posted on March 16, 2004 06:19:40 PM new
Another foul up in Clinton's presidency, the last missed opportunity for Clinton to rid the world of Bin Laden....
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Osama bin Laden: missed opportunities:
The CIA had pictures. Why wasn’t the al-Qaida leader captured or killed?
By Lisa Myers
Senior investigative correspondent
NBC News
Updated: 7:01 p.m. ET March 16, 2004
As the 9/11 commission investigates what Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush might have done to prevent the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, one piece of evidence the commission will examine is a videotape secretly recorded by a CIA plane high above Afghanistan. The tape shows a man believed to Osama bin Laden walking at a known al-Qaida camp.
The question for the 9/11 commission: If the CIA was able to get that close to bin Laden before 9/11, why wasn’t he captured or killed? The videotape has remained secret until now.
Over the next three nights, NBC News will present this incredible spy footage and reveal some of the difficult questions it has raised for the 9/11 commission.
In 1993, the first World Trade Center bombing killed six people.
In 1998, the bombing of two U.S. embassies in Africa killed 224.
Both were the work of al-Qaida and bin Laden, who in 1998 declared holy war on America, making him arguably the most wanted man in the world.
In 1998, President Clinton announced, “We will use all the means at our disposal to bring those responsible to justice, no matter what or how long it takes.”
INTERACTIVE
NBC News has obtained, exclusively, extraordinary secret video, shot by the U.S. government. It illustrates an enormous opportunity the Clinton administration had to kill or capture bin Laden. Critics call it a missed opportunity.
In the fall of 2000, in Afghanistan, unmanned, unarmed spy planes called Predators flew over known al-Qaida training camps. The pictures that were transmitted live to CIA headquarters show al-Qaida terrorists firing at targets, conducting military drills and then scattering on cue through the desert.
Also, that fall, the Predator captured even more extraordinary pictures — a tall figure in flowing white robes. Many intelligence analysts believed then and now it is bin Laden.
Why does U.S. intelligence believe it was bin Laden? NBC showed the video to William Arkin, a former intelligence officer and now military analyst for NBC. “You see a tall man…. You see him surrounded by or at least protected by a group of guards.”
Bin Laden is 6 foot 5. The man in the video clearly towers over those around him and seems to be treated with great deference.
Another clue: The video was shot at Tarnak Farm, the walled compound where bin Laden is known to live. The layout of the buildings in the Predator video perfectly matches secret U.S. intelligence photos and diagrams of Tarnak Farm obtained by NBC.
“It’s dynamite. It’s putting together all of the pieces, and that doesn’t happen every day.… I guess you could say we’ve done it once, and this is it,” Arkin added.
The tape proves the Clinton administration was aggressively tracking al-Qaida a year before 9/11. But that also raises one enormous question: If the U.S. government had bin Laden and the camps in its sights in real time, why was no action taken against them?
“We were not prepared to take the military action necessary,” said retired Gen. Wayne Downing, who ran counter-terror efforts for the current Bush administration and is now an NBC analyst.
“We should have had strike forces prepared to go in and react to this intelligence, certainly cruise missiles — either air- or sea-launched — very, very accurate, could have gone in and hit those targets,” Downing added.
The Democrats ran on 'Honesty' and I told 'em at the time they would never get anywhere. It was too radical for politics. The Republicans ran on 'Common Sense' and the returns showed that there were 8 million more people in the United States who had 'Common Sense' enough not to believe that there was 'Honesty' in politics." --Will Rogers
posted on March 17, 2004 07:43:06 AM new
It doesn't appear as if the Bush administration is any closer to capturing Bin Laden since 9/11. We have bombed Afghanistan, have troops stationed there and have offered reward money. He is still at large.
Impeach Bush
Marriage is a Human Right not a Heterosexual Privledge.
Bigotry and hate will not be tolerated.
posted on March 17, 2004 07:51:26 AM new
Our military is searching for him logansdad. And I believe they will find him it's just going to take time.
But you know what? Capturing BL is not going to stop all the other A-Q terrorists who wish to destroy our country.
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The tape proves the Clinton administration was aggressively tracking al-Qaida a year before 9/11. But that also raises one enormous question: If the U.S. government had bin Laden and the camps in its sights in real time, why was no action taken against them?
My answer to that question is because clinton didn't have the balls. His administration didn't want to upset our so called allies. Might have pissed them off just as President Bush has done. And that wasn't want clinton wanted. Just as kerry will do if he's elected. More important to both men how the world sees the US....NOT WHAT'S IN THE BEST INTEREST OF THE U.S. They're own political careers.
posted on March 17, 2004 09:08:08 AM new
I asked a techie familiar with these drones why the operator didn't simply crash the drone into him if it had no weapons like the newer ones. It would be well worth the cost of the machine. He said the operator only has so much control and if he tried that the drone would refuse the command and take it as an invalid instruction and pull up.
This is the same thing I will not accept in an automobile - having a computer decide what I am allowed top do with the car. Sometimes I see and want to do something for very good reasons that the computer can not expect. I may WANT the car to slide and spin rear end first. I may refuse to brake closing on an obstruction knowing I will steer around it. Having that sort of control on a combat machine is crazy.
posted on March 17, 2004 11:59:21 AM new
Bear, do you think 911 wouldn't have happened if Bin Laden was captured before then? I don't see how it would've made that much difference. Catching Hussein didn't amount to a hill of beans. Has anyone heard what's happening with him since he was caught?
