Al-Qaeda wasn’t actually behind the hostage siege in Algeria, which ended with the deaths of at least three Americans and a lot of other foreign and domestic workers. It wasn’t even the loosely related “al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb,” though the attackers said they did it on their behalf.
Still, Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta insisted that the attack proved that “al-Qaeda is committed to creating terror wherever they are” and vowed US retaliation against them for the incident.
The comments reflect Western efforts to take advantage of the Algeria incident to push an agenda of aggressive warfare across the region, with British Prime Minister David Cameron vowing decades of attacks, and French President Francois Hollande saying the hostage blowback proved their invasion of Mali was justified.
The group behind the attacks issued a statement of their own, threatening more attacks if France doesn’t end their offensive in Mali. Since both sides seem to be using one another’s attacks as excuses to keep escalating, this regional war could continue to worsen for quite some time.
Panetta is so bloody foolish as to be able to say that Osama Bin Laden was, is behind the election of Obama.
Where did you hear that, John?
Al-Qaeda has become the contemporary "Red Menace" of the Cold War era. Anything that went wrong in those past days was due to the Red Menance and likewise as well, anything goes against US interests these days is automatically cast as an AL-Qaeda operation. Many think that Al-Qaeda takes credit for things they are not responsible for and that the US appears likely to incorrectly blame them for all things wrong in the world. Lest face it, Al-Qaeda is the current bad guy and the US needs a bad guy to justify perpetual war and perpetual expenditures.
Couldn't revenge against the French might be given a thought or two? 🙂
Mali poses no threat to America. All of us in America will be glad to get rid of fear-monger Panetta. He needs to take his smirk and phony smile, and go back to his $10 million walnut farm in California. Panetta told us al Quaida was in Iraq, then they moved to Afghanistan. But, in reality, they moved to Yemen in 2005. Panetta told us al Quaida was defeated in 2009. It's apparent Penetta is a puppet for the CIA goons and defense contractors wanting to keep their wars of choice going on forever,
I can't believe Leon Panetta said US has to fight back al-Qaeda, because they killed 3 Americans. What about all the people being killed in Syria? America is supporting al-Qaeda against Syria! Something is very wrong here.
Given the US is arming and training al Qaeda in Syria, I guess this means the US has declared war on itself for aiding and supporting those who want to destroy America.
Doesn't the US Defense Secretary, and former CIA boss, know that al Qaida is a valuable CIA asset? He'll have quite a fight on his hands. Or could it all be nonsense?