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© Copyright 2009 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.White House still lacks solid intel on bin Laden
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WilliB
No cave in Pakistan necessary. Al-Jazeera, Al-Manar TV, and similar Arabic news sources suffice.
In fact, 9-11 troother nonsense is rampant all over islamic websites, check yourself.
No need to wonder where Sabiwabi gets his ideas from.
USARonin
A cave in Pakistan?
sabiwabi
No
USARonin
No, (Osama Bin Laden) didn't confess. Many of the videos are not even of him.
sabiwabi, are you gettin' these ideas from CAIR?
I find what you believe to be memorable.
Thank you.
sabiwabi
No, he didn't confess. Many of the videos are not even of him. I'm surprised all this is based on some video(s).
USARonin
Sabiwabi, I thought OBL confessed on video and made sure Al Jazerro played it.
Then he made recordin's for radio several times.
Maybe the Taliban don't have cable TV and radio signals can't reach them either. Yes, that's it.
sabiwabi
No! The Taliban refused to surrender bin Laden without first seeing the evidence that he was behind the attacks. The evidence was NEVER provided, there ain't none.
OldGeezer
taka,
Treating terrorist actions as a law enforcement issue would not have yielded any real results. The Taliban refused to surrender bin Laden and hosted terrorist training camps. Do you really expect that any wrangling from the law enforcement perspective would have prodded the Taliban into changing their minds? Would a court decision make a difference? The military option could have been used more effectively, but usage of it has driven most state-sponsored terrorism underground.
It remains that a true solution to Islamic terrorism will only arise with changes in Islam, a modernization of beliefs and purging of extremist teachings.
zurcronium
Here you go republican misfits, the real source of WMD in Iraq. A cab driver in Iraq. What a bunch of fools you must all feel like . . . So the next phony war that the faith-based neocon-artist gin up, check sources in your cab companies. One million dead for this. Nice work bush and blair, you criminals.
A British parliamentarian claimed in a report published Tuesday that an Iraqi cab driver was the source of an infamous claim made by Prime Minister Tony Blair that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction.
The member of Parliament, a member of the conservative British Tory Party, claims that he was told by a British intelligence official that the claim actually came from an Iraqi taxi driver, and that it was considered highly unreliable but was tacitly backed by Blair's government in public statements anyway.
According to the report, the taxi driver worked near Iraq's border with Jordan. The cab driver is said to have made the comments while transporting two British intelligence officers.
"Under pressure from Downing Street to find anything to back up the WMD case, [British intelligence services] were squeezing their agents in Iraq for anything at all," MP Adam Holloway wrote in his report, leaked to the British Daily Mail. "One agent did come up with something - the [claim that chemical weapons could be launched on British forces in Cyprus in] '45 minutes,' allegedly discussed in a high-level Iraqi political meeting."
Taka313
He could be in Canada by now! No one thought of that, did they? No, only I did.
Wayne, posts like that are exactly why we pay for the internet. I spit lemonade everywhere after reading that.
Peace,
Taka
Taka313
bush was really put in a bind after the attacks on the WTC and Pentagon. He absolutely had to do something grandiose to show the American people he was serious about getting bin laden. Where he really failed was in the "serious about getting bin laden" department. He nailed grandiose.
I believe that had the U.S. taken a much less popular route at the time and treated this as a law enforcement issue and not a war on a word issue, bin laden would likely be in custody or dead.
Peace,
Taka
WilliB
Who is taking a "stab"?
I simply pointed out that Obama will NOT "catch Osama". It is a ludicrious idea on too many levels to list here.
adaydream
There you go again. Just taking a stab. Typical. < :-)
WilliB
daydream:
Obama will not catch any Osama, no matter how much you dream.
adaydream
Well I can tell how the republicans are so concerned about catching Ossama. They don't care about whether he's caught and prosecuted. They like it apparently that bush allowed him to escape. Not surprised. < :-)
sabiwabi
This provides endless options to the criminal coalition leaders. They can go where they want and for as long as they want.
I'm surprised there are still many people #^#~$&" enough to still believe OBL masterminded the attacks.
WilliB
USAFdude:
Convicted of what exactly, and why?
WilliB
adaydream:
What you mean "the attack"? There have been thousands of jihadist attacks on the US over the last decade, why do you use the singular?
And "masterminding" is a wishy-washy term that won´t hold up in court. If you mean 9/11, sure he bragged about it and praised it. So did countless other jihad leaders.
But good luck trying to prove any "masterminding" in a civilian court with its high standards for evidence. What does "masterminding" mean, anyway?
adaydream
Whatever, no matter my post you'd have found fault. < :-)
SuperLib
But when others do it they are Bush-loving Republicans?
adaydream
I guess I'm going against my normal nature. Ossama bin Laden masterminded the attack on the US and almost 3000 people, mainly US citizens died. In his case I can go against my normal nature. If that makes me a hypocrit in this case, so be it. I can still sleep peacefully with myself.
Instead of dwelling on OBL we just need to go after him once again, maybe even unannounced, unlike normal operations.
Maybe we ought to take a real good look at how we got here, how Iraq got where it did and how the wars started by george bush were started and fault for Haliburton's benefit. "Stay the Course" was another message of hang in there Haliburton, you got another couple of years profit coming. Then "Stay the Course" again, Haliburton we love you, here's another check. After 6 years, sorry we have to change the way we do business. The democrats won. < :-)
zurcronium
So why did Bush let OBL go free when he was trapped and nearly captured in Torabora? The rightwing republicans who litter this board have no answer for that at all. He let the mastermind of 9-11 free so he could plot more terrorism against the USA.
adaydream knows the truth, the rightwing as usual is afraid of the truth. Bush failed his country and so have his followers.
SuperLib
Perhaps you are confused. I was talking about how you wanted to put Bin Laden in a hole and isolate him from the outside world forever, something which would violate his civil rights. Retreating into Bush mode doesn't change the comments that you made.
pathat
White House still lacks solid intel on bin Laden
Maybe they'll figure it out in another ten years.
OldGeezer
Unlawful enemy combatants are not entitled to civilian trials. In fact, military tribunals have been used by the United States to try unlawful enemy combatants (German infiltrators/saboteurs) since WWII. Civilian trials of unlawful enemy combatants such as KSM et al goes against precedence and risks exposure of intelligence assets and techniques. That is why the military and intelligence community is against civilian trials of such persons. New Yorkers are against NYC trials because 9/11 is a highly sensitive subject. Many conservatives are against the civilian trials because they do not trust the motives of administration for defying precedence for these trials and not others. Some liberals are against it because it has the hallmarks of a show-trial, a trial whose outcome is guaranteed, regardless of civilian restrictions on trial evidence.
Sen. Charles Grassley (R., Iowa): “I don’t think you can say that failure to convict is not an option, when we have juries in this country.”
Attorney General Eric Holder: "I have thought about that possibility. Congress has passed legislation that would not allow the release of these individuals in this country. If there is not a successful conclusion to this trial, that would not mean that this person would be released into this country . . ."
Grassley: "My understanding is that if for some reason he’s not convicted, or a judge lets him off on a technicality, he’ll be an [unlawful] enemy combatant, so you’re right back where you started." (brackets mine)
According to the discussion with the Attorney General of the United States, no matter the outcome, the government still has the recourse of a military tribunal and there is no intention of ever releasing KSM. If so, why bother with the civilian trial? It defies precedence, creates a spectacle (like the Moussaoui trial), risk intelligence assets, and is effectively a show trial. All of the above are sound reason to not hold a civilian trial of unlawful enemy combatants.
OldGeezer
KSM is the self-admitted mastermind of 9/11 and known to have been behind other terrorist attacks (as confessed by captured terrorists and KSM himself). He claimed to have proposed the plan to OBL who approved it. Al Jazeera has aired footage of OBL in a planning session with two of the 9/11 hijackers. OBL was clearly involved in planning 9/11, but if there is a "mastermind", it appears to be KSM. Keep in mind that he may have been exaggerating that he planned it all "from A to Z."
Spider
I'd just like some evidence that he was the 'mastermind' behind the attacks.
It's a fantastically James Bond-esque phrase to use. I don't doubt his involvement as ehad of the organisation, but show me the proof that he personally planned the attacks.
SushiSake3
USADude - OBL is still free because individuals like DickMorris were cheering from their padded armchairs for bush and cheney to send the US army into Iraq on a wild goose chase after phantom WMDs that they knew never existed.
USAFdude
WilliB -
Then allow me to end the sniping for you. Neither you nor I "know" that a civilian court would let OBL walk; we know the opposite - that OBL will be convicted. This is truly what the Republicans fear - yet another success on the part of the Democrats that remains out of reach for the creaking Republicans.
DickMorris -
If bush knew so much, why is OBL still free? Checkmate.
WilliB
DickMorris
Except you can´t afford it, pal. Afghanistan is a bottomless hole, and your economy is heading downhill fast.
There is no way you can stay in Afghanistan "for decades", nor should you.
What Obama has done, however, is given the jihadists a timelime for US defeat... a stupidity that is truly mind-boggling.
DickMorris
This mess caused by Obama`s dithering and ignorance will mean we have to saty in Afghanistan for decades.
How can he and his advisers not know anything about Bin Laden? It seems all intel and good strategies finished as soon as Bush left office.
We are in a bad way, the Taliban are making progress, Al Quieda are becoming emboldened, and it`s all down to the inept policies of Obama.
WilliB
Kobekid:
Faith is for religious believers, the rest of us can do with realism. And realistically, in a civilian court, with him enjoying all the perks of civilian defendants and US lawyers pulling their stunts, they´ll let him walk.
I know that and you know that, so I don´t know what this sniping is about.
adaydream
skipthesong and SuperLib seem to be in the whining mood today. george bush allowed Ossama bin Laden escape and at the time you supported his blind actions. I don't recall you being upset about OBL getting away. You supported bush's failures then and you post as if you hope for Barack Obama's failure now.
Such losers. < :-)
Good_Jorb
I'm guessing that Osama being in a leadership role would qualify as a war criminal and could be tried in Hague but then he still gets lawyers, due process and such, which apparently is not to be extended to all.
Sarge
Good grief, Spidey, everyone agrees al-Qaida was behind the attacks, everyone agrees OBL was one of the top guys in al-Qaida if not the top guy. Everyone else can put 2 and 2 together, why can't you?
Sarge
Spider, you're right, OBL had nothing to do with the 9/11 attacks, he's completely innocent, I don't know why everyone seems to think he's guilty, lol...
Spider
Sailwind, you're American. You've been lied to. Accept it.
My point was that JT called OBL the 'Mastermind' behind the attacks 8 years ago. Show me the evidence that proves he was.
Sarge
"He is the Boggy man to frighten the American people"
The Bogeyman? To frighten just the American people? Weren't there a bunch of non-Americans who were killed in the WTC?
grafton
Nobody wants this man found, dead or alive. As things stand he’s doing a god job for the US and the nut job Islamics. If he was killed at Tora Bora his own team would have kept that quiet, so too would the Americans. And what level of good information have we had about him since then?
Finding him alive and taking him to the US to stand trial would be a nightmare, he may have taken credit for the World Trade centre but we don’t really know if that was true or simply in both his and US interest at the time. Does the White House want this man in an American court with American lawyers saying what he wants to say to every news out let in the world? Not a chance. And that alone leads me to believe he is dead, because if he were alive he too knows just how much real damage he could do just by handing himself in and he would. Him in an American could, would do more damage than every suicide bomber of the last five years. He is the Boggy man to frighten the American people with.
sailwind
Spider
Where do live? We can his trial at your house, I'm sure you wouldn't mind.
Spider
...and for anyone who missed it the first time around, here it is again, Brought to you in wonderful Blurry Color.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhctMpvszqQ
And this, American people, was passed-off as evidence, by your own government, of OBL's ultimate guilt.
Keep the public in a state of fear and you can get away with anything.
Spider
Interesting assertion JT. What are you basing this upon? The 'confession tapes'? classified intel?
How ridiculous.
PepinGalarga
there is noooooooooo way that OBL will be caught and live to reach the US. no way! He won't last 15 minutes after he's caught.
KobeKid
yeah there will be plenty of chances to debate this soon enough.
skipthesong
Gee Willi no faith in the American justice system?" Well, that's the point.. since when have any of us had true faith in the US justice system? I would bring up a few noble cases, but that would pull us off topic
KobeKid
Gee Willi no faith in the American justice system? You can always move to Canada.
skipthesong
All he is is a charismatic cleric, and a capture and trial would only make him more famous, regardless of the outcome." Ok, I agree, but like that one kid, the kid that had that face that for some reason you just, just pop him! You know what I saying?
Holding the KSM trial in New York was a real blow to all the red state patriotic wingnuts.' No, its a slap in the face to all of us who worked and lived in NYC. Its obvious no one cares as long as your agenda is moving forward! its really disgusting. I hope that once they try these guys, they have trials for the Japanese and Germans that were held Nurumberg! Maybe some of them could be re-tried and found innocent. maybe they could have Ishihara-san add his two cents. right?
seijichuudo9sha
The important thing is that this administration is keeping the CIA on a short leash, and even keeping them demoralized. Holding the KSM trial in New York was a real blow to all the red state patriotic wingnuts.
SuperLib
No access to the outside world forever? So you want to trample on his civil liberties? You, as smitty would say, are no different than the terrorists themselves.
SuperLib
I dunno. Which one do you think Obama will choose?
WilliB
Who says he is hiding, anyway?
If he is in Northern Pakistan, he is among friends and followers, who in turn are well on the way to take over the country.
And good luck with staging your "surge" in Pakistan, Barak.
TumbleDry
Sarge: W gave him about 7 years. Should have time to hide better and get a sex change (or a least buy a burqa) by then.
TumbleDry
WayneRooney10: that's the problem... He will become a hero and a martyr to may. He shouldn't. That's why, he should be caught alive, tried, put in a prison for life then finally burned in the pork skin coffin. That should settle it.
nandakandamanda
Yelnats, that's not what his mother thinks.
nath
They do not know where he is because they do not even know where the real borders of those barbaric countries are, so it is anyone's guess. Just leave him there. He will eventually die and rot there anyway.
WilliB
Sarge:
and then what?
Obama is a pious muslim cleric, preaching strictly the teachings of his religion. You want charge him with exactly what? And in civilian court to boot??
Throw me in the Briar´s Patch...
Proffesor
It's very suprising to see how so many people believe this OBL/9-11 story. How easily people get manipulated is totally beyond my comprehension. I mean it does not take a gunius to read in between the lines. like sharpie said above, people need to wake up.
Kapuna
Bin Laden is most likely worm food and has been, for some time. There are no recent videos of this formidable figure. Only infrequent audio tapes.
Sarge
Sushi, Obama's had 10 months already to lasso OBL, and he hasn't done it yet. Ya think he's gonna do it in the next 3 years and 2 months? I hope he does...
sailwind
Well if we did capture him we certainly would not want to send him to GITMO while he does his confab with his court appointed legal defense lawyers, all on Uncle Sam's dime of course. That place already has a real bad reputation as it is with the Jihadi types and we wouldn't want to upset their fragile little feelings anymore than we have to. I would suggest the San Francisco county jail would be a good place for him to cool his heels before a civilian trial myself.
WilliB
skipthesong:
He doesn´t even have to get off on a mistrial. What exactly do they want to charge him with? Calling for holy war against the US? Dreaming up schemes for terrorist attacks? Giving money to jihadists?
All that is done by islamic clerics right there in the US itself. They are not punished for him, why should he be? How they would want to make a case for that in a civil court with all its defendants rights is beyond me.
And there is nothing more concrete they could accuse him of. The direct attackers of 9/11, the suicide martyr pilots, they are all dead and with their virgins.
All he is is a charismatic cleric, and a capture and trial would only make him more famous, regardless of the outcome.
It is naive to believe otherwise.
SushiSake3
All this talk of capturing OBL is pretty meaningless.
IF the guy is caught, the U.S. government will simply replace him with another strawman.
Who could be next - Hugo Chavez? Maybe the CIA could cook up a story of how Chavez is planning to invade New York and take over Wall St?
Or, how about telling the American public that U.S. intelligence has just discovered that Iranian president Ahmadinejad has a really evil twin brother living in Cleveland who is plotting jihad against mainland America?
skipthesong
aday: ok?" No its not ok. What are you going to say if he were to get off on a technicality, something most of the world has never had, or a mistrial? No, no, no, no. ok?
SushiSake3
Sarge - "Ha, ha, I can just picture OBL riding a camel and Obama trying to lasso him!"
It's good to see conservatives are able to laugh at their own abject failures and see the lighter side of having the man behind 911 still on the run.
SushiSake3
This is just one more bush failure that is wasting the current president's time.
Sarge
"OBL may be slipping back amd forth from Pakistan to Afghanistan"
Or he may be dead. Anyone seen him lately?
"I hope he is not dead."
I do.
"If Obama does capture OBL"
Ha, ha, I can just picture OBL riding a camel and Obama trying to lasso him!
bobbafett
hahaha. Actually I think the terrorists have a Mac with photoshop. They then email to Al Jezera on their iphones.
nandakandamanda
A reliable source tells me they had him stuffed and placed on a cart. The cart is kept in a cave, and when they need him for photo shoots, they wheel him out.
adaydream
skipthesong
Yes I do. A fair trial with real evidence so nobody ever has the chance to claim an unfair trial. I want him put away forever in the deepest federal prison with no access to the outside world forever. Okay? < :-)
WayneRooney10
He could be in Canada by now! No one thought of that, did they? No, only I did.
skipthesong
much to you guys surprise, I'm with you on Bush and Co. letting him get away. But, this one from aday: "That doesn't mean I want us to stop looking. Just like the Nazi death camp murderers, I want Ossma bin Laden found and punished." You forgot you want him to have a fair trial in your back yard with a lawyer as though he committed a street crime.
I was going to go with Zurc, believe it or not, until I saw WilliB's post: "Capturing the guy would actually be the Obama administrations worst nightmare, since in a civilian trial they would have to let him go."
sharple: how do you know you are not the one whose brainwashed? I mean, how did you hide from the gas that was released in the air to make us brainwashed?
WilliB
Capturing the guy would actually be the Obama administrations worst nightmare, since in a civilian trial they would have to let him go.
sharpie
well put sharky1
sailwind
I think he has gone even deeper in hiding after Obama's threat to give him his American civil rights if we capture him.
ca1ic0cat
Yeah, the whole bin Laden thing is a bit sad. Better to not worry about it and get on with the real job of keeping the civilians safe in Afghanistan.
zurcronium
It is too bad Bush let OBL go when he was trapped years ago. Another bush failure after saying he would get OBL dead or alive, like he was a cowboy.
If Obama does capture OBL its 2nd term for sure as he will have done what bush could not do for seven years.
sharky1
Could shorten the headline to "White House Still Lacks Intel"
sharpie
seriously, for anyone that still blames OBL for 911, the war in afghanistan and iraq, please get a clue. on the count of three, i will snap my fingers and you will wake from yor terrible brainwashed existence.
1, 2, 3, SNAP
Beelzebub
It just goes to show that you really can buy anything with money. A fortune of $300 million buys a lot of concealment.
adaydream
Back 7 or 8 years ago when the bush administration let him get away, we did nothing about really searching him out. Remember the little folly video that bush made? They could care less. They had their war/s.
For the Obama administration it's like starting all over looking for him. He was taking dialysys (sp) at one time and he may have died from that. He may be traveling from Pakistan to Afghanistan. He could have died leaving Tora Bora. We may never know.
That doesn't mean I want us to stop looking. Just like the Nazi death camp murderers, I want Ossma bin Laden found and punished. < :-)
franz75
I hope he is not dead. They'll make a martyr. I hope they'll catch him, if never found, they'll make him a legend. Wait a few decades or centuries and they'll him a prophet...
guest
Been dead, he is a good boogie man, the face of terror.
PepinGalarga
This must be some reverse psychology intended to make Bin Laden feel safe and come out of whatever cave he's been hiding out for the last 8 years. There is no such thing as "no good intel". They have HAD intel, just it came too late for them to act in a timely fashion.