Say Anything Blog

It would appear as though Ahmed Khalfan Ghilani has been captured in Pakistan.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. official on Thursday confirmed that Pakistan has captured a senior al Qaeda member wanted by the United States in connection with the 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in East Africa.

"He is wanted for the death of Americans," the official said on condition of anonymity. The United States had offered a reward of $25 million for the capture of the suspect, Ahmed Khalfan Ghailini.

Good stuff. One less murderous crook on the loose.

Of course, Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo is questioning the timing of this capture.

See CNN's Breaking News Alert: "Security forces have captured a high-level al Qaeda operative in a raid in central Pakistan, Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat said."

Then, after you see that, remember that we noted in May and then The New Republic reported out extensively early this month, that this White House has been telling the Pakistanis for months that they wanted to see a big-time al Qaida leader -- hopefully bin Laden -- produced during the Democratic convention.

You didn't think a leftist like Josh Marshall would be happy that we caputred a key member of the most dangerous terrorist organization in the whole world, did you? Jeez, what rock have you been hiding under.

Wouldn't the Bush administration be pressuring to catch al Qaeda big-wigs all the time? These people are hard enough to catch as it is. Is Marshall really expecting us to to believe that our government had Pakistan hold off on capturing this guy until it was politically beneficial to have him in custody? I think Josh is seriously over-estimating our ability to capture these people. Our military forces and intelligence are good, but its not like we can play cat and mouse with people like this either.

I find it rather disgusting that he can't be glad that this man is no longer a threat to the world. Not everything is a political move.