Vlad the Impaler would be so proud.
Posted on 07/06/2005 10:03:36 AM PDT by robowombat
'Bring me the head of Bin Laden'
The CIA sent a team to Afghanistan days after 9/11 with orders to kill Osama Bin Laden and bring back his head, a former agent has revealed. Gary Schroen flew out soon after the attacks on New York and Washington, helping to set up the 2001 invasion, he told US National Public Radio.
He recalled his orders from the CIA's counter-terrorism chief.
"Capture Bin Laden, kill him and bring his head back in a box on dry ice," he quoted Cofer Black as saying.
As for other leaders of Bin Laden's al-Qaeda network in Afghanistan, Mr Black reportedly said: "I want their heads up on pikes."
Contacted by the radio network, Mr Black would not confirm that these were his exact words but he did not dispute Mr Schroen's account.
I don't know what I'll do about dry ice to bring the head back - but we'll manage something Gary Schroen to his commander
The agent told NPR he had been stunned that, for the first time in 30 years of service, he had received orders to kill targets rather than capture them.
But he says he replied: "Sir, those are the clearest orders I have ever received.
"I can certainly make pikes out in the field but I don't know what I'll do about dry ice to bring the head back - but we'll manage something."
One more mission
Mr Schroen, 59 when the planes crashed into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania, had just begun the CIA's retirement transition programme but he was asked to put it on hold two days after the attacks of 11 September 2001.
MISSION EQUIPMENT Laptops and hand-held radios $3m in $100-bills Instant coffee
As a former station chief in both Kabul and Islamabad, he was considered to be ideally placed for the Afghan mission.
According to NPR, there was no doubt at CIA headquarters that the 9/11 attacks were the work of Bin Laden.
Mr Schroen was given a double brief, it reported: to liaise with anti-Taleban warlords on the ground as preparation for the overthrow of the regime, and to then assassinate Bin Laden and other top al-Qaeda figures.
The agency allowed Mr Schroen to pick his own six-man team and, exactly one week after 9/11, they were on a plane flying to the region, equipped with laptops, hand-held radios, instant coffee and $3m in $100 bills.
Mr Schroen has released memoirs called First In, a reference to the fact that he and his team were the first US government personnel on the ground.
He says he is surprised that the CIA has still not managed to track down Bin Laden after nearly four years.
Published: 2005/05/04 10:27:32 GMT
© BBC MMV
I'm not seein' the downside here.
wow.. i think i LIKE that guy. "i want their heads up on pikes" can we vote HIM for pres? or at least get him secretary of defense, maybe director of INS.
Vlad the Impaler would be so proud.
No surprise - they don't consider him an important target, for some strange reason.
Bring his head to NYC in a box, and put it on a pike in front of Ground Zero.
you're not seein' the downside because there isn't one. My first thought on reading this article was, that's why we vote Republican. Can you imagine a Democrat (at least one in office now) issuing orders like this or even allowing them to be issued, much less carried out?
My only regret is that we haven't done it yet. I can't imagine why, and can only hope the damn thing is in a freezer somewhere.
This just fails the plausibility test.
The CIA? Get their shiny loafers dusty?
It's just too bad it hasn't been done yet.
I think he's talking about the "BC" CIA. (Before Carter)
The New CIA can't seem to find a Mission they can sink thier
Teeth (??) into.
Has the makings of a good yarn; with a proper re-write it could be a blockbuster.
Right, Chief! Where's the main dry ice store in Kabul?
Oh geez, this is just such old, boring news. This story is now in its third incarnation in at least 18 months. I don't know what the media's angle is in continuing to dredge this up, if at some point they in their utter disconnect from normal people think Americans will become outraged over this or what. I think they need to learn to think like real Americans in deciding what's newsworthy. Americans are only going to agree with someone asking for that animal Bin Laden's head. NO ONE other than the leftist America haters in the media are going to find this outrage-worthy.
They haven't been able to find The Holloway girl on a very small island and I heard someone say it is like finding a needle in a haystack so can you imagine finding someone in awhere there is a zillion caves!
"can you imagine finding someone in awhere there is a zillion caves"
In my opinion, it's not possible to bring back the head of bin Laden, on a platter or on a pike, because it was flattened along with the rest of him, during the siege of the cave complex at Tora Bora in late 2001. Requests for family DNA, all the buzz of activity, and then... nothing. Why it would be considered unhelpful to acknowledge this, I don't know. Room for a lot of speculation there.
And this is bad because.........?
Sounds like a plan to me.
I'm glad to hear they had the right idea. Unfortunately, they did not have the resources or sources to execute the orders.
It's not unusual for a dupliate post. Get a grip!
I think the point of the story was supposed to show that we aren't any better than the head choppers. You guys are missing the point. They(liberals) are more civilized than the conservatives. If you don't see a downside, well, you just aren't one of them.
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