Posted on 09/08/2006 10:31:15 PM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
US Senate sets 200 million dollars to fund hunt for bin Laden
Thu Sep 7, 6:51 PM ET
The US Senate unanimously approved an additional 200 million dollars to this year's defense budget to fund an intelligence unit that would seek to hunt down top Al-Qaeda terrorist Osama bin Laden.
The measure, approved by a vote of 96 to 0, would also require the US Defense Department to report to Congress every three months about progress made toward apprehending bin Laden, the mastermind of the September 11, 2001 terror attacks.
The legislation was authored by Democrats Kent Conrad and Byron Dorgan as an amendment to the 2007 Defense Appropriations Bill being debated in the Senate this week.
"Osama bin Laden, the head of al-Qaeda, planned, financed and organized a terrorist operation that killed thousands of Americans. It has now been more than 1,800 days since those attacks, and this man is still on the loose," Conrad said.
"The Senate agrees that it is chief among our priorities in the war on terror to bring the mastermind behind September 11 to the justice that a mass murderer deserves," he said.
Said Dorgan: "Our amendment makes certain that bringing Osama bin Laden to justice will be one of our country's most important priorities, and that he is pursued with real energy and with focus, clarity and a specific set of goals."
Republican Senator Ted Stevens, chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee which manages federal spending, on Thursday called the amendment "a slap in the face of the intelligence community," already hot on trail of the terror leader.
But Stevens conceded that it would be all but impossible for lawmakers to vote against the measure during an election year and just days before the fifth anniversary of the September 11 attacks.
I wish to goodness they would find him before November 7th (Election Day).
But, just between us; I have it from a very good source that Karl Rove has Bin Laden hidden in a basement in a house in Virginia where he is holding him until a week before the midterm elections. That's Rove's "October Surprise". Shhhhhhhh!!!
I don't understand this. Were we not looking for him before? If we were did we run out of money to look for him with?
Clinton could have saved lives and millions if he would have pulled the trigger on this guy. Why does the Senate always go overboard with their spending?
Interesting.
I read this title, had not heard ANYTHING about this before, and thought to myself...
"This is something Liberals are behind."
It just sounded plain stupid. So I read the story, and lo and behold...yes...two rats attached it to the bill.
Then when I read it, this jumped out at me..."...would also require the US Defense Department to report to Congress every three months about progress made toward apprehending bin Laden..."
Have you ever heard something so damned beauracratic and stupid?
It's tough to identify vapor.
This must mean his bounty just went wayyy up.
I can see the report that General Pace and SecDef Rumsfeld will make.
"We are looking. Haven't found him yet. See you next quarter."
If the R's vote against it, the D's will shout that they're not serious about catching OBL.
If they vote for it, the Dem's will shout that it proves that not enough was being done to this point.
The R's had better learn some bareknuckle politics right quick-like.
This is so the progress can be leaked to Bin Laden so he can move to a safer harbor. If I were the US Defense Department, I wouldn't say everything I knew until he was caught... assuming, of course, that we're really looking for him to begin with.
IIRC, this CIA unit was scrapped because while it was very good at sitting on it's ass burning up tax money and undermining the administration at every turn, it had accomplished nothing in actually trying to track down bin Laden.
The point is: It is $200 million of our tax dollars, earmarked by these suckbag politicians...for what? Is is just injected into the Defense budget to pay operating costs, jet fuel, bombs, bullets or whatever? If there are no strings attached, then I have no problems.
If RATS are having any say in HOW it is spent...it is a waste and impediment.
In either case...it is CLEARLY just a political ploy. Kids playing with money. They need to get the EFF out of the way and let the adults do the work they need to do. I am so effing SICK of this crap.
I didn't see anything in the article concerning allocation of funds and will probably never know where they go to. I had assumed (apparently errantly) that the hunt for bin laden was part of the US defense budget.
I think 200 million of jdams in Iran for a 9-11 memorial ceremony makes more sense, heck its only 200 million - triple it and give us some real fireworks!
I know it sounds indiscriminate...: just give them 2 yrs
remember the CIA has been wrong in their assessments before
Exactly. This just pisses me off.
These are the people on the Senate Intelligence Committee:
Pat Roberts, Kansas
John D. Rockefeller IV
Orrin G. Hatch
Carl Levin, Michigan
Mike Dewine, Ohio
Dianne Feinstein, California
Christopher S. Bond, Missouri
Ron Wyden, Oregon
Trent Lott, Mississippi
Evan Bayh, Indiana
Olympia J. Snowe, Maine
Barbara A. Mikulski, Maryland
Chuck Hagel, Nebraska
Russell D. Feingold, Wisconsin
Saxby Chambliss, Georgia
Exactly 50% of these people cannot be trusted in any way. Having people like Rockefeller, Feinstein (a complete idiot) and Levin (an even bigger idiot) on this committee is as much a strike against the well being of our country as having Hillary Clinton on the Senate Armed Services Committee.
You and I, in money terms. think a dollar at a time. Senators can think only in millions of dollars. The Senate couldn't pass a bill to purchase a single McDonald's cheeseburger for under a million bucks.
I'm with you brother. Have you seen Nancy Pelosi's latest announcement about wanting an up or down vote on the 9-11 recommendations? It's all just a big RAT PR push before the election. God, I hate RATS.
Good. Thanks, it's not just me then...:)
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