A nice little bombshell from Dana Priest at the Washington Post:
Intelligence officials think that bin Laden is hiding in the northern reaches of the autonomous tribal region along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. This calculation is based largely on a lack of activity elsewhere and on other intelligence, including a videotape, obtained exclusively by the CIA and not previously reported, that shows bin Laden walking on a trail toward Pakistan at the end of the battle of Tora Bora in December 2001, when U.S. forces came close but failed to capture him.I love the irony that the revelation that Bush really did have Osama in his sights and really did let him go is coming out the same day that ABC is showing its fictionalized "docudrama" which purports that Clinton had Osama in his sights but let him go. But no worries. I'm sure more Americans read the Washington Post than watch ABC, right?
...
That was December 2001. Only two months later, Bush decided to pull out most of the special operations troops and their CIA counterparts in the paramilitary division that were leading the hunt for bin Laden in Afghanistan to prepare for war in Iraq, said Flynt L. Leverett, then an expert on the Middle East at the National Security Council.
"I was appalled when I learned about it," said Leverett, who has become an outspoken critic of the administration's counterterrorism policy. "I don't know of anyone who thought it was a good idea. It's very likely that bin Laden would be dead or in American custody if we hadn't done that."
5 comments:
There must come a reckoning for all the consequences of Bush's insufferable combination of arrogance, ignorance and willful dishonesty.
I don't know right now if impeachment is the answer. Certainly, if we would wind up with Cheney in charge, we might as well leave bad enough alone, making "this, too, shall pass," a mantra to be repeated many times a day.
But something must be done. Maybe some unprecendented form of censure. Maybe something like The Wall honoring troops who died in the Vietnam War. Maybe there could be censure walls erected across the country, bearing the names of millions telling Bush & Co., the Republican establishment, his red-state diehard loyalists and the world that we condemn the mess he's made of everything he's touched, and we deeply, with great embarrassment, regret every second of his presidency.
That ironing is indeed delicious. But you called it - if it doesn't star Harvey Keitel, nobody's going to find out about it.
As sad as the content of the post is, major props for the title. It captures the maturity level of our foreign policy exerts perfectly.
Yep. I'm watching Bush throw a tantrum in an interview with Matt Lauer right now. Maybe Dr. Phil can bring these two back together.
So do you think Osama works for us, or is he just worth more alive than dead? (Both of the above is also an acceptable answer.)
Post a Comment