ABC News obtained a AQAP training video, which includes the sad and desolate statement of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab. There isn't terribly much to this video. It shows Abdulmutallab shooting a gun, as well as other people shooting. They are shooting, charmingly, at make-shift flags of Israel, England, and the United Nations (pretty much just a piece of cloth with "UN" written on it). They are also shooting at a plane in the air, which at first I thought was a drone but now don't think so. And aviation experts with an insight? I'm looking at you, Fallows. Astonishingly, their method of lying on their backs shooting in the air failed to bring it down.
I'm not trying to make light of this. I obviously think AQAP is very dangerous. But there is always, to me, something ridiculous about these videos- a bunch of guys running around in the desert firing guns all helter-skelter.
The other funny thing is that one of the guys was pixelated out. I guess they don't want people to see this particular operative- but that begs the question: if you have the technology to pixelate, why not just edit that shot out?
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11 years ago
