Flashback to February, 2001... we coulda had Osama.

[americanstranger]

Funny what turns up in those White house transcripts.... click the jump link to 'Plan Colombia' and read down.

For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
February 27, 2001

Q Ari, according to India Globe, the Taliban in Afghanistan, they have offered that they are ready to hand over Osama bin Laden to Saudi Arabia if the United States would drop its sanctions, and they have a kind of deal that they want to make with the United States. Do you have any comments?

MR. FLEISCHER: Let me take that and get back to you on that.

Archive your copy now!!

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/briefings/20010227.html

[cosmicaug]

1. Sanctions should have stayed.

Sanctions should have stayed. However, if that item is true, it showed a willingness to deal on the Taliban's part which could have provided a starting point for negotiations to get Osama. Unfortunately, counter-terrorism didn't seem to be too awfully high on the administration's agenda at the time.

[Minstrel Boy]

2. Osama's a MacGuffin

"Hitchcock popularized the use of the term MacGuffin to describe an object in a story that superficially drives the plot but ultimately has little to do with what makes the story interesting. Treasure maps, secret formulas, valuable jewels, and bags of narcotics are typical MacGuffins. For example, in "Psycho" the MacGuffin is the $40,000 that Janet Leigh’s character impulsively steals from her employer, causing her to go on the run and check into the off-the-beaten-path Bates Motel. But by the end of the film, most of the audience will remember the $40,000 only dimly if at all."
http://homevideo.about.com/library/weekly/aa080301a.htm


USA Today, Nov 8, 2001:

General: Capturing bin Laden is not part of mission

WASHINGTON — The U.S. combat commander in Afghanistan said Thursday that apprehending Osama bin Laden isn't one of the missions of Operation Enduring Storm.

...

"We have not said that Osama bin Laden is a target of this effort," Franks told reporters at his first Pentagon briefing since the war began a month ago.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/sept11/2001/11/08/pentagon-toll.htm


George Bush, March 13, 2002:

"I don't know where he is and I really don't care. It's not that important. It's not our priority."
http://www.pbs.org/weta/washingtonweek/voices/200304/0428span.html

[BeFree]

3. The point, as I see it

Is that OBL would have never been able to be blamed for 9/11 if he was in custody. It's why the WH never got around to grabbing him - they needed him to be the patsie for any new Pearl Harbor type event that may occur.

The US, under BC, tried to kill OBL and this WH let the chance to capture him slide away? Sounds more and more like MIHOP.

[dbt]

4. KICK because

the Clothes have no Emperor!

:freak:
dbt