Target Centermass

The hottest news tonight is apparent CIA missile attack aimed at a key al Queda figure.

A U.S. airstrike in Pakistan targeted al Qaeda’s second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahri, but it was unclear if he had been killed, U.S. sources knowledgeable about the strike said in Washington.

CNN quoted sources as saying the CIA had ordered the airstrike on buildings after receiving intelligence that Zawahri was in a village near the border with Afghanistan.

ABC News quoted Pakistani military sources as saying five of those killed were “high-level” al Qaeda figures.

Pakistan was investigating the reports, Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said.

“Our investigation is still going on … I cannot confirm anything,” Ahmed told Reuters.

Al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden and the Egyptian-born Zawahri have eluded capture since U.S.-led forces toppled Afghanistan’s Taliban government in 2001 in the wake of the September 11 attacks.

Since 9/11, tales of the demise of several key enemy figures have come and gone, usually proving premature or unsuccessful. Significant in this story is that the CIA felt their intelligence was solid enough to carry out an attack within Pakistan, an attack whose political fallout will be interesting to follow. Still, should Zawahiri be found to have been hurried along to the long dirtnap, it would not be without a trace of irony.

In a video aired last Friday, Zawahri congratulated Muslims “on Islam’s victory in Iraq” and said the United States was being defeated there.

The Iranian president apparently is.

Read and despair.

Cower. Pretend our enemies are simply better folk than the dreaded neocons fear.

Or brace for what must be done. In this case, we’re not drawing the line in the sand; they are. Ace states the case briefly. I’ve left out his great dry-humor, entertainment-related portion, so just follow the link if you want that.

We can’t let them have the bomb. If it means preemptive war– we canot let them have the bomb.

Hat tip for all to the Jawa Report and its ominous accompanying graphic.

A man, possibly mad but certainly driven by a religious belief that is fatalistic, is now within a finger’s grasp of nuclear weapons. A country dead-set on destroying Israel and, ultimately, the U.S., has toyed with European negotiators while hastening the globe into greater danger. Please do not think the U.N. will stem this tide; there will be flame. There will be explosions. For now, the location of those flames and explosions may be up to us. For now …

The saddest thing about it all is that the Iranian populace probably thirsts more for a true democratic government than any other Islamic country. Perhaps there’s maneuver room yet …