Posted on 03/17/2004 8:47:19 PM PST by jmstein7
CIA to Probe bin Laden Tape Leak to NBC
The Central Intelligence Agency is expected to launch a probe into the leak of a secret videotape of Osama bin Laden walking through his Afghanistan compound in the fall of 2000.
The tape, broadcast by NBC News on Tuesday, shows that the Clinton administration blew a golden opportunity to take out the terrorist kingpin and prevent the 9/11 attacks.
"There will be an investigation within the CIA, which made the video, and they will decide whether or not to refer the matter to the Department of Justice," reported CNN national security correspondent David Ensor on Wednesday.
CNN anchorman Wolf Blitzer argued that the video broadcast by NBC may have seriously damaged national security.
"It shows to not only the American public but to enemies of the U.S. government out there how accurate and how precise these kinds of cameras can be. And it gives the other side, if you will, additional information for which they could take defensive measures," said Blitzer, adding, "Potentially [it] could cause some problems for U.S. national security."
Ensor explained that the decision to release the tape may have been a politically motivated attempt to smear the legacy of ex-President Clinton.
"This is a political year and there are those around town who might see advantage in putting this tape out in public at this point," he told Blitzer.
Clinton-appointed CIA Driector George Tenet has yet to comment on the bin Laden video - or the decision by his agency to investigate its release to NBC.
Ummm, the real Clinton legacy is already smeared -- all over Monica's blue dress.
Excerpt from National Review Online, September 11, 2003:
Clinton’s Loss?
How the previous administration fumbled on bin Laden.
A Q&A by Kathryn Jean Lopez
http://www.nationalreview.com/interrogatory/interrogatory091103b.asp
Lopez: In sum, how many times did Bill Clinton lose bin Laden?
Miniter: Here's a rundown. The Clinton administration:
1. Did not follow-up on the attempted bombing of Aden marines in Yemen.
2. Shut the CIA out of the 1993 WTC bombing investigation, hamstringing their effort to capture bin Laden.
3. Had Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, a key bin Laden lieutenant, slip through their fingers in Qatar.
4. Did not militarily react to the al Qaeda bombing in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
5. Did not accept the Sudanese offer to turn bin Laden.
6. Did not follow-up on another offer from Sudan through a private back channel.
7. Objected to Northern Alliance efforts to assassinate bin Laden in Afghanistan.
8. Decided against using special forces to take down bin Laden in Afghanistan.
9. Did not take an opportunity to take into custody two al Qaeda operatives involved in the East African embassy bombings. In another little scoop, I am able to show that Sudan arrested these two terrorists and offered them to the FBI. The Clinton administration declined to pick them up and they were later allowed to return to Pakistan.
10. Ordered an ineffectual, token missile strike against a Sudanese pharmaceutical factory.
11. Clumsily tipped off Pakistani officials sympathetic to bin Laden before a planned missile strike against bin Laden on August 20, 1998. Bin Laden left the camp with only minutes to spare.
12-14. Three times, Clinton hesitated or deferred in ordering missile strikes against bin Laden in 1999 and 2000.
15. When they finally launched and armed the Predator spy drone plane, which captured amazing live video images of bin Laden, the Clinton administration no longer had military assets in place to strike the archterrorist.
16. Did not order a retaliatory strike on bin Laden for the murderous attack on the USS Cole.
Based on recent events, I would have thought that Mr. Blitzer would be more interested in the manner of the leaking of the tape, rather than in the contents of the tape.
-PJ
Translation: We here at CNN are so damn mad that NBC aired that footage before we could that we will even stoop to defending national security to beat down the infidels at NBC.
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