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Senate report: Bin Laden was 'within our grasp'

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Well going after him would have been dangerous! He had an underground fortress a James Bond villian would have been envious of and neither Bond nor McGuyver were around!

http://www.edwardjayepstein.com/2002question/cave.htm

And with a fortress like that he might have had laser weapon satellites in orbit too! So they just dropped bombs from a distance. Sniper teams and mobile divisions went all the way to Afghan just to be sidelined.

Of course anyone who suggests they let bin go would have to be a tinfoil hat wearing conspiracy theorist. Like Ol' Rummy said, they did not have just one fortress, they had many! Of course the wise believe that to this day! LOL!

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This isn't news. We already knew this, just like with the recent article that says bush was "hell bent" on invading Iraq. Is there a reason for rehashing all of this?

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I like the horses in the Diagram. The US should have sent a few booby trapped horses into the mountains which exploded upon the utterance of the phrase "death to America".

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“But the decisions that opened the door for his escape to Pakistan allowed bin Laden to emerge as a potent symbolic figure who continues to attract a steady flow of money and inspire fanatics worldwide."

I'm surprised the article even mentions that.

There is, at least from the Blame America No Matter What crowd, almost zero condemnation of OBL's supporters and followers. We are even supposed to believe, after documentation of literally thousands of terrorist attacks done in the name of Islam since 9-11, that his is a "religion of peace."

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Gotta love that pinko Kerry!If the situation at the time could lead up to invading pakistan (One Big stronghold of the taliban)we would have possibly expanded an already bad situation.As for Rumsfeld,Iviewed him as an egomaniacal blow-hard at Cheneys (Not Bushs)beck and call.Oh,well, Instead of capturing Bin laden.,(remember W.T.C.-9/11?)We got to see A Tin-Pot Dictator swing,A Nation Destoyed A New generation of "Death To America"arabs and a new wave of Apologists at the Very Top of our government!Please pass the BROMO !

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I have a tough time getting worked up by anything a spineless loser like John Kerry trots out. Besides, polls show over one-third of registered Democrats think Osama bin Laden was not behind or involved with 9-11, or that the attacks on the Trade Centers in New York and our Pentagon were 'an inside job, man!'

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Senate report: Bin Laden was 'within our grasp'

no kidding.......what's the next report going to be "scientists discover water is wet"?

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So does that mean in other words that they let him go on purpose in order to have an excuse for attacking Iraq and Afghanistan for their pipeline dream?

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"I have a tough time getting worked up by anything a spineless loser like John Kerry trots out"

That's because you much more comfortable sitting in Denial about the muck-up made by Bush and Rumsfeldt.

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hehe... "the fish that got away!".

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"costly decision not to pursue the terrorist (mis)leader with massive force"

But, but, if they'd decided to purse Binny with massive force, innocent civilians may have been killed.

Anyway, no worries, I'm confident President Obama will capture Binny and put him on trial in New York.

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"But, but, if they'd decided to purse Binny with massive force, innocent civilians may have been killed."

Thousands of innocent civilians were killed. And still are being killed. Only it's not funny to the rest of us....

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"Thousands of innocent civilians were killed"

Not on Tora Bora. Look it up, and then get back here and admit you're wrong again.

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Thousands of innocents were killed period.

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Tora Bora would have been the perfect place for a well placed tactical nuclear strike! That would have settled the issue of a backlash right then and there. As for innocents being killed? There were none in Tora Bora that could be considered innocent!

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Democrats: "Bin Laden was within our grasp"

Rumsfeld: "the evidence was not conclusive about bin Laden's location"

I'm going with Rumsfeld here. The Democrats make it sound as though Binny was holed up in a specific location, surrounded on all sides.

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I'm going with Rumsfeld here. The Democrats make it sound as though Binny was holed up in a specific location, surrounded on all sides.

Of course you are sarge. You polish the floor under his desk while working on your knees.

Gotta agree with USADude, next story please, this one is old, sarge needs a new pair of kneepads.

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"I'm going with Rumsfeld here."

Rulsfelt was a failure in his post. He bungled Afghanistan and Iraq, and left office as a failure.

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victimcrat: "There is, at least from the Blame America No Matter What crowd, almost zero condemnation of OBL's supporters and followers."

Yeah... they're actually blaming bush and co. for not getting Bin Laden when they had the chance because they LOVE the man and wanted to give him flowers and cookies. Duh!

sarge: "Not on Tora Bora. Look it up, and then get back here and admit you're wrong again."

So you're saying it's good Bin Laden was not pursued so that the very few, if any, innocent civilians living in the 'forbidden lands' of mountainous Tora Bora were spared, eh? How many people live in that area, anyway, sarge? I'm just curious, because I want to compare it with the hundreds of thousands of innocents dead that you justify by saying the war is good and it's okay because they are fighting terrorism. But hey, if it's just OBL and you can spare a few people that might be hiding by chance in the area, you're saying it's okay.

Anyway, I agree with what was said above. This is not news. It IS fun to watch the ultra-rights try defending it by throwing out paradoxical arguments and non-sequiturs.

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sarge: "I'm going with Rumsfeld here."

You mean the man who was credited with scandal and resigned in disgrace... that guy? Should I be surprised?

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"I have a tough time getting worked up by anything a spineless loser like John Kerry trots out"

Classic, coming from a guy who supports the former president, who's daddy got him out of combat so he could get drunk on a ship far from it, and a four-time draft dodger for vice, instead of Kerry who fought for his country. But of course, you can't well have an arm-chair warrior doing anything but sticking up for his ilk.

Guy, grow an argument and try talking about the issue instead of unrelated issues. I know this article hurts, but suck it up and try defending yourself or finally admitting you've been wrong all this time. At least then you might have an ounce of credibility.

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I see that smithinjapan is another one who believes that Binny was holed up in a specific location within Tora Bora, completely surrounded.

"You mean the man who was credited with scandal and resigned in disgrace"

What scandal? The scandal of serving his country as defense secretary under two presidents? He didn't resign in disgrace. He resigned under pressure with the Iraq war being unpopular.

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Classic, coming from a guy who supports the former president,

On Iraq and Afghanistan I support the current one as well, so far. He hasn't precipitously withdrawn our troops in Iraq (and was man enough to admit he was wrong on the surge) and it appears he will disappoint his lefty base soon with news about a troop increase to Afghanistan.

Gitmo is still open. It could have been closed his first day in office - - if Obama really wanted that.

Bush era surveillance laws are still on the books.

Yes sir, it looks like Obama played numbskull, smithinjapan and millions of progressives, and played them well.

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Here we had a defense secretary ( Rumsfeld ) who was concerned that a massive military strike on Tora Bora would have killed innocents and triggered a backlash, and for that he is accused of scandal and of resigning in "disgrace". Can't win with some people.

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Perhaps CoolCali can tell us exactly which cave Binny was holed up in, surrounded on all sides.

Moderator: Please do not refer to Bin Laden as "Binny." It lowers the level of discussion.

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"Rulsfelt was a failure"

Har!

"He bungled Afghanistan and Iraq"

Lessee... the Taliban routed from power, girls going to school again... Saddam brought to justice and a freely elected government that doesn't threaten its neighbors or seek WMD... yes, a complete bungle! In the jungle!

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Perhaps CoolCali can tell us exactly which cave bin Laden was holed up in, surrounded on all sides.

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the Taliban routed from power, girls going to school again... Saddam brought to justice and a freely elected government that doesn't threaten its neighbors or seek WMD

You sure do look on the bright side of life Sarge. on another note...collapsed US economy, world wide depression, 100s of 100s dead....

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"Coulda shoulda but didnt"

What? Bomb the hell out of Tora Bora without knowing exactly where bin Laden was?

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"You sure do look on the bright side of life Sarge"

That's me! But here I'm just stating the facts.

"on another note...collapsed US economy..."

The topic is bin Laden, who if he's really still alive, is obviously not in charge of anything of significance anymore, thanks to the Bush admnistration.

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Instead of everybody attacking Sarge, attack the so called Bin Laden.

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Without Bin Laden there is no poster child for this war. =You need two sides for any war. Somehow Bin Laden satisfies the requisite for War in the minds of the populace and off course the Libs and media have done an exceptional job promoting this war also.

Give yourself a pat on the back for indebting everyone thru the Federal Reserve. -You are a hero to the rich and this gives them even more confidence to be brazen in their actions. =More war, more control.

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"In fact, the response of the U.S. government to the terrorist attacks has been exactly as Osama bin Laden and his colleagues intended. They did not expect to defeat the United States by knocking down a few buildings. Nor were they motivated by some irrational hatred of freedom.

Rather the attacks were designed to provoke a reaction that would expose the hypocrisy of the United States, laying bare the hard iron fist of militarism and violence within the soft velvet glove of Hollywood and soda-pop.

The explicit goal was to goad the American empire into using its vast arsenal of destructive weapons in ways that would gradually undermine its own economic and military power. Bin Laden and his second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahiri understood so much better than America’s deluded leaders that this would be a war the United States could not win.

But neither the opportunism nor the hypocrisy of U.S. policy explain why American soldiers are fighting, killing and dying in Afghanistan of all places." Source: www.votersforpeace.us/press/index.php?itemid=3487

OBL's plan sure is working and people like Sarge STILL can't see how royally they have been sucked in.

They see the overthrown dictators but are blind to the deteriorating economy back home.

They see the deposed regimes abroad but ignore the rapidly spiralling debt back home.

Can't see the forest for the trees.

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They see the deposed regimes abroad but ignore the rapidly spiralling debt back home.

And things are going just swimmingly in Dubai, eh mate?

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The sad fact is the war supporters like Sarge and victimcrat seem oblivious to how their country's economy is tanking so badly - with debt skyrocketing and inflation soon to begin spiking to pay interest on bonds issued to foreigners, that they miss the fact that more and more of America's money, land and control is being ceded to foreigners, and they miss the fact that thousands of Americans men and women have died for nothing all for what?

to topple a dictator in Iraq who was never a threat, to go on a wild goose chase of a bogeyman called OBL among the rocks of Afghanistan, all the while simultaneously pretending that they actually care about the people of both those nations by trumpeting how America 'liberated' both countries while in reality the U.S. destroyed Iraq and is in the process of doing the same to Afghanistan.

You just can't get more blind than that.

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victimcrat - "And things are going just swimmingly in Dubai, eh mate?"

Dodge. Change the subject. Blame something else.

No surprises there. :-)

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What rubbish! OBL is dead. His obit appeared in Al Wafd newspaper on December 26th 2001 in Cairo, and also in the New Statesman in India the same day. FOX News even reported it at the time: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,41576,00.html but, it seems that the POTUS was too hung over to notice after all the partying in the White House. By now it matters little. Every drone strike that kills another innocent family minding their own business just adds to the list of those willing to fight back.

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Next thing you know if we dont get Bin Ladern hell be movin his tent to Iran and unfortunately we mite gonna have 2 bomb em back into the ice age. Whats wrong with Iranian oil anyhow?

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This needs to be brought back up over and over and over again. We see books and papers written decades after something has happened, rethinking and rehashing what was done and where we screwed up.

Only by looking at the failures of the george bush administration will we ever understand why we're still in Afghanistan. Why we're in Iraq at all and why we got to where we are in Iraq, period.

We rehash these failures so we don't do again what they did so blindly.

This ought to be part of the teachings in schools. They are shown successes and failures. This failed administration should be shown as one of the greatest failures. The bush administration needs to be examined and even surgically dissected to see who was at fault at every turn. It ought to be examined no less then the dissection of the Clinton, Carter or Nixon administration. < :-)

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The topic is bin Laden, who if he's really still alive, is obviously not in charge of anything of significance anymore, thanks to the Bush admnistration.

Bin Laden stands as a symbol of Moslem defiance in the face of retaliation by the world's supposed greatest military force. He inspires a fair number of the attacks that are killing coalition servicepeople. Ask the next of kin of anyone killed over there if they are pleased that bin Laden has not been brought to justice.

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I have yet to see any evidence that I could have faith in that Bin Laden is still alive, be he buried under in some cave in Tora Bora or if he died in some Saudi private hospital it makes little difference. He has become the figurehead replacing Che on the t-shirts of many. Very publicly dead he would have been the martyr so many Muslims would have wanted, at least “alive” he still has some use to the US as the boggy man. All that we the people (of the world) have ever seen come out of the whitehouse and the pentagon in respect to this or any other of America’s conflicts are lies. Why is anybody taking this new set of lies any more seriously than the previous ones?

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man, some of you guys are acting like teenage girls..... a Dem says something you want to hear and you start jumping for joy and you repub supporters like the jilted ex-boyfriend. Amazing how American politicians can make people jump.

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aday: "Only by looking at the failures of the george bush administration will we ever understand why we're still in Afghanistan." Ok, I'll agree but we should go further. Why didn't Clinton, who tried twice to get OBL failed to do so and why was it put under the carpet? Clinton has admitted this to a degree.

" Why we're in Iraq at all and why we got to where we are in Iraq, period." Blame Bush all you want, but blaming him and at the same time kissing others in the gov isn't helping either.

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All the US had to do was provide the Taliban with evidence that OBL was behind 9/11 and they would have handed him over. I wonder why the US avoided this option and instead opted for war.

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Bill Clinton let Bin Ladin get away twice; once in Sudan and once in Afghanistan.

That they now leak this story in order to bash Bush once again is pure politics --- distract from the current debacle and take the focus off Obamas bumbling.

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"Bill Clinton let Bin Ladin get away twice; once in Sudan and once in Afghanistan."

Rubbish.

9/11 made bin Laden a household name. Up until then he was basicaly an un-known entity to the rest of the world. Bush Co had their chance when they invaded Afghanistan, and apparently blew it as they disappeared into Pakistan. That's why they're getting rightfully bashed for it.

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"President Clinton and his national security team ignored several opportunities to capture Osama bin Laden and his terrorist associates, including one as late as last year"

from Mansoor Ijaz, L.A. Times, December 5, 2001

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I forgot - American media sources are all 'biased', in the pockets of the corporations - or Big Oil - or some other bogeymen.

So here is the view from abroad

The Sunday Times of London 01/06/2002

PRESIDENT Bill Clinton turned down at least three offers involving foreign governments to help to seize Osama Bin Laden after he was identified as a terrorist who was threatening America, according to sources in Washington and the Middle East.

Clinton himself, according to one Washington source, has described the refusal to accept the first of the offers as "the biggest mistake" of his presidency.

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Yes, old friend. Reports after 9/11.

Prior to 9/11, nobody had really heard of him.

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