Posted on 01/15/2002 5:57:13 PM PST by Timesink
ABC News reported on the evening of January 14 that the CIA believes that Usama bin Laden has "escaped from Afghanistan and has gone beyond Pakistan," most likely by sea. This is incorrect. We have reached no such conclusion. ABC did not contact the Agency about this allegation before airing it.
Funny you should make that statement because I heard a report this morning which said that the supposed CIA conclusion about the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden was reported to C.I.N. in Florida and the commander was quoted as saying:"bin Laden IS,WHERE HE IS and we're going to get him! Now, I meditated on that short response a bit this morning and I'm lead to the conclusion that the U.S. does know where he is! What do you think?
And if ABC had contacted the agency, CIA would have had "No Comment". ABC has gotten themselves painted into a pretty good corner! LOL!
It's not that ABC should have to get permission from the CIA before running a news story, but at least it could show it some professional courtesy.
Or two months.
I have March 19th in the pool.
These guys DEBKAfile are based in Jerusalem, and from what I've read so far, they have been about 90-95% correct on all of their reports.
You know, I find a CIA denial of any story about them to be about par for the course. That's what they're supposed to do, isn't it? My guess is that somebody in the CIA thought they were talking off the record, and got a surprise when it was reported to the public.
Heck, even Rumsfield or one of his spokespersons has made the comment that they are no longer going to follow-up on every CIA report of an Osama/Omar-sighting by CIA agents in the field. They've discovered that nearly 95% of the CIA field agents are very new in-country and are easily convinced by the Afghan warlords that their information is 100% reliable. After several CIA-requested U. S. air strikes wiped out civilians (to include women and children), rival tribes, and delegates to the new government convention, Defense has decided to use their own people on the ground.
He slings burgers at a local MikkieD's restrauant to create his social security fund for future retirement purposes.
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