The "60 min" story about the abortive attempt to catch bin Laden

[question everything]

and this was in 2001. And they were still trying to blame Clinton for that?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x4167495

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

1. Question:

Who was torpedoing Delta's operational plans from afar? And why?

Something is very stinky about that and I got the feeling that the ex-major was holding some very pithy comments and speculations back when he was speaking of it.

[ConsAreLiars]

7. See my comments in Post #6

Nothing you don't know.

I suspect this guy was operating completely in the blind, just following orders with no "need to know" or even expecting to have any explanation of the why. I doubt he has even the faintest clue about who was running him or what they wanted. Just a tool, and as such a fool. He thought about the moral question (a novel idea, and generally discouraged among the professional assassination gangs) and figured that offing bin Laden was not only following orders but righteous. When the orders changed he learned something, but probably not that his missions had never been righteous and that his whole life had been one of ignorant servitude to powers who regard his sense of right and wrong as laughable weaknesses and an easy lever for turning him into an utterly immoral pawn.

[pokerfan]

8. yeah

When the orders changed he learned something, but probably not that his missions had never been righteous and that his whole life had been one of ignorant servitude to powers who regard his sense of right and wrong as laughable weaknesses and an easy lever for turning him into an utterly immoral pawn.

That's poetry. But it raises the question: Is the nation-state dead?

Follow me here. We're all pawns when you get down to brass tacks. It’s a big club and you ain't in it. You and I are not in The Big Club.

Bin Laden. 9/11. The WTC. The next president. Pffftt. The owners of this country could care less about that shit.

We're looking at maps. These guys are tracking the dollars.

[susanbanks44]

2. For those who haven't seen the package

here is the link

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=4502669n

[Old and In the Way]

3. Next time a Freeper lies about Clinton's refusal to take OBL, remind them of McCain's

position in 1998-

Question: You not only have had combat experience in Vietnam, but you were also a prisoner of war. When you look at terrorism right now, with people like Osama bin Laden, do you have any reservations about watching strikes like that?

Answer: You could say, Look, is this guy, Laden, really the bad guy that's depicted? Most of us have never heard of him before. And where there is a parallel with Vietnam is: What's plan B? What do we do next? We sent our troops into Vietnam to protect the bases. Lyndon Johnson said, Only to protect the bases. Next thing you know.... Well, we've declared to the terrorists that we're going to strike them wherever they live. That's fine. But what's next? That's where there might be some comparison.

[question everything]

4. Interesting. Wonder whether he still feels like that today (nt)

[Cleita]

5. There were stories back then on Al Jazeera and other non American

media that tribal fighters who were fighting with our guys told them that they had bin Laden cornered, but the order came not to go in a get him. Those stories were never reported in our M$M, whore media and I remember people trying to talk about it being sneered at. Too bad 60 Minutes didn't have the balls to do an investigative report back then.

[ConsAreLiars]

6. If getting bin Laden and neutralizing Al Qaeda had been the goal there were two were easy options.

Accept the offer of the Taliban to send him to a third party tribunal. or just do some act of unauthorized (by the Taliban) but honorable (in the eyes of the Taliban and every Muslim and sane person in the world) vengeance against them. Both would have raised the esteem of the US in the eyes of the Afghan people and the world generally.

But that was never the goal. The Delta Force operative is just a pissed-off grunt in this story. He doesn't have any idea that the "Great Game" players had decided that invasions and occupations for geopolitical points on the game board were easier to sell when the Boogieman was still running around and maybe hiding under every coward's bed.

(edit tiny typos)