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The connection between the two events - one, releasing the Bin Laden family after 9/11, and two, blaming Clarke, is simple.

a. The Russians have figured out that terrorists are not ephemeral ghosts. They have families, they have assets, they have neighbors and they have states that harbor them. Think of them as a WAN - wide area network;

b. By strategically targeting the wider area network infrastructure of the terrorists, which is an easy mark, one can then extract confessions, intelligence information and outright surrenders very quickly;

(still following along?)

c. This discourages future collaboration and complicity, and self-regulation within communities. If one day your uncle Fazoo threatens the Americans, and you knew as a result you and yours would be ultimately destroyed, you would be motivated, not to load his suicide belt, but to slit his throat;

d. The Bin Laden family offered a treasure chest of information and leverage following the attacks of 9/11;

e. Dick authorized the Bin Ladens be released in the fog of the aftermath of 9/11.

(there, I think you get it now)

The connection between the two events - one, releasing the Bin Laden family after 9/11, and two, blaming Clarke, is simple.

The hallmark of the non-professional is to call anything as complex as terrorism "simple". There are some folks, a couple of whom lurk and post here, who have been working this problem, both as analysts and operators, for decades and it would be wise to learn from their counsel. If you think the Russians have a better solution - really worked for them in Afghanistan, didn't it - then by all means subscribe to their tactics. The salient fact of the matter is that all the barbery employed by spetsnaz during that guerilla war got them nowhere except to beat a hasty exit out of that woebegone land. (On the other hand, we did things right by supplying the fedayeen with shoulder fired weapons to bring down the hulking MI-24s and by assisting them in other ways. Unfortunately, we didn't follow through which led to the rise of the Taliban and ultimately to the establishment of a sanctuary for bin Laden's troops).

Oh, by the way, there's a saying called, "put up or shut up." The CIA is still looking for operations officers and if you think your opinion and point-of-view could turn the tide of terrorism - after all you must be right and everyone else is wrong and it's just so simple - then step up to the plate. But until you do, and swoop down like an avenging angel saving us from the evildoers, I'll put my faith in the professionals that grind it out everyday.