we have to do better — and we will do better.  And we have to do it quickly.  American lives are on the line.  So I made it clear today to my team:  I want our initial reviews completed this week.  I want specific recommendations for corrective actions to fix what went wrong.  I want those reforms implemented immediately, so that this doesn’t happen again and so we can prevent future attacks.  And I know that every member of my team that I met with today understands the urgency of getting this right.  And I appreciate that each of them took responsibility for the shortfalls within their own agencies.”

The president also wanted to reaffirm the recent attack would not change plans to close Guantanamo prison. “We will close Guantanamo prison, which has damaged our national security interests and become a tremendous recruiting tool for al Qaeda.  In fact, that was an explicit rationale for the formation of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.  And, as I’ve always said, we will do so — we will close the prison in a manner that keeps the American people safe and secure,” he said.

By Pamela Gentry, Senior Political Analyst

May 21, 2009 – President Obama laid out the reasoning and approach he deems necessary to close Guantanamo Bay prison while safeguarding America against terrorist threats and adhering to the fundamental values of our country. 

President Barack Obama addresses national security, terrorism, and closing of Guantanamo Bay prison.

“For the first time since 2002, we are providing the necessary resources and strategic direction to take the fight to the extremists who attacked us on 9/11 in Afghanistan and Pakistan,” Obama said. 

During his speech at the National Archives Museum, the president said, “I believe with every fiber of my being that in the long run we also cannot keep this country safe unless we enlist the power of our most fundamental values;” values he said the Bush administration overlooked. 

Since taking office, the president pointed to three steps he has already taken: banning so-called enhanced interrogation techniques, ordering the closing of the prison camp at Guantanamo Bay and ordering the review of all pending cases at Guantanamo.

Obama said, “I want to be honest: this is the toughest issue we will face. We are going to exhaust every avenue that we have to prosecute those at Guantanamo who pose a danger to our country. But even when this process is complete, there may be a number of people who cannot be prosecuted for past crimes, but who nonetheless pose a threat to the security of the United States.” 

He continued, “I am not going to release individuals who endanger the American people. Al Qaeda terrorists and their affiliates are at war with the United States, and those that we capture – like other prisoners of war – must be prevented from attacking us again.”

The president said, he wanted “clear defensible and lawful standards” to any suspected enemy insuring “fair procedures so that we don’t make mistakes.” Mistakes he identified as being made the last eight years.  

With the Constitution in the foreground, Obama’s speech reflected frequently on the document’s core values of the intent of our founders in his remarks.  “The decisions that were made over the last eight years established an ad hoc legal approach for fighting terrorism that was neither effective nor sustainable — a framework that failed to trust in our institutions and that failed to use our values as a compass, “ he said. 

 ”That is why we lost our way. That is why we were alienated from our allies.”

The president directed his message to the American people, Congress, our allies and our enemies.  Now we’ll have to see if he got his message across and will be able to move forward with closing Gitmo.

By Rep. Maxine Waters (D- Calif.)

May 19, 2009 – As a founder and leader of the Out of Iraq Congressional Caucus, I opposed the failed Bush policy in Iraq, and I am now increasingly concerned that escalating military involvement in Afghanistan could lead to disastrous consequences.

I believe we must enable the people of Afghanistan to develop a stable and functioning state that cannot be used by al Qaeda terrorists, the Taliban and other extremists to threaten our security or other nations.

The question is how can we best achieve this objective?

President Obama and his key advisors – including military leaders – have acknowledged that nonmilitary initiatives are essential to stabilizing Afghanistan.  However, his most recent spending request for Afghanistan and Iraq dedicates only about ten percent of funds to humanitarian, diplomatic and other civilian efforts.

I am also disappointed that there is no exit strategy or timeline or set of benchmarks to measure progress.

The spending bill presented to the House of Representatives for a vote last week simply continues and amplifies the failed policies that have caused us to be caught up in a continued occupation of Iraq and an increasingly large presence in Afghanistan.

Instead of playing the Taliban shell game, we should devise a smart strategy to win the hearts and minds of the people of Afghanistan. They will help us to locate Osama bin Laden.

Airstrikes that kill innocent civilians will only harden the civilians against us.

The Taliban is leading us into Pakistan, where we are on the verge of establishing a new footprint.  Previously, U.S. policy gave the former Pakistani President Musharraf billions of dollars while he was playing footsie with the Taliban and allowing it to control the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan. Now President Zardari has proven to be weak and ineffective, yet he is being rewarded with more of our tax dollars.

Next week, we will observe Memorial Day and remember the sacrifice of those who have given their lives while serving our nation, including almost 5000 Americans killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

As we honor them, I will also be thinking of the brave men and women now in uniform, and I will continue my efforts to bring them home safely to their loved ones.

I believe we must place our troops in harm’s way only as a last resort and only with a sound plan.

Tens of thousands of American troops are serving courageously and honorably in Afghanistan, but they have been executing a flawed strategy, and Afghanistan remains mired in violence with a weak and corrupt central government.  I am worried that sending another 21,000 troops there will not succeed, and instead I advocate strengthening our diplomatic and humanitarian initiatives.

Do you think we should continue to send more troops to Afghanistan?