W's Biggest Hits

W's Biggest Hits



By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY | Posted Friday, January 09, 2009 4:20 PM PT

War On Terror: Two more top al-Qaida operatives collected their virgins on New Year's Day. Justice may be delayed, but not denied. Look up in the sky: It's a bird! It's a plane! It's a . . . Predator drone!


U.S. officials have confirmed that a Jan. 1 missile strike killed two top al-Qaida members long sought for the Aug. 7, 1998, bombings of the U.S. embassies in Tanzania and Kenya.

Cross Fahid Mohammed Ali Msalam and Sheikh Ahmed Salem Swedan off the FBI's "Most Wanted Terrorists" list.

Msalam, also known as Usama al-Kini, and Sedan both from Kenya. Both are believed to have been involved in last September's bombing of the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad, Pakistan, that killed 53 people. The two were killed by an unmanned aircraft operated by the CIA while they were in a not-so-safe house used for explosives-training near the town of Karikot in South Waziristan.

Kini trained terrorists in Africa in the 1990s. After 9/11, he became al-Qaida's emir of Afghanistan's Zabul province and later rotated among Afghanistan, Pakistan and East Africa, planning suicide missions, training operatives and raising money.

Transferred to the home office two years ago, he became al-Qaida's operations director for Pakistan and was responsible for at least seven suicide attacks. These included an assassination try aimed at former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, who would be murdered in December 2007.

South Waziristan has become a prime hunting ground for Predator drones in recent months as part of a campaign to destabilize al-Qaida by decimating its leadership and killing key operatives. The attacks, occurring once every three days, have resulted in the deaths of at least eight top al-Qaida leaders since July.

Bill Roggio of the Long War Journal has compiled a list of some of those who have received final justice recently. They include Abu Laith al Libi, a senior military commander in Afghanistan, who was killed in a strike in North Waziristan last January. Abu Sulayman Jazairi, al-Qaida's external operations chief, was killed in a strike in Bajaur in March.

Abu Khabab al Masri, al-Qaida's weapons of mass destruction chief, and several senior members of his staff were killed in a strike in South Waziristan in July. Khalid Habib, leader of al-Qaida's paramilitary forces in the tribal areas, was killed in North Waziristan in October. Abu Jihad al Masri, leader of the Egyptian Islamic Group and member of al-Qaida's top council, last October was also killed in North Waziristan.

The next month, Rashid Rauf, mastermind of the 2006 trans-Atlantic airline bomb plot, was killed when a 100-pound Hellfire missile launched from a Predator drone struck a tribesmen's house in the village of Ali Khel in North Waziristan. Rauf was the architect of the liquid bomb plot that forces travelers to limit fluids to 3.5 ounces in carry-on baggies.

The idea that the U.S. hasn't taken the battle to the enemy sanctuaries in Syria and Pakistan, or that we are losing control of Afghanistan, isn't exactly accurate. The terrorists we fight are scurrying about as we lift the remaining rocks they hide under. But there's no place for them to hide.

Waziristan used to be called al-Qaida's hideout. Now it's what American pilots call a target-rich environment. If this campaign continues, maybe we'll soon find and send to his just reward al-Qaida's tape-of-the-month club director, Ayman al-Zawahiri, or maybe even his cave-dwelling boss.

We're running out of targets.