I always chuckle when “civies” question military decisions on the ground.

This “story” from the Ny Traitor Times is no exception. Amazing that for once they are devulging a secret after it supposedly happened. That’s a BIG supposedly.

” A secret military operation in early 2005 to capture senior members of Al Qaeda in Pakistan‚Äôs tribal areas was aborted at the last minute after top Bush administration officials decided it was too risky and could jeopardize relations with Pakistan, according to intelligence and military officials.

The target was a meeting of Qaeda leaders that intelligence officials thought included Ayman al-Zawahri, Osama bin Laden’s top deputy and the man believed to run the terrorist group’s operations.

But the mission was called off after Donald H. Rumsfeld, then the defense secretary, rejected an 11th-hour appeal by Porter J. Goss, then the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, officials said. Members of a Navy Seals unit in parachute gear had already boarded C-130 cargo planes in Afghanistan when the mission was canceled, said a former senior intelligence official involved in the planning.

Mr. Rumsfeld decided that the operation, which had ballooned from a small number of military personnel and C.I.A. operatives to several hundred, was cumbersome and put too many American lives at risk, the current and former officials said. He was also concerned that it could cause a rift with Pakistan, an often reluctant ally that has barred the American military from operating in its tribal areas, the officials said.

The decision to halt the planned “snatch and grab” operation frustrated some top intelligence officials and members of the military’s secret Special Operations units, who say the United States missed a significant opportunity to try to capture senior members of Al Qaeda.

Their frustration has only grown over the past two years, they said, as Al Qaeda has improved its abilities to plan global attacks and build new training compounds in Pakistan’s tribal areas, which have become virtual havens for the terrorist network.

In recent months, the White House has become increasingly irritated with Pakistan’s president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, for his inaction on the growing threat of the Taliban and Al Qaeda.

About a dozen current and former military and intelligence officials were interviewed for this article, all of whom requested anonymity because the planned 2005 mission remained classified.

Spokesmen for the Pentagon, the C.I.A. and the White House declined to comment. It is unclear whether President Bush was informed about the planned operation.”

Those who have never spent a day (other than in a game of Halo) in combat or spec-op are ooohing and aaahing about how this is a real bungling. The fact is that these situations happen and whether or not to pull the trigger is a command decision at the time based on information you have at the time. There are military factors as well as geopolitical factors to weigh. I actually was in on some decisions such as this with similiar sits in the early 80s and it’s a gut wrenching as it gets. You have the grunts on the ground ready to make bleed and the suits who have to give the green light to execute. The clock ticks, and you’re already then “no-go”. Make you want to shove your slicer into someone’s nether regions.

However, I rather question this article’s veracity because not only does it print on a dead news saturday, but it seems like it was pulled from the script of The Path to 9/11 except the names were changed.

Additionally I also find it funny that the Ny Traitor Times would have spend three years making Rumsfeld look like the butcher of Gitmo and then try and tell us he was “gun shy”.

I’m sure that IF this story is true Rummy would have flipped the switch he it were at all possible without killing a bunch of our own people in the process. Live and fight another day.

Even so I would need a LOT more confirmation of this story before I buy it as the Times portrays it.