Sources: U.S. planned to kill bin Laden before 9/11

CNN ^ | Wednesday, June 25, 2003

[JohnHuang2]

WASHINGTON (AP) -- When President Bush took office in January 2001, the White House was told that Predator drones had recently spotted Osama bin Laden as many as three times and officials were urged to arm the unmanned planes with missiles to kill the al-Qaida leader. But the administration failed to get drones back into the Afghan skies until after the September 11 attacks later that year, current and former U.S. officials say.

[JohnHuang2]

Wednesday, June 25, 2003

Quote of the Day by piasa

[Bernard Marx]

My initial reaction to this AP story is that it stinks to high heaven. The sources -- "current and former U.S. officials," all unnamed -- covers one helluva lot of territory. It smells to me like a Clinton-McAuliffe plant to provide red meat to the folks trying to undermine Bush's credibility.

This is the clincher for me: "Clinton officials decided just before Christmas 2000 to forward the plan to the incoming Bush administration rather than implement it during Clinton's final days, the officials said." Sounds like partisan politics all the way.

Maybe I'm awfully forgetful but the the the idea of a sanctioned kill of even a terrorist simply wouldn't have been politically acceptable prior to 9-11. Reagan tried to snuff Khadafy but there was plenty of build-up for that one. I'm going to stand back and read between the lines of future stories about this.

[Mo1]

The disappearance in 2001 of U.S. Predators from the skies over Afghanistan is discussed in classified sections of Congress' report into pre-September 11 intelligence failures and is expected to be examined by an independent commission appointed by the president and Congress, officials said.

Here is a question ... Who in the heck is leaking classified information from the Congress??

[M. Thatcher]

These officials said that within days of Bush taking office in January 2001, his top terrorism expert on the National Security Council, Richard Clarke, urged National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice to resume the drone flights to track down bin Laden, citing the successes of late 2000.

Translation: Clinton legacy rewrite project.

[JohnHuang2]

Translation: Clinton legacy rewrite project.

Bingo. Pathetic attempt, actually. The scumbag had eight years to get Osama and this is the best they can come up with by way of 'splanation?

[Mo1]

Clinton signed order to target bin Laden Another official said the CIA was opposed in the interim to running too many unarmed Predator flights for fear that would lead Afghan and al Qaeda leaders to be on the lookout for the drones and to flee sites before bombs or missiles could be launched.

I agree with you .. this story smells ..

[M. Thatcher]

Tells you the Mansoor Ijaz info is really starting to bite.

[FairOpinion]

"My initial reaction to this AP story is that it stinks to high heaven. The sources -- "current and former U.S. officials," all unnamed -- covers one helluva lot of territory. It smells to me like a Clinton-McAuliffe plant to provide red meat to the folks trying to undermine Bush's credibility."

---

BINGO. There are a number of factual inaccuracies and slants in the article, it's just too late tonight for me to go and dig up the various sources to refute each item by item. But pretty much the entire story is another CNN Clinton News Network fairy tale.

[FairOpinion]

Even when we finally used the armed Predator, it was a prototype,it was NOT ready to go before, we even used them early when we did.

Previously the Predators didn't carry missiles.

[Howlin]

[JohnHuang2]

Jayson Blair works at CNN, no? ;)

[JohnHuang2]

Good point.

[Howlin]

I wouldn't be the least bit surprised.

But I am positive Judy Woodruff, Paul Begala, and Wolf Blitzer do.

[JohnHuang2]

lol -- exactly.

[Susannah]

Those Predators are real toys compared to the unmanned programs that Clinton's administration cancelled in the mid-1990's. Think of a smaller, more accurate, stealth drone---- I KNOW it was cancelled.


I would like to hear more about a story that Sandy Berger & company were told by Clinton to scrap plans to invade Afghanistan when Bush won the election.


ALL stories that use so-called anonymous sources are useless, IMO.

[hellinahandcart]

Most spoke only on condition of anonymity, citing the classified nature of the information.

Uh huh. A whole slew of people who think "classified" means "keep my name out of it". And their stories all agree.

Now. Am I really supposed to believe that Clinton, who didn't take Bin Laden when offered because "they couldn't think of a legal reason to keep him" had no problems actively planning his assassination? And then, instead of enhancing his Enormous Legacy by avenging the Cole as promised before he left office, decided to punt to Bush instead?

[Thorondir]

You got that right.

(sigh) The Demoncrap desperation makes me feel sooooooooo good!

[piasa]

Let me first remove everything that is not sourced to a named person or is not common knowledge even if unsourced, and then present the revised article for your to compare:

U.S. Uses Drones

WASHINGTON (AP) -- After the September 11 attacks, the CIA put the armed drones into the sky within days -- and they soon played an important role in one of the early successes of the war on terror.

In November 2001, an armed drone helped confirm a high-level al Qaeda meeting in Kabul, Afghanistan, and joined in an attack that killed bin Laden military chief Mohammed Atef, according to officials familiar with the attack.

Propeller-driven Predators first flew for the military in July 1995 over Bosnia, but early versions couldn't transmit high-quality live video. The Air Force gradually improved camera resolution and first successfully fired a Hellfire missile from a Predator on February 16, 2001.

By summer 2001, the Predator was armed for another test in the Nevada desert that destroyed a mock-up of a home bin Laden was suspected of using in Afghanistan, Clarke told executives in a recent speech at a technology conference.

Cruise missile warheads, by comparison, weigh 1,000 pounds, and traditional bombs typically range from 500 to 2,000 pounds.

"They were operating them before the United States military was involved ... and doing a good job," Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has said, explaining why CIA operated the armed drones in Afghanistan. "And so rather than changing that, we just left it."

---

Wow, doesn't THIS article look different now.

[Miss Marple]

Excellent work, piasa! I think we should apply your technique to more of these types of articles!

[Ann Archy]

George Tenet is Bush's WEAKEST LINK. He didn't want to do anything.