MSNBC: Osama bin Laden: missed opportunities

[Cooley Hurd]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4540958/

<snip>
By Lisa Myers :eyes:
Senior investigative correspondent :eyes: :eyes:
NBC News
Updated: 7:01 p.m. ET March 16, 2004

As the 9/11 commission investigates what Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush might have done to prevent the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, one piece of evidence the commission will examine is a videotape secretly recorded by a CIA plane high above Afghanistan. The tape shows a man believed to Osama bin Laden walking at a known al-Qaida camp.

The question for the 9/11 commission: If the CIA was able to get that close to bin Laden before 9/11, why wasn’t he captured or killed? The videotape has remained secret until now.
</snip>

Methinks this info's been released to blame Big Dog yet again for not getting OBL...

[leQ]

1. i don't know... tonite lisa's supposed to detail why dumbya

was unable to prevent 9/11 when we've been having osama in our sights for years. it should be interesting.

[KissMyAsscroft]

2. Because they don't want to apprehend him yet, is my guess.

It's like any crime sweep of an organized crime family...they want to pick up everyone at once.

That's my non-cynical answer.

My cynical answer is that he is waiting for the time to catch Bin Laden that will reap the most political windfall.

[papau]

3. Media Whore Lisa Myers pimps GOP message with GOP partial truth

Not mentioned in NBC promo's of Lisa's show:

The predator was unarmed.

It crashed.

There were no immediate response options at the moment.

Clinton ordered the new technology - the predator - to be revised so as to carry arms.

Clinton ordered subs to stand-by off the coast with missiles at the ready in case of another sighting.

Bush in Feb 01 removed those subs in his first pro-terrorist move.

BUT LISA'S GE/GOP MESSAGE THAT CLINTON HAD A LOST OPPORTUNITY IS THE MESSAGE BEING SOLD -AND ON TODAY SHOW MATT LAUER MADE SURE TO USE THOSE WORDS - "CLINTON LOST OPPORTUNITY" IN HIS PROMO FOR LISA'S SHOW.

[The Backlash Cometh]

5. And what Republicans supported Clinton at this pivotal time in history?

None of them. When is that story going to be told?

Divided we fell. That's the real story of the 1990's and we have the Republicans to thank for it.

[Cooley Hurd]

6. Don't forget Myers was the only national journalist...

...to give the Juanita Brodderick story air time. That speaks volumes about her integrity.

[KoKo]

13. Lisa Meyers was a Drudge buddy during impeachment. You could count

on her to have the "inside scoop" on blue dress, etc. Maybe this report will be fair, but I doubt it.

See, "Underpants" links here to Guardian, USA Today, for the real scoop about how Bush cancelled the "unmanned drones" Clinton had flying over Afghanistan.

Imagine the Bushies will call in all their political hacks to spin this one away.

[underpants]

16. I expect the RW radio shows to be all over this FOX too

They are going to try to shove it down the American populis's throats.

No mention of course of the time from the video being shot to 9/11 which was ON BUSH'S WATCH (to paraphrase a saying you used to hear a lot).

[Twenty3]

24. One radio show all over it last night

AGAIN!! I was stuck listening to Michael Savage Wiener after work.

I paraphrase: "They had Osama in their sights and all the soldiers were going 'shoot!! shoot!!' but Clinton was too busy with his pants down, and Madeline Allbright was too busy planning another bar mitzvah, and (some other guy I can't remember was doing something else I don't remember). And they gave the order to let him go. This is a huuuuuuuge story! We can't let this one get away! Clinton, Allbright, and (whoever the other guy is) MUST be charged with war crimes! blah blah blah"

I say "again" (above) because this is 2 days in a row I've heard something on that particular radio show the night before it breaks into the (for lack of a better term) Mainstream media. So what is it, Savage gets the talking points first or something??

[RobertSeattle]

4. Bush had 8 months too

It's as if Bush didn't become pResident until 9/11. He was in office (and asleep at the wheel) for 234 days prior to 9/11.

And don't forget this news report:
Officials: Bush Administration Was Slow to Approve Drones to Kill Bin Laden
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/world/2020/predator030624.html

[chelsea0011]

7. Looked like Gandolff the White to me

[nostamj]

8. CNN is running this story now

can Faux be far behind? perfect lockstep.

blame Clinton.

give the insipid chimp a pass.

[Cooley Hurd]

9. I'm surprised Faux wasn't first...

Another thing... the Predator drone wasn't equipped w/ weapons during that time period, so they couldn't do anything instantaneously, anyway.

[underpants]

10. !!!3 articles (USA Today-CBS/AP-Guradian) on W dropping the ball!!!!!!!!!

Bush slow on bin Laden drones before 9/11
Posted 6/25/2003 7:37 AM

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2003-06-25-drones-osama_x.htm

WASHINGTON (AP) — Prowling the skies over Afghanistan in the months before President Bush took office, unmanned and unarmed Predator drones proved to be one of America's major successes in its frustrating hunt for Osama bin Laden.

But the promising aircraft remained grounded under the new administration until after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, say current and former U.S. officials who describe a paralyzing internal debate over finances, arming the drones with deadly missiles and concern over who would take the blame if something went wrong.

Unresolved issues at that Sept. 4 meeting included whether the CIA or Pentagon should operate newly armed Predators and whether its new missiles were sufficiently lethal to kill bin Laden, a designated terrorist already blamed for deadly attacks against two U.S. embassies in Africa and the USS Cole and the subject of at least three secret orders by President Clinton to have him captured or killed.

The disappearance during 2001 of Predators from Afghanistan — partly because of unfavorable seasonal weather patterns and fears that potential targets on the ground were learning to spot them — is discussed in classified sections of Congress' report on pre-Sept. 11 intelligence failures and is expected to be examined by an independent commission appointed by the president and Congress, officials said.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/06/25/attack/main560293.shtml

WASHINGTON, June 25, 2003

(CBS/AP) The Bush administration was advised in early 2001 by a holdover from the Clinton White House to use unmanned aircraft to target Osama bin Laden, but worries over missile technology and territorial wrangling between the CIA and Pentagon delayed the deployment until after the 2001 terrorist attacks.

Officials speaking on condition of anonymity said that within days of Mr. Bush taking office in January 2001, his top terrorism expert on the National Security Council, Richard Clarke, urged National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice to resume the drone flights to track down bin Laden, citing the successes of late 2000.

At a White House meeting of Mr. Bush's national security principals on Sept. 4, 2001, senior officials discussed several ideas, including use of the drones, as they finalized a plan to accelerate efforts to go after al Qaeda amid signs of a growing threat of a domestic attack.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/bush/story/0,7369,769399,00.html

Monday August 5, 2002

The Bush administration sat on a Clinton-era plan to attack al-Qaida in Afghanistan for eight months because of political hostility to the outgoing president and competing priorities, it was reported yesterday.

The plan, under which special forces troops would have been sent after Osama bin Laden, was drawn up in the last days of the Clinton administration but a decision was left to the incoming Bush team.

Mr Clarke, who stayed on in his job as White House counter-terrorism tsar, repeated his briefing for vice president Dick Cheney in February. However, the proposals got lost in the clumsy transition process, turf wars between departments and the separate agendas of senior members of the Bush administration.

It was, the Time article argues, "a systematic collapse in the ability of Washington's national security apparatus to handle the terrorist threat".

But the Time report quotes Bush officials as well as Clinton aides as confirming the seriousness of the Clarke plan. The sources said it was treated the same way as all policies inherited from the Clinton era, and subjected to a lengthy "policy review process".

[Cooley Hurd]

17. Thanks, Underpants!

Richard Clarke - isn't he in the Kerry camp now? I think I read that somewhere...

[underpants]

18. Not sure but he did develop the "boots on the Ground" plan

and stayed over to fine tune it. You don't really think they whipped up that plan in a month do you.....no Clinton and the Pentagon were working on it when he left. All the credit W gets for the success (militarily) in Afghanistan should really be attributed back to Clinton's people and the brass at the Pentagon.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

11. these were "classified" tapes who leaked them? same who leaked Plame?

[MrPrax]

12. Red Herring?

"one piece of evidence the commission will examine is a videotape secretly recorded by a CIA plane high above Afghanistan. The tape shows a man believed to Osama bin Laden walking at a known al-Qaida camp."

A high alt attack via a drone on OBL would have been nice, but unpredicatable.

But it would be nice if the Commission got to the bottom of a much 'closer' OBL sighting:

(translation of Le Figaro story)
Found here:

"July 2001: Bin Laden meets the CIA in Dubai"
"Gravely ill, enemy number one stayed in an American hospital in the Emirates at the beginning of the summer."

http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0111/S00018.htm

Subsequent report from the Guardian:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/waronterror/story/0,1361,584444,00.html

I do wonder about this much more obviously lapse (if true) and why bother with 'eye in the sky' nonsense other than it boosts the overly expensive prestige of the high tech intelligence sector...

It seems all the tracking of AQ and OBL by other countries was done with good old fashion methods...

[berner59]

15. hmmm...who did this???

Let's see...Bush's poll numbers are down...the war isn't going well...the economy sucks... Who oh who could have done this??

[Cooley Hurd]

14. Damn it - they (the MW's) are giving this HEAVY rotation...

:grr:

[knight_of_the_star]

19. Nice try Bushie

I somehow doubt that bin Laden's death prior to 9/11 would have stopped it from happening. If anything, they might have done MORE on 9/11 than they did to avenge their fallen leader.

[enki23]

20. sure. and we blew up a tall farmer ,who

was 'believed to be Osama bin Laden," with a missle fired by an unmanned aircraft.

i don't know who was president when they got the tape, but it doesn't much matter to me. this is a red herring. flying over afghanistan isn't the same as launching an attack within it. we don't generally assassinate people, or didn't in the past. it's sorta contrary to being a good member of the international community. and we *especially* don't do it on evidence no better than grainy video of some guy who looks like it might be someone we'd like to kill.

[jpak]

21. What horseshit

Distract the viewing public on the first anniversary of The Great Patriotic War...

The fact that they had OBL under surveillance clearly indicates the Clinton administration WAS after Osama.

Please Lisa, tell us how Osama escaped from Tora Bora????

Pretty please????

[0007]

28. Yes, and why won't anyone talk about flying the bin Laden family

out of the U.S. right after 911 when all aircraft was grounded.

.....James R. Bath could clear up many things on the dealings with the bin Laden family and confirm stories on junior's AWOL. Where is this favorite buddy of junior's hiding? With Ken Lay maybe?

[kori]

22. I saw the report last night on NBC

It was followed up by a "General" who was in the Clinton administration. It was not a biased report. He did point out that they were and still are uncertain that was bin Laden. You can not just throw missiles into a sovereign nation (at least prior to 9/11) on just a hunch. That Clinton did have cruise missiles available to make a strike should more concrete evidence become available. The tape was of a tall figure in a white robe surrounded by smaller figures in dark clothing. As far as I could see on the tape it could have been Jesus Christ tending to his flock.

It appears the Clinton administration was actively searching and ready to act. It was the Bush administration that stood down. Give Lisa the benefit of the doubt until you see the whole report.

[DoYouEverWonder]

23. How the heck was Clinton supposed to catch

Osama with a couple of drones and an offshore battleship, when W can't catch Osama with the entire force and might of the US military in a country that we now OCCUPY?

[underpants]

25. IF Clinton had sent troops in after OBL 3 things would have happened

The press seems to have forgotten what was happening just 3 1/2 years ago.

First-there would have been HOWLS of protest of Clinton actually using the military...how dare a draft dodger....you know the rest.

Second- there would have been HOWLS of Wag the dog wag the dog

and lastly Bill Clinton who the right wanted to just sit there for four years until he was voted out after his first term (sorry didn't happen) and not mess with anything would have been roundly criticized for taking action just before leaving office (especially with the Florida mess going on) and only being worried about his legacy.

[calimary]

26. Anybody remember the "WAG THE DOG" blather that was

CONSTANTLY spewing from the republi-CONS' mouths - every time Clinton tried to do something, and they resolutely kept him hamstrung with their Devil in a Blue Dress Dance?

[OHdem10]

27. Why does the Republican House and Senate get free passes

on all this foreign policy issues. Does anyone believe for one minute the Republicans would have supported Clinton if he had tried to do something.

We need to remind the world that if 9/11 had not occurred, Bush would not have done anything. We are a crisis oriented nation. Nothing happens until there is a crisis. This looking back is a waste of time--In reality Repubicans would not have approved any action for Clinton. Bush ignored Clinton's message--Terrorisn is your greatest challenge. He threw Terrorism aside and wanted to devlop some cockimamie Antiballistic System. It was after we were hit that anyone was willing to act. Bush is just as negligent as Clinton if they are trying to blame Clinton as usual.

Meyer's loves to do hit jobs on Clintons--ist class Clinton hater.