Thursday, September 29, 2005

Everyone in Al Qaeda is "Number 2"

Yep (via The War in Context). 'Round and 'round and 'round and 'round the corner... the monkey chased the weasel.
U.S. intelligence officials and counterterrorism analysts are questioning whether a slain terrorist - described by President Bush today as the "second-most-wanted Al Qaeda leader in Iraq" - was as significant a figure as the Bush administration is claiming....

"If I had a nickel for every No. 2 and No. 3 they've arrested or killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, I'd be a millionaire," says Kohlmann, a New York-based analyst who tracks the Iraq insurgency and who first expressed skepticism about the Azzam claims in a posting on The Counterterrorism Blog.
UPDATE:

I wasn't thinking straight when I posted this -- of course, if you kill a Number 2 then, presumably, a Number 3 steps in to take Number 2's place, and so on. Therefore, you can kill a Number 2 into infinity.

Otherwise known as quagmire.

1 comment:

Scooter said...

I found you via a search on The Wege (Norwegianity). I find it amazing how much stuff you get out here every day. But more than that I wonder if you've ever bumped into Unblague, a law student who blogs from your neck of the woods (obviously knowing there are at least a dozen schools of some merit in DC). I've been enjoying your blog - you've made a serious effort to get things you feel are important out there.