Posted on 06/24/2002 1:36:28 PM PDT by M 91 u2 K
The latest news in the War on Terror – and CNN’s Lou Dobbs is right to call this the War Against Islamists – is all bad:
1) One of Osama’s chief lieutenants has announced that a new video will soon be broadcast on our Fourth of July showing Osama bin Laden and his right-hand man, the Egyptian doctor Zwahiri who masterminded the Anwar Sadat assassination, alive and well and still running Al Qaeda.
2) They have also said that there will be new attacks “on America” – perhaps on July 4th.
3) Whoever manufactured last fall’s anthrax and mailed it to prominent members of the American media, is still free and able to manufacture even more of it.
4) Noted bin Laden expert Youssef Bodansky reports that Osama has recently hidden inside Iran for six weeks.
So, almost ten months after the September 11 attacks, where are we?
1) We cannot find Osama or Mullah Omar.
2) We cannot find the ‘anthrax mailer.’
3) We cannot even determine the source of the anthrax.
4) Thus, we cannot stop more anthrax from being mailed.
5) And we cannot disrupt Al Qaeda’s operation if Osama is still alive and able to communicate to his supporters through the Internet, radio and TV broadcasts.
G.W. Bush should call CIA Director George Tenet into the Oval Office and make it very clear: “You’ve got two weeks to find bin Laden. Or else you’re fired and I’ll bring in a new DCI (Director, Central Intelligence).”
All the talk of going into Iraq clearly is either distracting the administration from the hunt for Osama – or the administration is trying to distract the American people from their total and abject failure to “get” Osama. Either way, this mass murderer is on the loose and apparently plotting an even bigger event than September 11.
It is simply inexcusable that Osama bin Laden remains alive and free. Yes, yes, we have all heard that “it is a big world” and that ‘friendlies’ are hiding him. But what are we paying $60 billion for the CIA for if they can’t find this man?
Pakistan – where he may be hiding – is clearly playing both sides. While we forgave billions in debt and gave their intelligence agency – the ISI – an extra billion, what have they done to find Osama on the Pakistani-Afghanistan border? Absolutely nothing!
In fact, the ISI helped sponsor the Taliban and is believed to be protecting Taliban and Al Qaeda leaders who have crossed over the border.
This is simply inexcusable.
It seems as if the Bush Administration has lost its focus in this war. One day they are against a Cabinet Department of Homeland Security. Then, the next, they are in favor of it.
One day shoe-bomber Richard Reid is “acting alone.” The next day it turns out he is a long-time Al Qaeda devotee.
One day the anthrax is a “natural phenomenon’ in the drinking water in North Carolina. The next day it is a plot by a disgruntled domestic scientist. But the administration never wants to tie the anthrax in to either Osama or Saddam. Why is that?
And we target Baghdad for a full-blown war while Iran harbors Osama?
Is this because our policy Vis a Vis Iraq is really a grudge match between Saddam and the first George Bush? And that Karl Rove believes “taking out” Saddam guarantees W’s re-election?
What a mess this War Against Islamists has become. The Chief Executive has lost his focus, been derailed by Colin Powell’s State Department’s love affair with Yasser Arafat, and totally abandoned his pledge last September to “find Osama – dead or alive.”
President Bush needs to get back to basics and take charge of this rapidly deteriorating situation – before it takes charge of him.
I will believe Osama Bin Laden is alive when I plunge my bayonet into his liver and watch the dark red blood spill around his feet.
If John Leboutiller actually belives this he is an idiot. If OBL were alive and effectively leading AQ, then why would they promise to release a tape instead of releasing it? Why did they bother with that stupid tape last March that gave no indication when it was made. If OBL were capable of making a tape, he would do so, and it would be unambiguous as to when it was made. He could easily do that by simply referring to current events.
As for telling Tenent “You’ve got two weeks to find bin Laden. Or else you’re fired and I’ll bring in a new DCI (Director, Central Intelligence)”, that assumes that OBL is alive or recoverable, which IMHO is doubtful. His last whereabouts that we are pretty sure about was Tora Bora in early December. He reported left there at a time when we were carpet bombing possible escape routes. Let's suppose that he was caught in a bombing and blown to bits, and recycled through the digestive tracts of the local fauna. How does firing Tenent change anything? How is it resonable to demand that he produce a body? Thank God we have sane adult leadership and not raving fools like Leboutiller.
We know Bin Laden (and possibly Omar) got flattened under Tora Bora, but we've decided to hold that information as a trump card for later.
2) We cannot find the ‘anthrax mailer.’
We know he was Mohammed Atta but we cannot say so because the Iraq connection would be revealed too soon, and we need to announce it the day we start the attack.
3) We cannot even determine the source of the anthrax.
We know it was Iraq, but we need to announce that the day we start the attack.
4) Thus, we cannot stop more anthrax from being mailed.
A few daisy cutters around Baghdad ought to do it.
5) And we cannot disrupt Al Qaeda’s operation if Osama is still alive and able to communicate to his supporters through the Internet, radio and TV broadcasts.
It is to our advantage to allow Al Qaeda to think so.
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