Monday, February 21, 2011

Has Anyone Ever Seen Them Both In The Same Place?

There are rumors flying around that Qaddafi has fled Libya. Some say he's in Venezuela.

But check out these photos. Has anyone ever considered the possibility that Qaddafi has slipped away disguised as Bob Dylan on tour?


































Dylan is the one on the bottom (I think). I swear, if you just switched their hats, no one could tell the difference. The resemblance is so close, it almost makes me wonder whether the wily desert mad man has been living a second life in Minneapolis as an aged reclusive singer-songwriter.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well TSB, Andrea Mitchell just admitted she has known for quite a while that Ray Davis was CIA but the MSM kept it from us for his safety.

You were right that it is internal Pakistani politics taking a hard line against the Zardari government, but does Pakistan REALLY have a government? I think Pakistan is just an army... with Nukes! I noticed an article yesterday that says our drone strikes the past year are killing like 280 "militants", but only about 12 high level Taliban. Looks like "diminishing returns"... and diminishing stability. What do you think? lilGWB (That's my cat's name!) Keep up the great reporting!

TSB said...

I'm always amazed at how astute and well-informed the MSM is. Not much gets past them.

Assuming that Davis really is a protection contractor for the CIA (and who am I to refute Andrea Mitchell?), that doesn't invalidate his diplomatic status, nor change the circumstances of the shooting.

The CIA angle is vastly overplayed. Davis was wearing jeans and a plaid shirt (LL Bean, I think) and had his consulate employee IDs on a lanyard around his neck when the incident occurred. Who thinks he was doing anything covert? More like he was driving to work.

And what does his purported CIA employment have to do with the shooting? I don't believe he was even doing his protection job at the time. He was driving alone, in a soft car, not wearing body armor or carrying any of the stuff that protection types and Secret Service agents carry (not even macho shades!) when he was confronted by two armed men who had been robbing people in the area. What with this happening in Pakistan, he naturally assumed he was about to be ambushed, and he opened fire first.

All embassy personnel in Pakistan, no matter which agency employs them, must attend personal security training that makes them highly attuned to that very scenario. If the two had just stuck to robbing unarmed locals, they would be alive today and we wouldn't have this problem.

That drone story was thought-provoking. Apparently, what had started as a way to gather intelligence and - occasionally - whack a top tier AQ figure, has devolved into the primary way we are engaging AQ in Pakistan. It can't be an effective strategy, but I guess its all we have.

Another thought that struck me was to wonder whether the huge uptick in drone strikes under the Obama administration is just a reflection of ramped up investment and production that began in years past. Maybe the reason we're using drones so much more now than we were before he came to office is simply because we have so many more now.

Anonymous said...

Good Analysis TSB! What do you think
we will say/do Tues in the security council? I still think it would be cool to have the Egyptian Army head across the unguarded Libyan border
and rescue the Libyan people before
the Gadaffy Brothers mow them all down. It would be a good chance to show off those F-16s too!

lilGWB

TSB said...

An Egyptian intervention would be a highly practical solution. The UN is basically a non-entity, but the UN could call on members to stabalize Libya, ensure delivery of humanitarian relief, etc., and that could give Egypt the political cover to move in.