Posted on 03/28/2005 3:46:19 AM PST by Straight Vermonter
WASHINGTON - A lone U.S. ambassador compromised America's hunt for Osama bin Laden in Pakistan for more than two years, The New York Sun has learned.
Ambassador Nancy Powell, America's representative in Pakistan, refused to allow the distribution in Pakistan of wanted posters, matchbooks, and other items advertising America's $25 million reward for information leading to the capture of Mr. bin Laden and other Al Qaeda leaders.
Instead, thousands of matchbooks, posters, and other material - printed at taxpayer expense and translated into Urdu, Pashto, and other local languages - remained "impounded" on American Embassy grounds from 2002 to 2004, according to Rep. Mark Kirk, Republican of Illinois.
While the American government was engaged in a number of "black" or covert intelligence activities to locate Al Qaeda leaders, Mr. Kirk said, the "white" or public efforts - which have succeeded in the past in leading to the capture of wanted terrorists - were effectively shut down in the months following the September 11 attacks.
Mr. Kirk discovered Ms. Powell's unusual order in January 2004 and, over the past year, launched a series of behind-the-scenes moves that culminated in a blunt conversation with President Bush aboard Air Force One, the removal of the ambassador, and congressional approval for reinvigorating the hunt for Mr. bin Laden.
(Excerpt) Read more at nysun.com ...
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I hate to admit I am of the same sex as this person. But then maybe I am not, if you get my drift. :-)
bttt
BUMP
BUMP
BUMP... TO SCROLL THAT PICTURE OFF MY SCREEN
The bumper sticker ratio in State Dept parking lots ran about 12 to 1, Kerry over Bush.
Reduced staff at the Pakistan embassy due to fear of violence and assassination. That's why families are left behind in America.
Nancy Powell fits the mold. Single.
She looks like a dieting John Goodman.
I don't recall General George S. Patton having any problems "concentrating" on his task (also of pretty high import) while he was forced to be separated from his son from 1941-1945.
Caption. "Does this outfit make me look fat?"
LOL! Sorry, I couldn't help it.
Caption. "Does this outfit make me look fat?"
LOL! Sorry, I couldn't help it.
Is that her wife in the middle?
Ummm... no Mooslim nations located on the African Continent??
I think it was a new item on Lucianne.com today--but I saw it somewhere. The name Powell struck me because of Colin and it was the State Dept.
No, it's not. Things were dicey for Mushareff in Pakistan, thinking back to the street protests, etc. leading me to think that there are possibily or probably some other points in the story that didn't get aired in this article. Lots of things have happened in Pakistan that had the potential to turn the place into a train wreck during Powell's tenure there and it didn't happen. I don't know anything about Nancy Powell but given that Miniter left the much higher profile captures of Yousef (before Powell) & Khalid Shaikh Mohammed (during) out of the article, I'm inclined to give Ms Powell the benefit of the doubt for the time being. It's not as though the Pakis didn't know that the US paid rewards or that they didn't know that OBL had a price on his head. Saturating the country with matchbooks & wanted posters may have been a counterproductive thing to do.
Checked Lucianne. You must have read it somewhere else.
Is she a rabid anti-smoker? After all, no matches, they can't light up, right?
If it's anything like the rest of DC and Northern Virginia, they still have Kerry bumper stickers on their cars
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