The Other 9/11: Forgotten stories

[sfpcjock]

Thom Hartmann mentioned this one today. But how could W have invaded Iraq if he never bombed the Afghan people first?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2001/oct/14/afghanistan.terrorism5"> Bush rejects Taliban offer to hand Bin Laden over - Guardian.co.uk

President George Bush rejected as "non-negotiable" an offer by the Taliban to discuss turning over Osama bin Laden if the United States ended the bombing in Afghanistan.

Returning to the White House after a weekend at Camp David, the president said the bombing would not stop, unless the ruling Taliban "turn over, turn his cohorts over, turn any hostages they hold over." He added, "There's no need to discuss innocence or guilt. We know he's guilty". In Jalalabad, deputy prime minister Haji Abdul Kabir - the third most powerful figure in the ruling Taliban regime - told reporters that the Taliban would require evidence that Bin Laden was behind the September 11 terrorist attacks in the US, but added: "we would be ready to hand him over to a third country".

The offer came a day after the Taliban's supreme leader rebuffed Bush's "second chance" for the Islamic militia to surrender Bin Laden to the US.

Mullah Mohammed Omar said there was no move to "hand anyone over".

...

[Hydra]

1. I've mentioned this before

Mostly to comments of "It doesn't matter, we...what were we doing?"

This, perhaps more than anything else shows that our priority was never Bin Laden. He was a convenient excuse to invade various countries that China and Russia would have been, at the very least, nervous about us controlling.

[sfpcjock]

2. Thank you. Here is another story on same...

Thom Hartmann mentioned this one today. But how could W have invaded Iraq if he never bombed the Afghan people first?

http://realitybasedbob.sayanythingblog.com/2011/05/02/bush-was-offered-osama-bin-laden-on-a-silver-platter/">Bush rejects Taliban offer to surrender bin Laden Second week of bombing begins

Media visits village hit by missile

By Andrew Buncombe in Washington

Monday, 15 October 2001

After a week of debilitating strikes at targets across Afghanistan, the Taliban repeated an offer to hand over Osama bin Laden, only to be rejected by President Bush.

The offer yesterday from Haji Abdul Kabir, the Taliban’s deputy prime minister, to surrender Mr bin Laden if America would halt its bombing and provide evidence against the Saudi-born dissident was not new but it suggested the Taliban are increasingly weary of the air strikes, which have crippled much of their military and communications assets.

The move came as the Taliban granted foreign journalists unprecedented access to the interior for the first time. Reporters were escorted to the village of Karam in southern Afghanistan, where the Taliban said up to 200 civilians were killed in an American bombardment last Wednesday.

The reporters saw clear evidence that many civilians had been killed in the attack, though they could not confirm the number of deaths. “I ask America not to kill us,” pleaded Hussain Khan, who said he had lost four children in the raid. In the rubble of one house, the remains of an arm stuck out from beneath a pile of bricks. A leg had been uncovered near by.
...

[Hydra]

3. I remember some of that during the media blackout

I recall Larry Flynt of all people demanding that we get some impartial media access to the ground situation, while it was almost dead silent in the news for the first few months.

I tried to tell people there was something very wrong with the lack of coverage, but too many were caught up in the outrage over 9/11 to see that they'd been and were being played.

[sfpcjock]

4. 100%. Thanks again.

Bush ordered that the last 28 pages of the Congressional Inquiry concerned with foreign support of the criminals who attacked our country be withheld. The FBI previously withheld information about Saudis who supported the hijackers, 15 of the 19 of whom were themselves Saudis; Bush knowing that, Summers says here that the hijackers were often with a Saudi couple living in Florida prior to the attacks.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31510813/ns/msnbc_tv-the_dylan_ratigan_show/#44461188"> Authors Anthony Summers and Robbyn Swan take a look at the terrorist attacks of 9/11. - Dylan Ratigan, Sept. 9 (video)

[Bucky]

5. As badly as the Bushies handled everything about 9/11, the Taliban offer wasn't good enough

Sorry, but handing bin Laden over to a 3rd party was simply unacceptable. Handing over only bin Laden would also be inadequate. After launching an act of war from their bases in Afghanistan, al-Qaeda didn't need to get a new martyr, they needed an epic beat down (a beat down that Bush, characteristically, chose not to deliver so that he could pursue his vanity war in Iraq).

[Hydra]

6. Had we actually cared about getting Bin Laden

All we would have had to so was to present evidence to the worldwide community. That would have been easy, right?

Had we done that, though, we wouldn't have gotten the most difficult foothold if the "string of pearls" to isolate China and Iran with.

3000+ American Citizens died because PNAC wanted to build a Middle Eastern Empire. Bush had every warning possible about the 9/11 hijackers, and the FBI was ready to pick them up. They were told to leave them alone.

Besides, why would we want to "beatdown" people who were once on our payroll?