Bin Laden unit disbanded last year
Maybe, just maybe, this is because they actually know where Bin Laden is, but aren't pursuing him for political reasons. Remember that it was just over a year ago, right before this unit was disbanded, that Porter Goss went on CNN. "CIA Director Porter Goss says he has an "excellent idea" where Osama bin Laden is hiding, but that the al Qaeda chief will not be caught until weak links in the war on terrorism are strengthened."
Here's the current story that's making the rounds.
Here's the current story that's making the rounds.
WASHINGTON, July 3 — The Central Intelligence Agency has closed a unit that for a decade had the mission of hunting Osama bin Laden and his top lieutenants, intelligence officials confirmed Monday. The unit, known as Alec Station, was disbanded late last year and its analysts reassigned within the C.I.A. Counterterrorist Center, the officials said. ....
The realignment reflects a view that Al Qaeda is no longer as hierarchical as it once was, intelligence officials said, and a growing concern about Qaeda-inspired groups that have begun carrying out attacks independent of Mr. bin Laden and his top deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri.
posted by mikevotes at
7:29 AM
6 Comments:
Maybe it's because Osama's dead?
By
Lew Scannon, at 9:43 AM
I've seen that argument as well.
Mike
By
mikevotes, at 10:32 AM
The guy is on kidney dialysis. You'd think we could find someone who is hooked up to a machine in a cave somewhere.
I'm suspicious that Pakistan is protecting him. I think that is highly likely as Pakistani complicity in "catching" him would likely be the end of the Pakistani government.
And I wouldn't be surprised to hear that Bush is "protecting" him. But I doubt it. It's simply too easy to remain hidden when you have a huge area with friendly natives.
Frankly OBL has become irrelevant. The Iraq war has spawned a highly decentralized worldwide insurgency that is like trying to kill each and every cell of a metastized cancer.
The solution to this era of "terraism" is going to be in the P.R. realm. First and most importantly popular support for for Islamic fundamentalist has to stop. And that will only happen when the U.S. stops being the perfect demon for the Islamists cause.
By
Greyhair, at 11:41 AM
I agree. I think that's what Goss was referring to in the CNN interview, a Pakistani coup.
I agree, that his operational role is probably fairly well constrained if he is in Waziristan and we know where, but at the same time and that Iraq is now the primary motivator for the current crop of Jihadis. (I like the metastatized metaphor.)
And he is growing less relevant as more time passes without another attack, but I think symbolically it would be significant to pick this guy up.
Mike
By
mikevotes, at 12:42 PM
Even though there is no evidence of being complicit in 9/11 attacks?
From the information I've been able to absorb so far, I think he's just a patsy, but that is not my conclusion. And I doubt I'll ever draw one.
By
Anonymous, at 12:49 AM
Frankly, I believe that people or elements in the US government had some inkling that 9-11 was coming based primarily on the short sales of airline stocks that were never resolved.
I find it impossible to believe that someone could do that and not leave a trail. After 9-11 every bank in the world dropped their secrecy laws for the pursuit which means the dead end investigation was dead ended for political reasons.
And as for Osama, I don't know. I do remember that he didn't claim the attacks for a long time until that really weird video with all the questions about it.
Mike
By
mikevotes, at 8:49 PM
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