Posted on 02/23/2006 11:10:03 AM PST by wagglebee
The United States raised concerns with the United Arab Emirates seven years ago about possible ties between officials in that country and Osama bin Laden, according to a section of the Sept. 11 commission's report that details a possible missed opportunity to kill the al-Qaida leader.
Republicans and Democrats alike are raising concerns this week about the Bush administration's decision to let a UAE-operated company take over operations at six American ports, in part citing ties the Sept. 11 hijackers had to the Persian Gulf country.
President Bush has called the UAE a close partner on the war on terror since Sept. 11, and his aides have listed numerous examples of the country's help.
The Sept. 11 commission's report released last year also raised concerns UAE officials were directly associating with bin Laden as recently as 1999.
The report states U.S. intelligence believed that bin Laden was visiting an area in the Afghan desert in February 1999 near a hunting camp used by UAE officials, and that the U.S. military planned a missile strike.
Intelligence from local tribal sources indicated "bin Laden regularly went from his adjacent camp to the larger camp where he visited the Emiratis," the report said.
"National technical intelligence confirmed the location and description of the larger camp and showed the nearby presence of an official aircraft of the United Arab Emirates. But the location of bin Laden's quarters could not be pinned down so precisely," the report said.
The missile attack was never launched, and bin Laden moved on, the report said.
A month later, top White House counterterrorism official Richard Clarke "called a UAE official to express his concerns about possible associations between Emirati officials and bin Laden," the report said.
CIA officials hope to continue staking out the Afghan camp in hopes bin Laden would return and a possible strike could be launched.
But "imagery confirmed that less than a week after Clarke's phone call, the camp was hurriedly dismantled and the site was deserted," the report said.
CIA officials were "irate" and "thought the dismantling of the camp erased a possible site for targeting bin Laden, the report said.
At a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee Thursday, Sen. Carl Levin, the ranking Democrat, asked Deputy Treasury Secretary Robert Kimmitt if he was aware of the 9-11 commission's assertion that the United Arab Emirates represents "a persistent counterterrorism problem"for the United States.
Kimmitt replied that administration figures involved in the decision to approve the deal "looked very carefully" at information from the intelligence community.
"Any time a foreign-government controlled company comes in," Kimmitt said, "the intelligence assessment is of both the country and the company."
"Just raise your hand if anybody talked to the 9-11 commission," Levin told the administration representatives at the witness table. Nobody raised a hand.
So where's the article about Joeseph Kennedy's ties to the Nazi Germany? ;)
Well I guaran-gd-tee you if we tell em to stick their petro dollars they'll find someplace for the money to land. You may not like where it ends up.
The UAE will do a bang up job of running America's ports!
Prescott Bush? Lucky Lindy missed changing the course of mankind by thaaaat much. LOL.
The first sentence includes this:
POSSIBLE ties between
And now Richard Clarke will be the new hero around here.
Wow!
9-11 commission? Yeah, those guys are competent.
Newsmax is as bad as Schumer and Hillary on this raising the boogieman issue.
BOOGA BOOGA BOOO BAD Mooooslims are gonna git you.
Except Hillary already is beginning to backtrack on this....
BTW, "Port operations" are run by local Goverments, NOT by private companies. The UAE will operate slips IN OUR ports NOT "operate the ports" as the Democrat Senate Election Comittee Press release sent out last week claims. They are LYING to you again.
Why don't all the panic stricken Port Deal Foes point out most of the financial and operational support for 9-11 Terrorists was conducted in Germany? When are we going to boot All German Companies out of our Logictic chain because of their "ties to Bin Laden"?
And don't forget the infamous photo of Rumsfeld laughing it up with Saddam. Things change.
The P&O does not run Port Operations. That is a Govt function run by local Govt. Try again when you actually discover a clue.
It's not NewsMax, this is an AP story.
Yeah, well, the 9/11 Commission couldn't even find the clear ties between one of its own members -- Jamie Gorelick -- and the failure to stop the 9/11 attacks.
Did you hear the one about how the UAE offered 10 Million to NO after the hurricane? Reminds me of when Saudi Arabia offered New York 5 Million. The difference was the NY mayor had backbone...
"And now Richard Clarke will be the new hero around here."
Of course not. He argued against attacking Osama then out of concern the attack would be regarded as a strike against the UAE government. Pays to read the report.
Until the day I die, I will be convinced that the documents that Sandy Burglar stole from the National Archives were about Able Danger and how he, Clinton and Gorelick were involved.
What a jerk of a comparison.
The Bin Laden "ties" consist of Bin Laden having been "near" a UAE hunting camp in Afghanistan, as if proximity to someone makes you complicit with them. (I once shook Bill Clinton's hand. I guess that ties me in to his rape of Juanita Broaderick) and some unnamed UAE official having some unnamed connection to Bin Laden in 1999. No word on who this person is, what their position in the govt. is or was, whether they are still in the govt, what the connection was, nor the fact that it's lapsed in the 7 years since. And pre-9-11 and post-9-11 are 2 different mindsets. I see no evidence that the UAE has continued in its pre-9-11 way of doing things. We can't say the same of the AP or the Democratic party.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.