Right Voices

As Allahpundit point out, “the left gets a new root cause, the rest of us get that rush of well being that invariably comes with payback. Everybody wins.”  United States forces have launched a strike against suspected Al Qaeda members in Somalia.

The targets included the senior al Qaeda leader in East Africa and an al Qaeda operative wanted for his involvement in the 1998 bombings of two American embassies in Africa, Martin reports. Those terror attacks killed more than 200 people.

The AC-130 gunship is capable of firing thousands of rounds per second, and sources say a lot of bodies were seen on the ground after the strike, but there is as yet, no confirmation of the identities:

Once they started moving, the al Qaeda operatives became easier to track, and the U.S. military started preparing for an air strike, using unmanned aerial drones to keep them under surveillance and moving the aircraft carrier Eisenhower out of the Persian Gulf toward Somalia. But when the order was given, the mission was assigned to the AC-130 gunship operated by the U.S. Special Operations command.

If the attack got the operatives it was aimed at, reports Martin, it would deal a major blow to al Qaeda in East Africa.

Flashback to this New York Sun article from December 29, 2006:

America is worried about four people. To start, the deputy commander of the union’s military wing, Aiden Hashi Ayro, is said by American intelligence and a recent report by the International Crisis Group to have been trained in Al Qaeda camps in Afghanistan before September 11, 2001. After the attacks, he returned to Afghanistan to join the fight against the Americans.

Mr. Ayro’s boss and commander of the union’s military, Hassan Dahir Aweys, was placed on the State Department’s list of international terrorists in November 2001 and named in a presidential executive order the same month on international terrorism. American counterterrorism officials have long said Mr. Aweys was a key source of coordination for the 1998 Al Qaeda attacks on America’s embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

Also of interest for America are Fazil Abdullah Mohammad, or Harun, and Abu Tala al Sudani, two alleged terrorists who helped plot the 1998 bombings and are now key leaders in the courts union.

Here’s the State Department webpage about the embassy bombings. It notes that Clinton was “deeply troubled” by the news:

President Clinton issued a statement in the Rose Garden the morning of August 7 saying, “These acts of terrorist violence are as abhorrent as they are inhuman. We will use all the means at our disposal to bring those responsible to justice no matter what, or how long, it takes.”

Others blogging:

• Suitably Flip
• Pirate’s Cove
• Michelle Malkin
• Stop The ACLU
• Riehl World View
• Suitably Flip
• Jammie Wearing Fool

U.S. Strikes Al-Qaeda in Somalia
Somali News Roundup
Spooky Finally Visits Somalia
al Qaeda in Somalia into Meat Grinder
Somalia Watch: United States Attacking Al Qaeda Positions in Somalia
But I Thought That The Somali Islamists Were The Peaceful Type!
Trackposted to Stop the ACLU, Outside the Beltway, Perri Nelson’s Website, Is It Just Me?, Mark My Words, DragonLady’s World, Stuck On Stupid, The Amboy Times, The Uncooperative Blogger ®, Pursuing Holiness, 123 Beta, Rightwing Guy, The HILL Chronicles, third world county, Woman Honor Thyself, stikNstein… has no mercy, Pirate’s Cove, The Pink Flamingo, The Random Yak, Don Surber, Adam’s Blog, Mensa Barbie Welcomes You, Conservative Cat, Jo’s Cafe, Wake Up America, Diary of the Mad Pigeon, Faultline USA, The Crazy Rants of Samantha Burns, The World According to Carl, Blue Star Chronicles, Diggers Realm, Dumb Ox News, Gulf Coast Hurricane Tracker, and High Desert Wanderer, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.