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October 6, 2013
Two Failed U.S. Raids

Yesterday two U.S. raids attempted to abduct a man in Libya and a man in Somalia. The raid in Libya did get the target but already has some bad impacts for the Libyan government. The raid in Somalia, by so called elite SEAL forces, failed completely.

The raid in Libya caught one Abu Anas Al-Libi, accused in connection with the bombing of a U.S. embassy in Kenia some 15 years ago. It also killed some 15 Libyan soldiers. The man, one Abu Anas Al-Libi, has lived away from Libya and came back after U.S. and NATO forces waged war against the Libyan government under Ghaddafi. He seems to have lived quite openly in the capitol Tripoli:

His brother Nabih told The Associated Press that just after dawn prayers on Saturday, three vehicles full of armed men approached Abu Anas’s home and surrounded him as he parked his car. The men smashed his window, seized his gun and sped away with him, the brother said.

The raid will surely lead to some controversies:

CNN said that the Libyan government knew the raid was being carried out. This has been denied today by the government, which has posted a statement on its Facebook page, saying it knows nothing about the reported seizure. It went to to say that it had contacted the US “for clarification”.

The various gangs that are the now the major powers in Libya will see this raid as (another) attack on Libya's sovereignty. Some major blowback against the interim government and other targets can be expected. There was already a tribal response against the government but the only mentioning of it is buried deep in the 25th paragraph of the NYT version of the story:

The capture of Abu Anas also coincided with a fierce gunfight that killed 15 Libyan soldiers at a checkpoint in a neighborhood southeast of Tripoli, near the traditional home of Abu Anas’s clan.

Some "coincidence" …

The botched raid in Somalia was on a beach house allegedly used by the local Al Shaabab jihadists. The raid was first reported by locals and then by the Al Shaabab itself:

Sheikh Abdulaziz Abu Musab, spokesman for Al Shabaab’s military wing, confirmed the raid and disclosed in a recorded press statement that the militants “repelled a midnight raid by white infidel soldiers”.

Abu Musab said: "We fought back against the white infidel soldiers with bombs and bullets, and they ran back to their boats. One member of Al Shabaab was killed and the white infidel soldiers failed their mission. We found blood and equipment near the coast in the morning,” he added in a recorded press statement posted on militant websites.

There was a lot of confusion about this raid and it took nearly a day until the U.S. confirmed that it forces had been beaten back. At one time the NYT and Fox News said that a senior Shabaab boss was killed while NBC said he was captured and AP said he was not found. This reminds one of all the propaganda claims made about the Bin Laden raid. This time though we will immediately know for sure as the book about this SEAL raid has already been written (/snark).

But what is obvious is that this attack by SEAL personal by boat was somehow detected and responded to with heavy fire. The SEALs were said to had to call in helicopters and they had to retreat under fire.

In Somalia, the Navy SEAL team emerged before sunrise from the Indian Ocean and exchanged gunfire with militants at the home of a senior leader of the Shabab, the Somali militant group.

…
The SEAL team was forced to withdraw before it could confirm that it had killed the Shabab leader, a senior American security official said. Officials declined to identify the target.

On wonders what the Obama administration wants to achieve with such raids. The case for the guy snatched in Libya is fifteen years old. To bring him to court and prove his guilt will be costly. The blowback that this raid will create in Libya will only add to the severe problems the "western" friendly interim government there already has.

Likewise the botched raid in Somalia. Not only will it create further trouble with Al Shaabab but it will also incite Somalian nationalists against such a breach of Somali sovereignty. It also shows that twenty years after the Blackhawk Down failure even the most elite U.S. forces have little luck in successfully operating there.

These raids make little sense. They are driven by some silly concept of revenge, they scare off no one from joining Al-Qaeda or its affiliates while they create more and more future enemies. In this sense both raids are massive failures.

Posted by b on October 6, 2013 at 13:58 UTC | Permalink
Comments

@ 100 I’m agnostic; I have no proof that shape-shifting lizard people don’t exist 😉

Posted by: lizard | Oct 10 2013 4:50 utc | 101

@92 Rowan, being an editor for Playboy is not proof of anything, but asserting so, as you have done, could be construed as evidence of assholery. Posted by: lizard | Oct 9, 2013 7:24:06 PM | 99

Well, as Jonathan Richman pointed out, some people try to pick up girls and get called assholes. But I shall continue to hold the opinion that any associate editor of Playboy, especially anyone who was an associate editor of Playboy from 1965 to 1971, has to be absolute slime, of the worst and most slimiest sort.

Posted by: Rowan Berkeley | Oct 10 2013 5:00 utc | 102

100) The overarching narrative that they were all just stupid bumbling fools who just oops made some mistakes is laughable for many reasons among them being collectively they are personally worth billions, they are connected to wealth/elite society equaling trillions more and many of them have been major players in US government for decades. So they just all screwed up, huh? They all just go soooo excited in response to the 9/11 “attacks” – which they predicted in PNAC, don’t forget – that they just bumbled the response, huh?
:-)) You are getting close. So the conspiracy was about how to make money and they were successful in that. That needs a certain type of intelligence, I agree, what mainly is needed are singlemindedness, ruthlessness and fraudulence. To be able to make money for yourself does not mean you are of use for anything else, except in competitive industries and US Foreign Policy is not one of them.
And maybe it is the deeper reason why the American people tend to get cheated that their nation was formed by a religion that equals money and success as proof of being part of god’s predestination for a chosen few.
However, though collusion in making money does exist, capitalism is a system, not a conspiracy.

Posted by: somebody | Oct 10 2013 5:26 utc | 103

add to 103)
Take this biography and you are at the heart of the military industrial complex

Richard Norman Perle (born September 16, 1941) is an American political advisor, consultant, and lobbyist who began his career in government as a senior staff member to Senator Henry “Scoop” Jackson on the Senate Armed Services Committee in the 1970s.[2] Later he was heavily involved with the Reagan administration and served as the assistant Secretary of Defense and also worked on the Defense Policy Board Advisory Committee from 1987 to 2004. He was Chairman of the Board in 2001 under the Bush Administration but eventually resigned in 2003 due to conflict of interests.
He is a member of several think-tanks including the Hudson Institute, the Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP) Board of Advisors, the Center for Security Policy (CSP), the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research (as a resident fellow), the neoconservative Project for the New American Century (PNAC), and the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA). He is also a patron of the Henry Jackson Society. Perle has written extensively on a number of issues; his cited research interests including defense, national security, and the Middle East. Aside from these engagements, Perle is the former co-chairman and director of Hollinger, Inc., a partner of Trireme Partners and a non-executive director of Autonomy Corporation.

Being in US politics and involved defense contracts equals lots of money. Of course your focus is on eternal war. Never mind what it might achieve.

Posted by: somebody | Oct 10 2013 5:34 utc | 104

104) So in 1996 the Prime Minister of Israel gets advised by a US arms lobbyist to go for an agressive balance of power policy with Turkey and Jordan as allies excluding peaceful solutions and disarmament and ditching the Oslo peace process.
In 1996 Israel still had a “security belt” in Lebanon, Israeli residents were still in Gaza and Israel’s defense doctrine stated that fighting should be done in foreign territory, not in Israel.
In 2013 Israel’s situation is described by its own defense people as such

JNS.org) Israel’s enemies will target Israel Defense Forces headquarters in Tel Aviv with long-range missiles to spark the next war, IDF Chief of General Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz said Tuesday, Israel Hayom reported.
Speaking at a conference at Bar-Ilan University, Gantz warned that Israel’s next conflict could start in a number of ways, including “a precision missile attack on the General Staff building at the heart of the IDF headquarters in Tel Aviv, or a cyberattack on a site providing essential services to Israelis. Stoplights would malfunction, banks would shut down.”

Great advice, wasn’t it. Though as you mention, it did line many pockets.

Posted by: somebody | Oct 10 2013 7:07 utc | 105

Right, fast-lane capitalism is not successful geopolitical conspiracy.
The JS Sorrentine article about keeping four bases in Iraq appears to be obsolete.
And of course he tautologically insists MIHOP become orthodox doctrine.

Posted by: amspirnational | Oct 10 2013 20:47 utc | 106

I’m not sanguine about Iraq’s bloody semi-anarchial condition, though, ethically and with reference to some of JS’s points.
Berkeley does a service in laying the ongoing violence at the feet of Zio-capitalist American war criminality.

Posted by: amspirnational | Oct 10 2013 20:53 utc | 107

Wow, “tautological”. I guess, I’m supposed to say that I’m impressed by your constant use of that word or something, right? Even better, maybe you could you look up “casuistic”? I think, you might have found a new description for your own evasive posts! But, alas, I’m only going to use it once!
Oops, I quickly chose the wrong article in making my point. My bad. Here’s one talking about the 4 “diplomatic outposts” – wink wink – left behind in Iraq Baghdad, Basra, Arbil and Kirkuk . Yes, the personnel numbers are down but I wonder if they might have had other places to go? Should we ask Ambassador Stevens? Nevermind. Here’s another piece that mentions all of the “contractors” and such ilk we left behind. Man, that sure sucks that all of those mercenaries contractors had nothing to do like maybe help out on other “diplomatic” missions in the neighboring areas, huh? Oh well. You’re right I guess Iraq was a total failure and we should all be glad that our wonderful President Barack Obama ended that silly war and brought home all the troops. Hurray!
Regarding, Sistani etc etc, yeah that sounds about how the US does business, huh? Oh you don’t want a strongman? Fine by us. You’re the boss! We’ll just let you Shia and Sunni figure it out on your own. Nudge wink. Good luck guys! Wouldn’t want any sectarian violence to break out, huh? We’ll just be over in our “diplomatic outposts” making sure everything runs smoothly for you guys. Holler if you want some advice. Later! There’s this old folk tale – stop me if I’m being “tauty” again – where this rabbit keeps insisting – tautologically? – that he be thrown into this briar patch….again, never mind.
Would you care to enlighten us about what you think happened on 9/11? Because as far as “orthodox doctrine” goes, I have found that people who tautologically insist that the events of that day didn’t happen with the involvement of the neocons in power just might be trying to a bolster of point of view that is not grounded in reality. And, again, this is usually done by them tautologically.

Posted by: JSorrentine | Oct 10 2013 22:29 utc | 108

Sorry JS, Obama tried to get SOFA redone under the table and was refused by the Iraqi government, sealing the loss.
Of course, also, if Paul, and Buchanan and Nader and Ritter and Kucinich are correct, 9/11 did happened with the involvement of neocons in power, and neolibs-there is hardly a distinction.
They have implemented a pro-Israel policy since circa 1960 with the consequent alienation of the bulk of the entire Arab-Islamic world
and its logical result.

Posted by: amspirnational | Oct 11 2013 0:09 utc | 109

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