The attempted plane bombing has given the Obama administration some clarity:
Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula claimed “credit” for the failed attack on the Northwest Airlines flight on Christmas Day, claiming that the attempted terrorist attack was retaliation for the December 17 airstrike against al Qaeda in Yemen. . .
A senior administration official rejects entirely the idea that the attempted attack was retaliatory, pointing out that Omar Abdulmutallab was in the field long before that airstrike. (He purchased his plane ticket in Ghana the day before, in fact, and had been in Yemen for months before.)
“He had been deployed before December 17,” the official said. “They’d like to make this seem like retaliation, but the reason they tried to blow up the plane is because they have a hateful, murderous agenda. And that’s why we’re on the forward lean against them.”
Ding! That’s right, Al Qaeda’s espoused motives for their attacks are typically lies. What they say amongst themselves may be informative; what they proclaim to the world is not.
I’m glad the administration is finally learning this basic fact. Perhaps they’ll even learn to generalize from it. A good next step would be to realize that Islamic extremists do not hate America because of Guantanamo.
(Via Hot Air.)
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