Word: qaeda
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Sanger's behind-the-scenes account of the Bush Administration's foreign policy is laced with scoops and secret conversations about a world spinning out of America's control. He tracks scientists in Pakistan trying to keep nuclear material out of al-Qaeda's hands; commandos at Fort Bragg blasting a Cabinet official for the lack of a strategy to get Osama bin Laden; and Condoleezza Rice telling George W. Bush, "I don't think you can invade another Muslim country ... even for the best of reasons." Sanger uncovers a sheaf of covert operations, like an effort to sabotage Iran...
...more debt, certain that they could cover it because the value of their home would forever rise. They toppled regimes in two countries with little history of competent, representative government. They defined the war on terrorism so broadly that it put the U.S. in conflict not only with al-Qaeda but also with Hizballah and Hamas, with the Shi'ite theocracy in Iran and even with relatively secular autocracies like Syria's. They vowed to no longer tolerate dictatorships in the Middle East, which essentially committed the U.S. to a policy of regime change toward not only our enemies...
...Afghanistan. Obama wants to send tens of thousands of U.S. and NATO troops there, expand the Afghan army and dispatch boatloads of Western civilians to help build a governmental infrastructure that actually works. He also wants a high-octane diplomatic push across the border into Pakistan, which al-Qaeda and the Taliban have made their home base...
...wanted to be killed by terrorists then, and no one wants a depression now. You have a leader with sky-high approval ratings (which the media are monetizing with all those commemorative issues and Inaugural Ball broadcasts). You have a lot of unknowables: then, about the capabilities of al-Qaeda, now, about how you can stimulate your way out of recession...
Meanwhile, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad warned Israel in a television interview that Israel's attack on Gaza is "sowing seeds of extremism" around the Arab world. His words may prove prophetic: yesterday an audio message purportedly from al-Qaeda's fugitive leader, Osama bin Laden, surfaced calling on Muslims to wage a holy war against Israel. With reporting by Jamil Hamad/Bethlehem and Aaron J. Klein/Jerusalem...