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Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, September 29, 2010; 3:03 AM

The third of three articles adapted from "Obama's Wars" by Bob Woodward.

President Obama dispatched his national security adviser, retired Marine Gen. James L. Jones, and CIA Director Leon Panetta to Pakistan for a series of urgent, secret meetings on May 19, 2010.

Less than three weeks earlier, a 30-year-old U.S. citizen born in Pakistan had tried to blow up an SUV in New York City's Times Square. The crude bomb - which a Pakistan-based terrorist group had taught him to make - smoked but did not explode. Only luck had prevented a catastrophe.

"We're living on borrowed time," Jones told Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari at their meeting in Islamabad. "We consider the Times Square attempt a successful plot because neither the American nor the Pakistani intelligence agencies could intercept or stop it."  (Emphasis added)

Jones thought that Pakistan - a U.S. ally with an a la carte approach of going after some terrorist groups and supporting others - was playing Russian roulette. The chamber had turned out to be empty the past several times, but Jones thought it was only a matter of time before there was a round in it.

Fears about Pakistan had been driving President Obama's national security team for more than a year. Obama had said toward the start of his fall 2009 Afghanistan-Pakistan strategy review that the more pressing U.S. interests were really in Pakistan, a nuclear power with a fragile civilian government, a dominant military and an intelligence service that sponsored terrorist groups.

Not only did al-Qaeda and the Afghan Taliban operate from safe havens within Pakistan, but - as U.S. intelligence officials had repeatedly warned Obama - terrorist groups were recruiting Westerners whose passports would allow them to move freely in Europe and North America.

Continues @ WashingtonPost.com where there is a video clip of Bob Woodward discussing Obama's Wars with Diane Sawyer.
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I agree with Jones... and yes we have a huge problem in Pakistan from many angles.

But I do not agree with any President calling any other nation a "cancer" even figuratively.  It is the kind of thing that mirks up diplomatic efforts and leads countries down the wrong path.

The Times Square thing was indeed the worst failure of intelligence agencies. The only reason it did not succeed is the lack of knowledge of that terrorist; the fact that he was quickly apprehended only means that reactively we are getting better... but proactive anticipatory interception is the job of intelligence and that failed miserably.

Honestly, I feel the burden of being vigilant has greatly shifted to the ordinary people.  It is sad that people have to start assessing if there are bad influences in the neighborhood who may be bordering on being being just "bad."  Got a neighbor with uncut lawn who always leaves shades down and is not around very much in social circles? Oh, I've got plenty of them! Where do we even start!

I plan on reading Bob Woodwards' book.


-- Edited by Sanders on Wednesday 29th of September 2010 09:10:51 AM