What can we do? What should we do?

Hey, everyone. As much as I'd like to see bin Laden taken out, I'm not sure that it would be best to do it immediately. One of the pundits on MSNBC tonight suggested that it might be better to have the Northern Alliance capture him, then have Islamic nations try him for "crimes against Islam," and then hand him over to the west. Once he would be handed over to the west, it might be best to try him in a world court for crimes against America, rather than try him here on US soil, where there would be further threat of terrorist attacks. I mean, God forbid, we were to hold him in one of our jails (even if we didn't disclose which one) and his terrorist buddies started just randomly attacking sites here... it might just be better to try him at some world court (apologies to the Hague [sp?] as it would likely fall to them) and then convict him and publicly execute him. Then it might not look so much like the big bully US coming and rounding up the self-proclaimed defender of Islam... What do you all think?

I think you've hit on the right plan. I don't know if you've been following the comments of David Kline elsewhere in this conference, but I posted something he said today that closely parallels this in the David Kline topic. He's been a war correspondent in Afghanistan and knows about the Islamic mindset. It's topic 54 in the news conference. The fact that we aren't doing anything rash to anger the Islamic world is a wise move.

Here is a long article on the pitiful state of affairs in the CIA, by by Seymour M. Hersh in the New Yorker http://www.newyorker.com/FACT/

MIT Technology Review online December 2001 issue SPECIAL SECTION: TECHNOLOGY VS. TERROR http://www.techreview.com/magazine/dec01/mag_toc.asp Articles abstracts: Detecting Bioterrorism By David Talbot Lives could be saved by sensors and therapies now under development�along with software that could help distinguish an anthrax assault from an outbreak of the flu. Networking the Infrastructure By Wade Roush New classes of detectors, plus safer building designs, point to an "intelligent city" that senses danger. Will Spyware Work? By Kevin Hogan Monitoring voice and e-mail traffic sounds like a good way to thwart terrorism. The problem? Sorting through the results takes too long for early warning. Recognizing the Enemy By Alexandra Stikeman Creating a central database of photos to identify terrorists through face recognition is a bureaucratic nightmare. Essay: The Shock of the Old By Edward Tenner On September 11, a nation primed for a futuristic attack failed to foresee a low-tech assault. Why?

A very interesting piece in the New Republic on the FBI's need to start gathering "strategic intelligence" as opposed to simply short-term tactical info., By that, the author means doing more what the CIA does (or is supposed to do) -- spot trends, look for patterns, etc. Here's an excerpt: "A smart intelligence analyst, looking at emerging trends in Islamist terrorism, might have predicted that terrorists would try to hijack airplanes and crash them into buildings. After all, September 11 may have been the first time terrorists carried out the strategy successfully, but it was not the first time they tried it. In 1994 hijackers from the Armed Islamic Group--which is affiliated with Al Qaeda--hijacked an Air France jet in Algiers and apparently planned to crash it into the Eiffel Tower, but failed when French commandos stormed the plane when it stopped for refueling. In 1995 Filipino authorities detected a Manila-based Al Qaeda cell's plan to blow up eleven American airliners in mid-flight and crash a twelfth into the CIA headquarters. "With that terrorist m.o. in mind, and recognizing that the plot would only work if one of the terrorists involved could fly a jetliner, the analyst might have advised agents to keep an eye on flight schools that offered such training. At the very least, a good analyst--thinking along these lines--might have raised alarm bells at FBI headquarters in August when agents from the Minneapolis field office began investigating Moussaoui, whose suspicious behavior had led his instructors at a Minnesota flight school to contact the bureau. The Minneapolis agents had arrested Moussaoui on an immigration violation and--after getting a lead from French intelligence that he had ties to bin Laden--had asked headquarters in Washington for permission to seek a national security search warrant that would allow them go through Moussaoui's computer. But FBI lawyers denied the request for a search that might have tipped off the bureau to the September 11 plot." See the full article at: http://www.thenewrepublic.com/123101/zengerle123101.html