Brindle Media

Posts Tagged ‘al-Qaida’

Jessica Chastain won an Academy Award for her portrayal of the CIA operative whose obsession with al-Qaeda’s network of couriers led to the discovery of Osama bi Laden’s hideout in Pakistan.
However, it might surprise you to learn that the woman on whom Chastain’s character is based was denied a promotion which would have earned her an extra $16K per year.

Apparently, the real-life Maya (not her actual name) is, shall we say, “assertive” and as one of her colleagues explained to a reporter not Miss Congeniality. However, another colleague pointed out that jerks are not in short supply at the CIA so the woman’s abrasive personality shouldn’t be an impediment to promotion.

The CIA says that she received a financial bonus after bin Laden was found but the agency was reticent about discussing why the operative’s promotion from GS 13 to GS 14 was denied.

Here’s the Washington Post story: http://wapo.st/VNTlJH

You’ll notice that this story was published in early December and it did get some press coverage then. But, as Charles Peters observes in The Washington Monthly, it’s odd that this story hasn’t received much wider media attention. Especially, following Chastain’s Oscar win.

In his book The Greatest Minds and Ideas Of All Time, Will Durant wrote that the Christian Age “seems to be approaching its close” while the Islamic religion is “still growing in numbers and strength”. I recall when the Soviet Union collapsed back in the early 1990s thinking that it seemed likely that the rivalry which replaced Democracy vs. Communism would be Christianity vs. Islam: western culture vs. eastern culture. It just seemed logical. Of course, the problems aren’t caused by the vast majority of those who follow the prophet Mohammed nor with the followers of Jesus Christ. It’s the whack job fanatics who create the crises we face today.

Meanwhile, in Afghanistan, the U.S. faces some tough decisions. Do we commit more troops and possibly follow in the footsteps of the Russians and the British failures? Current polls indicate that the majority of Americans oppose sending in more troops. But as the world’s defender of freedom, do we have a moral responsibility to stayand help Afghanistan’s people thwart the Taliban?

Scott Simon, who was a journalist in Afghanistan eight years ago when the Taliban was in power and al Qaeda (or al-Qaida) used the country as its base of operations, makes some relevant points in this commentary http://bit.ly/SSimon

Meanwhile, Osama bin Laden and his cronies remain just over the border in Pakistan and remain a factor in the Afghanistan equation. In this interview with U.S. News & World Report, Howard Clark talks about How You Can Kill al Qaeda (in 3 easy steps) http://bit.ly/HClark

It seems pretty obvious that we should be cautious about committing too many American troops in Afghanistan and that the troops who are deployed there should be focused on thwarting the Taliban while building trust and credibility to win the hearts and minds of the people. Some of us will question if we can afford to do this but can we afford not to?