While capturing jihadis is necessary for the intelligence that can be gained by questioning them, deep down I feel it is safer to just kill them all when we get the chance. Obviously, once we capture them we can't just shoot them. But killng them on the battlefield seems the safest way to deal with them.
Unless we planted GPS trackers in their large intestines, this isn't good:
In an operation carried out with military-like precision, Taliban fighters disguised as police and armed with bombs broke 250 prisoners out of a Pakistan jail on Tuesday with the help of what appeared to be insider informants.
The attack in the city of Dera Ismail Khan showed the ability of the al Qaeda-linked Pakistani Taliban to strike at the heart of Pakistan's heavily guarded prison system and walk away with dozens of senior Taliban fighters and commanders.
After the Iraq failure to repel an al Qaeda rescue mission on a couple prisons that allowed the escape of hundreds of jihadis, this puts a different spin on the notion that our enemies are "on the run."
You know, the propaganda value of even a failed al Qaeda assault on Guantanamo Bay would be enormous. Could al Qaeda land and crash land several smallish planes into the base and unload assault teams armed with suicide vests? Some of the planes could be used 9/11-like to crash into our barracks.
Is Venezuela safe enough for jihadis to organize such an attack? Could some captives even be flown over the wire to land in Cuban territory to make it an official escape?
Is this something our military and security people even think about?
UPDATE: It's something al Qaeda thinks about, apparently. Said Zawahri of the jihadis in Guantanamo Bay:
“We pledge to God that we will spare no effort to free all our prisoners, on top of whom are Omar Abdel Rahman, Aafia Siddiqui, Khaled Sheikh Mohammed and every oppressed Muslim everywhere ...,” he added, referring to prominent Islamist militants held by the United States.
The reporter assumes Zawahri meant kidnapping Westerners to exchange for the jihadis. That's unlikely to work. Is it really unthinkable that Gitmo could be a target for a prison raid? Do you really think passing messages to coordinate such an attack is beneath some of those disgusting attorneys working for the jihadis?
UPDATE: I hope we work hard to track down the attackers and help the Iraqis and Pakistanis kill or capture them. I'm thinking that the veterans of those attacks would make great recruits for the Gitmo Gambit. Heck, as long as I'm speculating, assaults on Iraqi and Pakistani prisons would make could practice runs, wouldn't they?
