Posted on 07/13/2007 10:57:42 AM PDT by Ancient Drive
WASHINGTON - The US Senate Friday doubled the bounty on Osama bin Laden to 50 million dollars, reflecting frustration that the Al Qaeda mastermind remains free and rising anxiety over possible future attacks.
The vote followed a flurry of reports that the group behind the September 11 strikes in 2001 had rebuilt its safe haven, leadership and capacity to plot terror operations, and was trying to sneak operatives into the United States.
The Senate voted by 87-1 to boost the price on Bin Ladens head under the State Department Rewards for Justice program, which has already paid out millions of dollars for top US targets, including Saddam Husseins sons.
It directs Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to authorize a reward of 50 million dollars for the capture or death or information leading to the capture or death of Osama bin Laden.
The bill also addresses frustration among some lawmakers that the Bush administration has still not caught bin Laden, despite launching a massive manhunt after the September 11 attacks, nearly six years go.
It requires the secretaries of state and defence and the director of national intelligence to produce a report to Congress every 90 days on progress towards bringing bin Laden and other terror leaders to justice.
North Dakota Senator Byron Dorgan, who wrote the amendment to a defence policy bill, said it has been six years, and Al Qaeda is now rebuilding its terrorist training camps, along with the Taleban, in a safe harbor.
It has been six years and they are reconstituting their ability to attack us, he said.
Dorgan warned Al Qaeda remains the greatest threat to the United States, even after these six long years; after two wars ... after trillions of dollars spent on those wars and for homeland security, after the deaths of thousands of our military, and after the wounding of tens of thousands of our military. Senators who spoke on the amendment mentioned a leaked draft of a new National Intelligence Estimate, which reportedly warned Al Qaeda had rebuilt a safe haven and leadership structure in Pakistani border areas.
As debate about a possible future attack by Al Qaeda on US territory mounted in Washington, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said this week that he had a gut feeling there was a heightened current risk of an attack.
President George W. Bush on Thursday denied reports that the intelligence assessment found Al Qaeda was back to its pre-September 11 strength.
There is a perception in the coverage that Al Qaeda may be as strong today as they were prior to September 11th. Thats simply not the case, Bush said.
White House deputy spokeswoman Dana Perino said Friday that the new national intelligence estimate was expected to be delivered to Bush within weeks.
The Washington Post reported Thursday that the group had rebuilt itself despite extensive US efforts to destroy the network.
The CIAs deputy director for intelligence, John Kringen, told a congressional committee on Wednesday that Al Qaeda appears to be fairly well-settled into the safe haven in the ungoverned spaces of Pakistan.
The Rewards for Justice Program has so far paid out 62 million dollars in bounties leading to top US terror suspects or for the prevention of terror attacks, the State Department says.
Among the top payouts were the 15 million dollars each for Saddams sons Uday and Qusay Hussein, killed by US troops in Iraq in 2003.
Is this before or after taxes?
Should have been $1B..........from 9-11-01...................
“Is this before or after taxes?”
Watta silly question...
LOL ;->
how do you find a dead man?
Oh. That'll be helpful.
To Bin Laden.
Is it $50 million dead or alive. Because I think he is long dead. We haven’t seen a video of him talking within the past 4 or 5 years.
Or...they got him.
Let’s say for the sake of argument that Bin Laden is still alive.
The areas where he’s hiding are so remote and insular that any outsider (a mercenary, etc) coming into the area could stand out like a sore thumb.
Our best chance of getting him is gonna likely happen due to a brief slip-up in Al-Qaeda’s security procedures. Then he’ll die via a cruise missile attack or JDAM bombing raid.
An Enemy with Bounty Money is my Friend.
(I wish this was true and we had already captured this murderous bastard.)
Whose was the one vote against? Kennedy?
Islam is a snake with many heads. What is AlQaeda? If we smash them is it over? NO!
how do you find a dead man?.......in a grave I hope......
Wasn’t it his Kerry endorsement in November 2004?
Is this retroactive, I mean , like, can I dig him up for the 50 mil?
$25 million to lead our feds to the body.
L
It could be like Weekend at Bernie’s.
If we really wanted him he would have been found by now. Everyone in this world know he is wanted so, it should not take 5 years.
You dig.
$50M???? That ain’t much.
Besides, if anyone does cash in, the money could possibly be used to fund more terror.
We should change the reward to, “turn over bin Laden and we won’t incinerate your entire country.”
How about just giving our Special Forces the 50 million and let them do it? They are the best in the world. Congress needs to get some balls.
Thanks for posting. The pontificating from all the posters pretending they know something is hilarious.
I don’t want to put on the tinfoil, but here goes -—
This sounds rather urgent. NOW they’re doubling it? Sounds like we’re on the verge of something large-scale going down.
Need to add a US citizenship so they can live to spend it free from other Islamomorons.
If he is dead and I can find one of his bones I will split the reward with you.
:)
That won’t help convince people who would gladly die for the bearded murderer and who expect 72 virgins in heaven.
Wonder if I could get a 10% advance to put together a team, uh, make that 20% and I bet I could find him.
I bet that’ll work!! Those sheepherders that wouldn’t turn him in for $25M will surely go for the $50M! After all, $25M doesn’t buy all that many sheep nowadays.
I agree. He is a stinking corpse now.
His persona is being used by others. Like Marx’s stinking corpse was used by Lenin and Mao etc.
how much is an educated guess worth?
You get the coordinates from that big Taliban funeral that we wouldn’t attack because the rules of engagement called it a cemetery and dig up the body. Bring a tape measure that goes up to about 6’6”.
What does a nuke cost?
Who actually collected the $ for Saddam and his sons?
What if he’s dead and RIPing under a pile of boulders in Tora Bora? In that event, it wouldn’t matter if the ante were upped to $200 million.
Now if they throw in an iPhone that might work
fortress
With the bounty this high (even at 25 mil), would it have been worth it for some terrorists to turn over his dead body for the sake of adding 25 (now 50) million to Al Qaeda’s coffers?
Although I do kinda lean towards him being dead becasue of the lack of new video’s from him, but last time I thought that, he showed up in a new video/audio tape.
Let’s see:
1) 20,000 Pakistani troops amass in northern tribal area for a significant confrontation with Al Qaeda. Bush putting more pressure on Musharif?
2) Musharif reverses course and takes a more aggressive stance with terrorist inside Mosque.
3) London bomb attacks.
4) FBI discovers new significance to old emails thought unimportant becuase of new evidence from London attack bombers.
3) Ayman Al-Zawahiri’s last tape concerns FBI because of repeated remarks considered unusual. FBI wonders is this an attack signal.
4) Bush admin. gives FBI two weeks to follow up and act on 700 leads in this country (100 leads in NY city).
5) Chertoff all of a sudden not so tight lipped about gut feeling.
6) Terrorists noise is at very high volume. Some in law enforcement considers this the “summer of chatter”
7) Bin Laden bounty now becomes 50 million.
Conclusion: Something’s up
oops...forgive my misnumbering. LOL
Hmmmmmm?
Price of gold per oz. in September of 2001= $285
Price of gold per oz. in July of 2007= $655
$25M * 655/285 = $57M
That’s about right, but it still looks like it’s about $7M short.
When it gets up to $100 million, I’m buying a plane ticket for Pakistan.

lol. Probably the funniest 10 minutes of on-screen time in movie history.
I understand they cannot comprehend how much $50 million is.
Give them something they WILL understand. The person who gives the location of Osama will receive their WEIGHT IN GOLD COIN.
Then watch them scramble.
throw in a a dozen mountain goats wearing pink thongs and the locals will turn him in
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