North: U.S. Journalists Protecting Osama bin Laden

NewsMax.com ^ | 9/21/01 | Carl Limbacher and NewsMax.com Staff

[kattracks]

U.S. reporters familiar with the whereabouts of terrorist ringleader Osama bin Laden, who killed at least 6,700 Americans in attacks on New York and Washington last week, are refusing to tell what they know to U.S. intelligence agencies, a former Reagan administration national security official charged Friday night.

"We know that there are American correspondents, people who work for news bureaus, both print and broadcast, who have interviewed Osama bin Laden," said former Marine Lt. Col. Oliver North, now a Fox News Channel consultant, in an interview on the network's "Hannity & Colmes."

"I asked one of them today, 'Have you talked to the CIA to tell them exactly where you were?'" North said. "And his answer was, 'No, I'm a journalist.'"

"I find that to be reprehensible," the former Reagan official added. "He's enjoying the blessings of this country but he won't tell the CIA where he interviewed Osama bin Laden."

North offered the troubling revelation after "H & C" co-host Sean Hannity asked him about the controversy over Cablevision's News 12 in New York, where station management currently prohibits newscasters from wearing patriotic symbols on-air.

Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:

War on Terrorism

[JeepInMazar]

It seems silly to me that the CIA never sent "journalists" in there to interview him. They must have. If not, what a joke!

[gov_bean_ counter]

And therein you have the answer to the question of why the Dems would not pass a declaration of war. Leaks become treason, failure to answer these questions result in jail time.

[HAL9000]

Japan's Kyodo News Agency is reporting this hour - quoting U.S. and Pakistan government sources - that Taliban supreme leader Mullah Omar has fled Kandahar.

[vbmoneyspender]

Under American law, the CIA is barred from having agents pose as journalists and priests. Kind of silly, but that was part of the fallout from the radical left's takeover of the Democratic Party in the early 70's

[Waco]

Whack em in the knuts 14 times, then ask again.

[Restorer]

I'm sure Osama hasn't moved from the spot where he was interviewed two months ago.

[JeepInMazar]

Wow. I hope we wake up as a nation. This needs to change.

[Southack]

Good Ole Ollie North almost got it right, but there is a large chance that the whole "reason" CNN reporters were ordered to leave Afghanistan was to aid and cover Osama's flight to "safety."

I wonder if the son of Laden will interview anyone while he poses as a journalist.

Moreover, I wonder if the reason that Air Force 1 code words were used by the terrorists on 9/11 was because someone in the press pool on that plane was treasonously providing our President's location to the assassins...

[Grim]

It seems silly to me that the CIA never sent "journalists" in there to interview him. They must have. If not, what a joke! If I'm not mistaken I believe CIA operatives are banned from imitating journalists and missionaries.

[Vigilanteman]

He may have had. But he shredded those papers 14 years ago. Do you think there is the possibility Bin Laden might have changes his locations and M.O. in 14 years.

Or, are you one of those guys who figured Charles Lindberg should've sat out World War II and kept his mouth shut because he had a photo-op with the German Luftwaffe commander in 1934?

[Bommer]

Wouldn't matter anyways. most interviews were from last year or the year before last. He could be anywhere now.

[SMEDLEYBUTLER]

Thank you, Frank Church.

[mafree]

..Wouldn't matter anyways. most interviews were from last year or the year before last...

They still could have told where he was, but journalists often settle for any conditions to get a story. I had wondered myself how some of these folks could interview him and not tell the authorities where he was.

[SKYDRIFTER]

Kinda funny that the CIA wasn't tracking the journalists. That's not a high-end intelligence conclusion - tracking journalists and their stories. Even Saddam Hussein figured that out.

[niteowl77]

FFOR-RREAL? Oh, I get it... you were just being glib.

The spirit of Bernard Shaw is still carried within the hearts and minds of journalists everywhere! Men and women of objectivity and the steely resolve to bring us nothing but the truth! John Reed would be proud.

Ed

[Romulus]

Kind of silly,

Is it? Have you considered the consequences if journalists were to disclose privileged information to the CIA, or if the CIA were to impersonate journalists or priests? Do you not realise that every real journalist and priest would then be a suspected spy, with his life in danger?

Apart from the fact that there's a practical benefit to be gained from the unhindered practice of journalism, it's profoundly immoral to endanger legitimate civilian non-combatants by hiding behind their innocence.

Please try to understand the reason civilised countries accept the execution of spies in wartime: not so much because they work by stealth, as because they endanger non-combatants (who would otherwise be cast into suspicion).

[spunkets]

BuMp for a fine explaination.

[LiberalBuster]

If I'm not mistaken I believe CIA operatives are banned from imitating journalists and missionaries.

And, apparently, journalists are banned from imitating Americans.