While We Were Sleeping

by digby

Batocchio writes in with this tip:

I don’t know if you saw Froomkin today, but he had more on Pakistan:

Well guess what? Sara A. Carter writes in the Washington Times: “U.S. ground forces crossed the border from Afghanistan and attacked suspected al Qaeda targets in Pakistan on Wednesday as part of an aggressive new strategy to kill or capture Osama bin Laden before President Bush leaves office, U.S. officials said. . . .

“‘I know the hunt is on; they’re pulling out all the stops,’ said a Defense Department official with knowledge of the situation who asked not to be named. ‘They are leaving no stone unturned. They want to find bin Laden before the president leaves office and ensure that al Qaeda will not attack the U.S. during the upcoming elections.’ . . .

“A U.S. counterterrorism official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that ‘finding bin Laden has always been a priority’ and that targeting al Qaeda bases is based on actionable intelligence. However, he added that the November elections in the U.S. have renewed a sense of urgency to capture the terrorist leader. ‘Any period of transition, like the upcoming election, can be seen as a potential vulnerability,’ he said.”

Far be it for me to suggest that the Republicans would pull an October Surprise. It’s been at least a couple of years since they used the power of the government to manipulate events to swing an election.

The problem is that the Bush administration is so incompetent that it’s highly unlikely they can pull it off. Worse, their attempts at such things often inspire the kind of blowback that results in airplanes flying into buildings.

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