Bush says hunt for bin Laden has not slackened

[sabra]

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=2450148

Bush says hunt for bin Laden has not slackened

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush on Friday dismissed as an "urban myth" the idea that his administration has become distracted from the effort to track down al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

...

"You know, there is a kind of an urban myth here in Washington about how this administration hasn't stayed focused on Osama bin Laden," Bush said at a news conference. "Forget it. It's convenient throw-away lines, you know, when people say that."

...

Pressed on why he opposed the idea of sending a large contingent of special forces to Pakistan to hunt bin Laden, Bush said his strategy was to work with Pakistan's government.

"First of all, Pakistan is a sovereign nation," Bush said. "In order for us to send thousands of troops into a sovereign nation, we've got to be invited by the government of Pakistan.

[Kierkegaard]

1. Bush lied.

What else is new?

[Waya]

2. Iraq was a sovereign Nation, too......

...didn't stop him from sending thousands of troops there........

[yellowcanine]

3. and Afghanistan......Such a liar.

[calimary]

31. Hell, he couldn't even DEFINE "sovereign", no less act upon it

or around/in spite of it, as the case may be.

[Demit]

4. Haha! Hope somebody asked him to define "sovereign nation" again.

It was so exquisite when he did it at that Native American conference a few years ago.

[Megahurtz]

5. "Okay binny

put those robes back on, we need to make more Aljazeera Terra-speech movies again,
it's getting to be that time of year".:sarcasm:

[Richard Steele]

6. But we already know the CIA stopped looking for him last year, LiarBoy!

And the FBI never was- ZERO evidence connecting him to 9/11; CASE CLOSED.

And don't you all just LOVE this bullshit:
"First of all, Pakistan is a sovereign nation," Bush said.
"In order for us to send thousands of troops into a sovereign nation,
we've got to be invited by the government of Pakistan.

So I guess the government of Pakistan musta INVITED
us to invade Iraq, huh?

I really need a much larger one of these: :argh:

[mom cat]

29. He can't keep track of his lies anymore.

[Bob3]

7. Like when say it?

Like when you said "I don't think about him that much."

or disbanded the special Ben Laden section of the CIA? Or when you said to that guy from fox that catching Ben laden is not a good use of resources?

It's like * is just a robot that goes around talking off the top of its head - and when breaks down - another is turned on but it has no memory of what the previous * has said? That or very very strong drugs are the only explanation.

[John Gauger]

12. That's a pretty good description.

[tanyev]

22. Split personalities???

He needs to bring them all to the table and get them on the same page.

[John Gauger]

8. That is demonstrably false

And he is demonstrably an asshat.

[bif]

9. Didn't they report that the special-ops team dedicated

to finding him was quietly disbanded a couple weeks ago? What a fuckin' lier.

[coalition_unwilling]

13. WP reported a few days ago that the trail has gone "stone cold".

No new leads for over two years to OBL's whereabouts.

[Phredicles]

10. [singing]"He's a lying sack of crap..."

Didn't he say that ANY country harboring terrorists would be treated as the terrorists themselves?

If we had reason to believe Osama were hiding in France, would we be seeing such deference?

[John Gauger]

11. We would never invade and bomb France

They are white. Afghanistan and Iraq are brown. That is a big factor in determining when to bomb countries.

[Phredicles]

20. True, but there would sure be a lot of screaming at France to address

this - either by apprehending Osama and turning him over, or allowing our special forces or CIA operatives to sneak in and resolve the matter that way. But as it is I hear from Bush apologists and now Bush itself a lot of, "Darn, he's in Pakistan; nothing we can do about that". It just seems like an awfully lame response after month of "we won't rest until we've smoked 'im out".

[MGD]

14. " I'll repeat what I said. I truly am not that concerned about him. "

George W. Bush regarding Osama bin Laden during his March 3rd, 2002 press conference.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2002/03/20020313-8.html

[Amonester]

34. I never knew they put "Urban Myths" on the Official White House's

Web site!!

"You know, there is a kind of an urban myth here in Washington about how this administration hasn't stayed focused on Osama bin Laden,"

Or is it just us, mere mortals, who consider the fact that "someone who's not being concerned about someone" has "not stayed focused on that someone"?? :shrug:

Would Any WH Aide "remove" the page so that this pretzeldent could look a lil' less like an idiot Liar? :grr:

[MGD]

44. Loosely translated, that statement reads: "I failed utterly to capture

or kill America's #1 enemy, a man responsible for perpetrating the worst attack against America in our entire history so now I'm pretending like it isn't that big of a deal in the hopes that Americans will blindly agree with me so that I don't go down in the history books as the worst fucking President ever."

[ConcernedCanuk]

15. Yeah, right - 140,000 troops in Iraq, and only 30,000 in Afghanistan

.
.
.

And ZERO in Pakistan (ain't that where he's supposed to be hiding?)

Saddam never let Al Queda into Iraq - BUSH did!

Give it up Junior -

You are running your country as badly as you did your oil businesses . . .

[rodeodance]

16. Check out remarkably similar quotes---Osama is not a priority.

this was posted earlier on DU:

Check out remarkably similar quotes
http://jabbs.blogspot.com/2006/09/bush-remarkably-consistent-on.html

from 2006, 2004 and 2002 that have essentially the same message: Osama is not a priority.

[ConcernedCanuk]

23. Thanx for the link, but I can do the math, it's pretty simple, really

.
.
.

BUT

I found one quote in there that was particularly disturbing(I did not know it before)

From the link you gave me:

"The CIA last year closed(requires registration - NY times - I'm registered so will include an excerpt at the bottom of this post) a unit that for a decade had the mission of hunting Bin Laden and his top lieutenants. Of the decision, Michael Scheuer, a former senior CIA official who was the first head of the unit, known as Alec Station, told the New York Times in July: "This will clearly denigrate our operations against Al Qaeda."
______________________________________________________

But I wasn't surprised . .

(sigh)

From the NY Times:

C.I.A. Closes Unit Focused on Capture of bin Laden


Article Tools Sponsored By
By MARK MAZZETTI
Published: July 4, 2006

WASHINGTON, July 3 — The Central Intelligence Agency has closed a unit that for a decade had the mission of hunting Osama bin Laden and his top lieutenants, intelligence officials confirmed Monday.

/snip/

The decision is a milestone for the agency, which formed the unit before Osama bin Laden became a household name and bolstered its ranks after the Sept. 11 attacks, when President Bush pledged to bring Mr. bin Laden to justice "dead or alive."

/snip/

Michael Scheuer, a former senior C.I.A. official who was the first head of the unit, said the move reflected a view within the agency that Mr. bin Laden was no longer the threat he once was.

Mr. Scheuer said that view was mistaken.
__________________________________________

(doh!)

[pinniped]

25. * lives in Bizarro World. Closing the unit was a good thing.

North is south, east is west, up is down, black is white.

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

17. Osama is a Saudi Arabian

NOT an Afghani. NOT an Iraqi. NOT a Pakistani. NOT an Iranian.

What's your NEXT excuse, Georgie boy? :shrug:

BTW, there's also an urban myth that you are the American President. That particular myth has been long since debunked as a throw-away line, so stop saying that.

Putz.

[SKKY]

18. Yes it has because he doesn't care. Remember? He said so...

"I just don't send a lot of time thinking about him."

[keopeli]

19. "has not slackened" means Bush isn't worried about bin Laden

Bush has told us before what he thinks of bin laden:

link

"Q But don't you believe that the threat that bin Laden posed won't truly be eliminated until he is found either dead or alive?

THE PRESIDENT: Well, as I say, we haven't heard much from him. And I wouldn't necessarily say he's at the center of any command structure. And, again, I don't know where he is. I -- I'll repeat what I said. I truly am not that concerned about him. I know he is on the run. I was concerned about him, when he had taken over a country. I was concerned about the fact that he was basically running Afghanistan and calling the shots for the Taliban.

But once we set out the policy and started executing the plan, he became -- we shoved him out more and more on the margins. He has no place to train his al Qaeda killers anymore. And if we -- excuse me for a minute -- and if we find a training camp, we'll take care of it. Either we will or our friends will. That's one of the things -- part of the new phase that's becoming apparent to the American people is that we're working closely with other governments to deny sanctuary, or training, or a place to hide, or a place to raise money.

And we've got more work to do. See, that's the thing the American people have got to understand, that we've only been at this six months. This is going to be a long struggle. I keep saying that; I don't know whether you all believe me or not. But time will show you that it's going to take a long time to achieve this objective. And I can assure you, I am not going to blink. And I'm not going to get tired. Because I know what is at stake. And history has called us to action, and I am going to seize this moment for the good of the world, for peace in the world and for freedom."

[MasonJar]

21. They probably have him; he will appear Monday Nov 6 in chains.

[pinniped]

24. I don't think they were ever 'looking' for him.

OBL's just like the al-Zarqawi myth, only he has a longer contract.

When you see OBL in a new video fumbling with his Russian AKS-74U assault rifle, that's when his contract is set to expire.

[sakabatou]

26. It isn't an urban myth, *

You really DID slack off.

[lumberjack_jeff]

27. According to the Asia Times

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/HI14Df03.html

Bin Laden is in Afghanistan. Setting up to do some Republican campaigning, no doubt.

[sofa king]

28. Because wet spaghetti is as slack as it gets.

One day George Patton assembled his generals and gave them a demonstration with a piece of wet spaghetti on a plate. You don't push wet spaghetti or armies in the field from the rear, he told them. You have to pull them to victory from the front.

George W. Bush is the classic example of a Rear Eschelon Mother Fucker leading from the rear, and the hunt for Osama is that piece of wet spaghetti sliding off the plate.

[sweetheart]

30. isn't that the joke bush was looking for in his office...

"I knew i left his joke around here somewhere, is it behind my desk where i cower from public scrutiny,
or is it here behind this bookcase where i bury the bones?"

[tenseconds]

32. hoax

They aren't even looking for him.He's probably being protected by us or he is dead. Heads or tails. You call.

[TheCowsCameHome]

33. Yeah, sure. OBL will be dead of old age before Bush catches him.

[Vidar]

35. That simply means it was a sham to begin with.

[leesa]

36. As Randi Rhodes says, "Why doesn't he just look his number up on

his rolodex?" The families have been business partners and pals for decades. If anyone knows where OBL is, Bush does.

[agincourt]

37. ???????????

You mean we actually had one?

[0007]

38. Shame shame shame on you junior

[ProgressiveEconomist]

39. Dubya went flop-flip-flop on justice for bin-Laden in just 5 days,

from his "no matter how long it takes" to find OBL Sept 11th speech (flop)

to the OBL "not a top priority" interview with 7 journos the following morning (flip)

to these "stayed focused" pretenses of Friday (flop). See http://mediamatters.org/items/200609140009 for quotes and links.

[Dem2theMax]

40. Would he make up his fricken mind?

AAAAARRRRRRGGGGGGG!


Oh wait. I forgot.


He doesn't HAVE a mind.

[WhiteTara]

41. How to tell with * is lying?

He opens his mouth and speaks.
:nuke:

[bamacrat]

42. No, Im sure their looking. He just isnt in IRAQ.

I heard something about pulling out of Afganistan earlier this week.

[sattahipdeep]

43. Guardian Taliban rise again

Kandahar under threat, war raging in two provinces
and an isolated president. So what went wrong?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/afghanistan/story/0,,1873769,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=1

[BreweryYardRat]

45. Hasn't slackened, my ass.

[heliarc]

46. This guy's like a freaking see-saw

Sometimes Bin Ladin isn't important, and sometimes he's the focus of their efforts. I sincerely hope that they aren't really holding him and preparing for an October Surprise. As much as I hope that Bin Ladin is captured, I can't stomach the way these assholes spin this crap anymore.