He was a boy who hadn't seen his father in two years

[Catherina]

113. Sad thing is, as Wikileaks revealed, they went after al-Awlaki because OBL was old news

and they need to keep the populace terrorized enough to support whatever and however to want to wage their wars.

New Wikileaks E-mail Dump Shows Wasted Drone Efforts

By ELIZABETH FLOCK
February 8, 2013


A Yemeni holds up a banner during a protest against U.S. drone attacks in the capital Sanaa, Jan. 28, 2013.


On Wednesday, a confidential Justice Department memo acquired by NBC made waves for its justification for the extrajudicial killing by a drone of Anwar al-Awlaki, an American citizen suspected of association with al-Qaeda. Thursday, protesters stormed CIA director nominee John Brennan's Senate confirmation, upset over the White House's drone policies.

Less noticed was another related development: Wikileaks this week released another round of E-mails sent by private intelligence company Stratfor, several of which shed light on the quest to capture Awlaki. WhoWhatWhy.com, a nonprofit investigative journalism site which first analyzed the E-mails, says what's most interesting about them is their candor.

In one alleged E-mail sent in September 2010, a top Stratfor official wrote to a colleague that U.S. government agencies were exaggerating the importance of nailing al-Awlaki.

"There's been a ton of media spin and leaks later about Anwar al-Awlaki being the next bin Laden. OBL is becoming old news now," Reva Bhalla, Stratfor's VP of global analysis, wrote to a colleague. "CIA and [Joint Special Operations Command] want a new target to claim success, so there's a concerted campaign going on right now to play up al-Awlaki as the #1 terrorist. Al-Awlaki is much easier to target anyway and they have leads on him, so every agency wants to be the one to say they got him."

...

http://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/washington-whispers/2013/02/08/new-wikileaks-e-mail-dump-shows-wasted-drone-efforts

From: "Reva Bhalla" <[email protected]>
To: "Analyst List" <[email protected]>
Sent: Saturday, September 4, 2010 3:23:19 PM
Subject: INSIGHT - Yemen - Counterterrorism turf wars in DC

PUBLICATION: background/analysis
ATTRIBUTION: STRATFOR source
SOURCE DESCRIPTION: discussion over sheesha with Yemeni diplomat source
and two of Saleh's younger sons
SOURCE Reliability : B
ITEM CREDIBILITY: 2
DISTRIBUTION: Analysts
SOURCE HANDLER: Reva

Update on those leaks from a couple weeks ago on CIA recommendations to
the administration to carry out drone strikes in Yemen...

The administration has tasked out all the main agencies to give their
recommendations on US counterterrorism policy toward Yemen, with a policy
decision due by the end of the year. There's a huge turf war between CIA
and JSOC over this, which is why all these leaks are coming out. First the
CIA leaked their rec for drone strikes. Then CENTCOM leaked their rec for
$1.2 billion assistance funding for Yemeni special forces (this was all
Petraeus, who has a very good relationship with the Yemenis and goes to
the Yemeni ambo's house pretty regularly for dinner.) The Yemenis are
nervous about Mattis taking over Centcom. THey could deal well with
Petraeus, whom they consider a 'diplomat.' Don't know yet how to read
Mattis.

There's been a ton of media spin and leaks later about Anwar al Awlaki
being the next bin Laden. OBL is becoming old news now. CIA and JSOC want
a new target to claim success, so there's a concerted campaign going on
right now to play up al Awlaki as the #1 terrorist. Al Awlaki is much
easier to target anyway and they have leads on him, so every agency wants
to be the one to say they got him.

--
(name redacted for DU)
Tactical Analyst
Office: (redacted for DU)
Mobile: (redacted for DU)
Strategic Forecasting, Inc.
www.stratfor.com