I missed the implications earlier..going after Bin Laden

[cally]

Read this article, please. It implies that the US did not have the resources to go after Bin Laden because the military was focused in Iraq. I missed the implications because we all knew that, but it hit the NYTimes.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/02/29/MNG5H5AQLA1.DTL

Bush OKs commando team to try to capture bin Laden

David E. Sanger, Eric Schmitt, New York Times
Sunday, February 29, 2004



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



Washington -- President Bush has approved a plan to intensify the effort to capture or kill Osama bin Laden, senior administration and military officials say, as a combination of better intelligence, improving weather and a refocusing of resources away from Iraq has reinvigorated the hunt along the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The plan will apply both new forces and new tactics to the task, said senior officials in Washington and Afghanistan.

The group at the center of the effort is Task Force 121, the covert commando team of Special Operations forces and Central Intelligence Agency officers. The team was involved in Saddam Hussein's capture in Iraq, and is gradually shifting its forces to Afghanistan to step up the search for bin Laden and Mullah Mohammed Omar, the former Taliban leader.

After a visit to Pakistan earlier this month by CIA director George Tenet, U.S. officials say, President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan appears to be far more seriously committed to tracking down al Qaeda and Taliban militants along the semiautonomous border region.

[Stephanie]

1. So for the past two years, bin Laden was free to plan more attacks

While BushCO got their neo-con war on in Iraq.

That's just great.

[cally]

2. Bushco just admitted that

in this article..Astounding. :scared:

[BigBigBear]

3. Hardly a surprise

A solid argument against this Iraq fiasco since early last year.

[RamboLiberal]

4. If you pieced together the info and much of it was posted on DU

It's been widely known that * and his neocon cabal shifted resources from Osama bin Forgotten for their neocon wet dream in Iraq. For instance they took Special Forces who spoke the language and had established ties to the locals in Afghanistan and put them in to Iraq even before the war officially started and substituted Special Forces troops whose speciality was Latin American (Spanish Speaking) in to replace them in Afghanistan. A lot of other resources were pulled out as well.

Gen. Wesley Clark, Gen Anthony Zinni and other ex-military spoke out about this during the past year.

Now of course * is all hot to get Osama so he can use him to get reelected. Of course he may already be in custody and this is only a smokescreen to cover their October surprise.

[cally]

6. I know that but it has not been widely known

We know it at DU but it hit the mainstream newspapers. That is my point.

[Stephanie]

5. So, Bush is only interested in getting bin Laden now the election is near?

Much of the timing now is driven by the weather: As winter snows melt, troops can navigate in the high mountain passes and trails where many al Qaeda and Taliban members are believed to be hiding. But presidential politics are also at play. Though the White House denies that Bush is letting the election influence strategy, some of his aides have privately spoken about the advantages of going into the last months of the election campaign with both Hussein and bin Laden in custody.

This is a BETRAYAL and an OUTRAGE.

Bush is running on the platform that 9/11 Changed Everything, but he hasn't changed at all. He did nothing to prevent 9/11, and he has done nothing to prevent another 9/11. He only wants bin Laden's capture when it might give him a strategic bump in the polls.

Bush is a FRAUD.

[cally]

8. Exactly

I knew that but the article says that. I saw this in the SF Chronicle but it's a NY Times article. Amazing.

[pinniped]

10. In Afghanistan the snow only melts in chimpy election years.

n/t

[Stephanie]

13. Please send that line to our nominee

Every statement they make is such a transparent lie!

[napi21]

7. I had written before that we might already have OBL....

my son was home for a vacation in January. He is in the Navy.
When I expressed how much I disliked * we got talking about the reasons why. When I mentioned why would he have pulled out of Afg. just to go after Iraq, he said "Mom, the President knows a lot more than you do, I suspect they wouldn't have pulled out if they didn't already have him, know where he is, or know he's dead. The military wouldn't have left a mission...they just don't operated that way!"

It's looking more and more like he just might have been right!

Damn!!!

[Disturbed]

9. Osama

bin Laden has around $20 Million. With the US and others trying to capture him would he stay in the Afghan area? Is he stupid? I think not!

[bubba_fett]

11. I'll play the doomsayer - We're screwed

They've already got Bin Laden, oct. surprise 2 coming up. Joe Swing voter is right there waiting to fall for it.

I was talking to my conservative family, and they were all in agreement with me that bush would pull the Bin Laden card at the last minute, they seemed to think it was a good idea, another great strategy from our fearless leader.

[lazarus]

12. Joe Swing Voter won't fall for it

The closer we get to the election, the more suspicious a sudden capture of bin Laden will be.

Folks already think Bush is a liar and a cheat. Try to find someone to disagree with the proposition that we're trying to find ObL now because the election is coming up.

[napi21]

14. But the media will do 24/7 on that!

There are still a lot of the population of our country who only respond to the inundation of media BS.

I sure hope you're right, but I've met too many people, here in Ga. who don't know anybody buy Kerry, don't think it matters if they vote, and if they're still employed, don't really care if * is re-elected.