Salon: 4 year anniversary of Bush receiving a warning while on vacation

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

We know we're a little early, but as George W. Bush settles into the first full day of his five-week vacation in Crawford, Texas, we want to be the first to wish him a happy anniversary. It was four years ago this week, also in the midst of a Crawford vacation, that Bush received the presidential daily briefing that warned, "Bin Laden Determined to Strike in US."

Bush has, quite literally, gone to war over much more speculative intelligence. But when the president received the bin Laden PDB on Aug. 6, 2001, he went bass fishing instead. We don't know if he caught anything that day. We do know, however, that he still hasn't caught Osama bin Laden. We wonder if the president will spend much of his time at Crawford this month thinking about the big one that got away. Back in June, Bush's CIA director, Porter Goss, said the United States has an "excellent idea" where bin Laden is, but that "weak links" in the war on terrorism are hampering the hunt. "We are making very good progress on it," Goss told Time. "But when you go to the very difficult question of dealing with sanctuaries in sovereign states, you're dealing with a problem of our sense of international obligation, fair play."

Goss was almost certainly referring to the problem of Pakistan. As former 9/11 committee co-chairman Lee Hamilton noted at a hearing Tuesday, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf "has not been all that helpful, really, in helping us hunt for Osama bin Laden." Late last month, Musharraf said said that his "gut" tells him that bin Laden is still alive and hiding somewhere in the "border regions" between Pakistan and Afghanistan. But bin Laden remains a popular figure in Pakistan -- in a recent poll, 51 percent of Pakistanis said they had confidence that he'd do the right thing in world affairs -- and Musharraf doesn't sound particularly eager to hunt him down. Musharraf said that Pakistani forces are "capable" of capturing bin Laden "if" they get intelligence that leads to him, but he said that he wouldn't allow U.S. troops to chase bin Laden in Pakistan, and he was equivocal about whether he'd hand over the al-Qaida leader to the United States if Pakistani forces ever catch him themselves. "We hope he's found in Afghanistan by the Americans," he said. "I would much prefer that somebody else handled him."

At a White House press briefing last week, Scott McClellan brushed aside questions about Musharraf's commitment to the hunt. "He is a good partner in the global war on terrorism," McClellan said of Musharraf. "He recognizes the enemy and the nature of the enemy that we are up against." If only the same could have been said about Bush four years ago.

http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/index.html?blog=/politics/war_room/2005/08/03/crawford/index.html

[Inland]

1. kicked for important anniversary, snarky picture. nt.

[BlueEyedSon]

2. For those of you who don't remember....

[babylonsister]

3. I watched CNN at 3:30pm. The repug rep (former wh

employee, female) was extremely defensive regarding the blivet and his 5 weeks in Crawford, claiming it's a working vacation and he's going to be very busy. She protesteth too much; they must hear the whisperings/shoutings of how everyone is viewing him and his vacation, both in '01 and now.

[Scout1071]

4. Bush said he would go after Osama and those who would harbor

him. Why in the f*** are we in Iraq and not Pakistan?

[ClayZ]

5. Crawford!

[Boo Boo]

6. Exactly. So much for

"Either you're with us or against us," eh?

Back in June, Bush's CIA director, Porter Goss, said the United States has an "excellent idea" where bin Laden is, but that "weak links" in the war on terrorism are hampering the hunt. "We are making very good progress on it," Goss told Time. "But when you go to the very difficult question of dealing with sanctuaries in sovereign states, you're dealing with a problem of our sense of international obligation, fair play."

That's an interesting statement by Goss; it seems a direct contradiction of Neocon orthodoxy, and the so-called Bush Doctrine, wherein states that harbor terrorists (among other offenses) sacrifice their sovereignty. What a load of horseshit! When it comes to Pakistan we won't even cross the border in pursuit of Taliban fighters.

We're living in an ass-backwards world. If there is any state that we should be hammering on with every tool at our disposal it's Pakistan. They are a Client State of both the Taliban and al-Qaeda; they transported al-Qaeda out of Afghanistan to Pakistan during our invasion; they are the literal nexus of nuclear proliferation; their top nuclear scientist actually met with al-Qaeda... But, according to Bush, they're our valuable ally in the WOT.

Jeebus. We're playin' with fire.

[Wizard777]

8. wherein states that harbor terrorists sacrifice their sovereignty

Would that include Florida? Just look at how much power the FBI has gained under the Bush II omnibus crime bill AKA the Patriot Act. Just by not allowing their agents to question the Middle Eastern males taking flying lessons in Florida.

[Cha]

7. This is a powerful Soundbite

that the rephucks are fond of using..

"We don't know if he caught anything that day. We do know, however, that he still hasn't caught Osama bin Laden."

I always think of that August 6th(2001)memo when I think of bush falling asleep on the job..I guess he just went fishin' instead.