Posted on 09/08/2006 6:55:01 AM PDT by conservativecorner
On Sept. 11, 2006, America marks the anniversary of the most devastating attack on our homeland since the Civil War. NewsMax.com presents a special series of articles to commemorate this event, to remember the innocent and to honor the brave heroes of that fateful day. Read our complete coverage Click Here Now.
WASHINGTON -- The authors of the 9/11 Commission magnanimously reported: "We write with the benefit and handicap of hindsight. We are mindful of the danger of being unjust to men and women who made choices in conditions of uncertainty and in circumstances over which they often had little control."
Time and again, the United States missed opportunities to take out Osama bin Laden, and possibly al-Qaida, prior to 9/11.
Here are several of the missed opportunities to stop bin Laden prior to the devastating attacks of 9/11:
June 1995: The CIA concluded that Osama bin Laden authorized the failed assassination attempt on Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. The CIA also concluded that Hassan al-Turabi, Sudan's leader, knew where bin Laden was living and aided the plot. The United States weighed options for attacking bin Laden and al-Turabi's headquarters in Sudan's capital, but retaliation plans were ultimately rejected - as tantamount to staging war with Sudan.
February 1996 to October 1998: The United States targeted bin Laden's satellite phone calls. After a U.S. missile strike against bin Laden's camps on Aug. 20, 1998, however, an official leaked that the United States could track his movements through the use of the phone - nixing this key intelligence coup.
March to May 1996: Varying unverified reports indicated that bin Laden's sanctuary, Sudan, offered to hand over bin Laden directly to the United States, but U.S. officials decided not to take him because there was not enough evidence at the time to charge him with a crime. (The 9/11 Commission later concluded that there was no evidence that Sudan offered bin Laden directly to the United States, but it does find substantiation that Saudi Arabia was discussed as an option.)
March 1996 to April 1996: Eager to get from beneath sanctions, Sudan advised the United States that it had a vast intelligence database on bin Laden and more than 200 leading members of his al-Qaida terrorist network. Although FBI officials wanted to parley with the Sudanese and get their files, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright pressed to continue to box the country in economically. No deal was made for the files.
May 1996: When Sudan finally expelled bin Laden, the terror chieftain left in the company of many other key al-Qaida members, carrying cash. Flying to Afghanistan in a transport plane with his entourage, he made the trip unscathed - even though the United States reportedly knew of the particulars of the journey.
June 1996 to October 2001: Al-Qaida took control of Ariana Airlines, which transported illegal drugs and arms and became the main conduit of militants traveling incognito as airline employees. The United States failed to act swiftly against the airline.
1997: Although the CIA ramped up its Afghanistan operations and recruited some Taliban military leaders, none gets close to bin Laden.
February 1998: The United States rejected yet another offer of the Sudanese al-Qaida files. Although the FBI remained eager to accept the offer, the official posture was that Sudan's offers were not credible - owing to Sudanese leader al-Turabi's ideologically bond with bin Laden.
May 1998: The United States developed a plan to capture bin Laden in Afghanistan, using a CIA-owned aircraft that would swoop in from a nearby country, set down on a remote landing strip, and haul him aboard. Involved in the complex scenario that evolved over time was a team of Afghan informants who would kidnap bin Laden from his Tarnak Farm complex. CIA chief George Tenet, however, nixed the operation on grounds that, in his judgment, the impromptu Afghan allies were unreliable.
August 1998: After the al-Qaida bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, President Clinton, in writing, authorized the CIA to arrange the capture of bin Laden, using force. Despite a lot of preliminary groundwork by the CIA, the plan never unfolded - reportedly owing to inadequate intelligence.
August 1998 to 2000: After the embassy bombings, the United States placed two submarines on station - likely in the Indian Ocean. They were poised to launch cruise missiles at al-Qaida targets, including bin Laden. However, by the time the drone Predator spy plane soared over Afghanistan in late 2000 and famously pinpointed bin Laden on the ground, the submarines had been redeployed elsewhere. Bin Laden escaped unscathed - since the Predator model used at that time was not armed with a missile.
August 1998: The United States fired about 60 missiles at various al-Qaida training camps in Afghanistan, as well as a dozen missiles at a pharmaceutical factory in Khartoum, Sudan. No key al-Qaida cadre was killed.
December 1998: The United States once again pinpointed bin Laden in Afghanistan. Although missiles were readied, the strike was called off over fears of collateral damage.
February 1999: Intelligence put bin Laden at a desert hunting camp in Afghanistan. Cruise missiles are prepped, but royals from the United Arab Emirates are present and the strike is called off.
May 1999: Bin Laden was reportedly pinpointed again. Tenet nixed attack owing to usual concerns about collateral damage.
October 1999: A reportedly joint Pakistani Interservices Intelligence/U.S. commando strike to kill bin Laden is waylaid when Gen. Pervez Musharraf took over Pakistan in a coup and subsequently decided to abort the operation.
May 2000 to August 2001: When the CIA and FBI send a joint investigative team to Sudan, that country again offered to hand over its files on al-Qaida. Once again the offer is rejected.
September to October 2000: Predator flights over Afghanistan revealed movements of what appears to be bin Laden and his aides. However, because of high winds, the recon flights are discontinued until the spring.
December 2000: The CIA recommended to the incoming Bush administration to arm the Predator drone and send it over Afghanistan. Bush, however, does not give the necessary nod until after 9/11.
March 2001: The Russian Permanent Mission at the United Nations secretly submits a detailed report to the U.N. Security Council about bin Laden and his network. Reportedly, the U.S. failure to follow up on the particulars of the report is part of what motivates Jane's Intelligence Review to conclude that the attacks of 9/11 were less of an American intelligence failure than the result of a political decision not to act against bin Laden.
Of course, there is no assurance that taking out bin Laden would have prevented 9/11.
At the very beginning of his administration in 2000, President Bush reportedly asked the CIA whether killing bin Laden would end the problem of terrorism. He was advised that killing the al-Qaida chieftain would have an impact, but wouldn't end the threat. The 9/11 Commission also catalogued a series of tragic errors that occurred in the days counting down to 9/11.
Key case in point: Zacarias Moussaoui aroused suspicion for seeking fast-track training on how to pilot large jet airliners. He was arrested on Aug. 16, 2001, for violations of immigration regulations.
In late August, officials in the intelligence community also realized that terrorists spotted in Southeast Asia in January 2000 had arrived in the United States. Among them were some of the 9/11 hijackers.
Tragically, no one working on these leads late in the summer of 2001 connected them to the high level of threats being reported.
As the commission summarized it, "In the words of one official, no analytic work foresaw the lightning that could connect the thundercloud to the ground."
Thanks for reminder!
Why is everybody hiding this one fact that covers all the questions and all the answers to WHY we went to war?
The RNC refuses (why?) to acknowledge this ...
1996: Osama Bin Laden: Declaration of War
http://acan.gohotsprings.com/Osama-Fatwa.php
And have you noticed on this latest 'archive' tape of bin Laden - the media is claiming it was made in 2001 so they won't implicate clinton.
Page 129-130 Hardback, First edition. Dereliction of Duty By Col. Robert "Buzz" Patterson (Regnery Publishing, 2003)
....."It was the Fall of 1998 and the National Security Council (NSC) and the "intelligence Community" were tracking the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden, the shadowy mastermind of terrorist attacks on American targets...."We've got him!"... The watch Officer notified National Security advisor Sandy Berger; "Sir, we've located bin Laden. We have a two hour window to strike." ...
Berger ambled down the stairwell and entered the "Sit. room". He picked up a phone and called the President. .... Clinton was "Not Available".... For about an hour Berger couldn't get the Commander in Chief on the line.....
Finally, the President accepted Berger's call. There was discussion, there were pauses-- and no decision. The President wanted to talk with his Secretaries of State and Defense. He wanted to study the issue further.......
We didn't pull the trigger. We studied the issue until it was too late. The window of opportunity closed...."
Buzz Patterson was one of Clinton's Military Aides... When on Duty, He carried "the Nuclear Football" , a duty which kept him within the sound of the President's voice at all times (Except those times when Clinton 'ditched' him to have a little fun.)
If you haven't read his book, you should:
The whole thing is filled with with similar stories... Like the time Clinton refused to interrupt a golf game to make a critical decision on a military operation in Iraq that was needed immediately..... Or the time Clinton 'lost' the nuclear weapons codes.
Maybe Bubba thought that "Fatwa" referred to his wife.
"Clinton Failed to Act - Osama Led Fatal Attack"
REMEMBER 9/11
bump for later
From Polipundit this AM:
“Under fire, ABC mulls yanking mini”
Shocking, I know:
Bill Clinton loyalists are demanding wholesale changes to the upcoming miniseries – and while ABC is making some snips, the alterations, insiders say, may not please the Dems.
But a bombshell decision may happen anyway: Sources close to the project say the network, which has been in a media maelstrom over the pic, is mulling the idea of yanking the mini altogether.
I’m still wondering about “censorship” and “the Constitution!”
Oh, and I enjoyed this trip down memory lane via NewsBusters,
“His [Ronald Reagan’s] supporters credit him with forcing down the Iron Curtain, so it is odd that some of them have helped create the Soviet-style chill embedded in the idea that we, as a nation, will not allow critical portrayals of one of our own recent leaders.”
– Editorial in the November 5 New York Times.
Ace’s Axiom: hypocrisy is a virtue for the American left.
[EDITS:
1. Another link - Democrats urge ABC to withdraw 9/11 movie
2. DJ Drummond at Wizbang makes an excellent point on the matter,
When Michael Moore took images and facts out of context in a deliberate smear attempt on the Bush Administration, not one Liberal voiced a concern for context or accurate portrayal of events. And when President Bush was asked about the film, he did not worry himself with the lies and distortions posed by Moore, or threaten to sue, as Clinton has done here. Bush simply smiled a little and remarked that he did not expect he would take the time to see the movie.
-Remember, that move won Cannes’ Palme d’Or as a documentary.]
bump
This is plain sickening:
ABC Taps Out: 9/11 Series Altered
ABC has caved:
The network has in recent days made changes to the film, set to air
Sunday and Monday, after leading political figures, many of them
Democrats, complained about bias and alleged inaccuracies. Meanwhile, a
left-wing organization has launched a letter-writing campaign urging the
network to “correct” or dump the miniseries, while conservative blogs
have launched a vigorous defense.
After much discussion, ABC executives and the producers toned down,
but did not eliminate entirely, a scene that involved Clinton’s national
security advisor, Samuel R. “Sandy” Berger, declining to give the order
to kill Bin Laden, according to a person involved with the film who
declined to be identified because of the sensitivities involved.
“That sequence has been the focus of attention,” the source said,
adding: “These are very slight alterations.”
In addition, the network decided that the credits would say the
film is based “in part” on the 9/11 commission report, rather than
simply “based on” the bestselling report, as the producers originally
intended.
ABC, meanwhile, is tip-toeing away from the film’s version of
events. In a statement, the network said the miniseries “is a
dramatization, not a documentary, drawn from a variety of sources,
including the 9/11 commission report, other published materials and from
personal interviews.”
I guess, being MSM and all, they very nearly committed the high crime of telling the truth. (For once.)
bookmarked
bttt
BTTT
Thank you for posting Patterson's excerpt about NOT getting Bin Laden when they had him nailed!!!
The link to the video below tells us all we need to know about how dangerous the Clintoons were/are to our safety. They failed to protect us against al Qaeda and Ben Laden.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=JuH1xwLUnbg
Were the Clintoons paid by the Opecker Thugs to protect Ben Laden?
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