C.I.A. Closes Unit Focused on Capture of bin Laden

SundaySilence

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....

...In recent years, the war in Iraq has stretched the resources of the intelligence agencies and the Pentagon, generating new priorities for American officials. For instance, much of the military's counterterrorism units, like the Army's Delta Force, had been redirected from the hunt for Mr. bin Laden to the search for Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was killed last month in Iraq...

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/04/washington/04intel.html?hp&ex=1152072000&en=5ced05aa2a8d9b76&ei=5094&partner=homepage

El_Kabong

SundaySilence wrote:

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....

...In recent years, the war in Iraq has stretched the resources of the intelligence agencies and the Pentagon, generating new priorities for American officials. For instance, much of the military's counterterrorism units, like the Army's Delta Force, had been redirected from the hunt for Mr. bin Laden to the search for Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was killed last month in Iraq...

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/04/washington/04intel.html?hp&ex=1152072000&en=5ced05aa2a8d9b76&ei=5094&partner=homepage

a decade??? but...but...but...that would mean Clinton started the program and according to the cons he just sat back and didnt do anything

Commy

SundaySilence wrote:

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....

...In recent years, the war in Iraq has stretched the resources of the intelligence agencies and the Pentagon, generating new priorities for American officials. For instance, much of the military's counterterrorism units, like the Army's Delta Force, had been redirected from the hunt for Mr. bin Laden to the search for Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was killed last month in Iraq...

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/04/washington/04intel.html?hp&ex=1152072000&en=5ced05aa2a8d9b76&ei=5094&partner=homepage

This war on terror isn't going so well, I must admit.

simpson,ay?

El_Kabong wrote:

a decade??? but...but...but...that would mean Clinton started the program and according to the cons he just sat back and didnt do anything

hahhahahhahahhah and nobody on his staff warned anybody from the bush administration about terrorism...


anyway, its gotta be freakin frustrating for one of those cia analysts to be working for ten years to find one guy and never get anywhere...and NOW is the time to be giving up? let's stay the course!!

user

"Mission Abandoned"

Rider

Hmm, the actual 9-11 mastermind can't be found, yet we managed to take over Iraq and find Saddam. Makes you wonder where our leaders priorities really lie. Yeah, LIE is the right word.

flywallyfly

"In recent years, the war in Iraq has stretched the resources of the intelligence agencies and the Pentagon, generating new priorities for American officials. For instance, much of the military's counterterrorism units, like the Army's Delta Force, had been redirected from the hunt for Mr. bin Laden to the search for Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was killed last month in Iraq."

Combating terrorism, fighting against WMD's, spreadin' democracy..... sure looks like this whatever it is in Iraq is even spreading our intelligence agencies thin as well as the armed forces. Nice call, Georgie. Nice one.

PaperPlates

El_Kabong wrote:

a decade??? but...but...but...that would mean Clinton started the program and according to the cons he just sat back and didnt do anything

No, according to the FACTS Clinton was offered Laden on a "silver platter" so to speak, and had the means and capability to catch him, and chose not to, so as to not stir up political trouble for himself and his. At least be right when you insult the "cons".

A Surprise Left

If it wasen't so sad it would be funny....the CIA were responsible for Bin Laden in the first place as they helped to make sure Russia didn't get Afghanistan....then in 2001 it bit them on the ass big time.

SundaySilence

PaperPlates wrote:

No, according to the FACTS Clinton was offered Laden on a "silver platter" so to speak, and had the means and capability to catch him, and chose not to, so as to not stir up political trouble for himself and his. At least be right when you insult the "cons".

FACT:
"cons" and "non-cons" in the bi-partisan 0-11 commission investigated this and reported on it in the 9-11 Commission Report. On page 110 second paragraph second line, “The Commission found no credible evidence that this so."

my2hands

Commy wrote:

This war on terror isn't going so well, I must admit.

has any war ever gone well?

my2hands

A Surprise Left wrote:

then in 2001 it bit them on the ass big time.

it bit US, not THEM

SuzannePjam

SundaySilence wrote:

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....

...In recent years, the war in Iraq has stretched the resources of the intelligence agencies and the Pentagon, generating new priorities for American officials. For instance, much of the military's counterterrorism units, like the Army's Delta Force, had been redirected from the hunt for Mr. bin Laden to the search for Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was killed last month in Iraq...

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/04/washington/04intel.html?hp&ex=1152072000&en=5ced05aa2a8d9b76&ei=5094&partner=homepage

These two threads seem to go pretty hand in hand so I thought I would put them together. Seems a little odd that al-Zarqawi's widow is saying that a deal was made, and the U.S. ends the CIA's division for capturing Osama at the same time. Sounds like some dirty dealings are going on once again in Washington.

---

Meanwhile, al-Zarqawi's wife told an Italian newspaper that al Qaeda leaders sold him out to the United States in exchange for a promise to let up in the search for Osama bin Laden.

The woman, identified by La Repubblica as al-Zarqawi's first wife, said al Qaeda's top leadership reached a deal with U.S. intelligence because al Zarqawi had become too powerful.

She claimed Sunni tribes and Jordanian secret services mediated the deal.

"My husband has been sold to the Americans," the woman said in an interview published Sunday. "He had become too powerful, too troublesome."

PaperPlates

SundaySilence wrote:

FACT:
"cons" and "non-cons" in the bi-partisan 0-11 commission investigated this and reported on it in the 9-11 Commission Report. On page 110 second paragraph second line, “The Commission found no credible evidence that this so."

Gospel then.

drivingrl

So, does that mean we can get rid of that color-coded alert system? What color is it today? Is it still orange? I get it confused with the ozone level color-coded system.

El_Kabong

PaperPlates wrote:

Gospel then.

gospel?

since single sources are acceptable to you:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/waronterror/story/0,1361,584444,00.html

CIA agent alleged to have met Bin Laden in July 2001
French report claims terrorist leader stayed in Dubai hospital

Anthony Sampson
Thursday November 1, 2001
The Guardian

Two months before September 11 Osama bin Laden flew to Dubai for 10 days for treatment at the American hospital, where he was visited by the local CIA agent, according to the French newspaper Le Figaro.

The disclosures are known to come from French intelligence which is keen to reveal the ambiguous role of the CIA, and to restrain Washington from extending the war to Iraq and elsewhere.

Bin Laden is reported to have arrived in Dubai on July 4 from Quetta in Pakistan with his own personal doctor, nurse and four bodyguards, to be treated in the urology department. While there he was visited by several members of his family and Saudi personalities, and the CIA.

The CIA chief was seen in the lift, on his way to see Bin Laden, and later, it is alleged, boasted to friends about his contact. He was recalled to Washington soon afterwards.

Intelligence sources say that another CIA agent was also present; and that Bin Laden was also visited by Prince Turki al Faisal, then head of Saudi intelligence, who had long had links with the Taliban, and Bin Laden. Soon afterwards Turki resigned, and more recently he has publicly attacked him in an open letter: "You are a rotten seed, like the son of Noah".

The American hospital in Dubai emphatically denied that Bin Laden was a patient there.

Washington last night also denied the story.

Private planes owned by rich princes in the Gulf fly frequently between Quetta and the Emirates, often on luxurious "hunting trips" in territories sympathetic to Bin Laden. Other sources confirm that these hunting trips have provided opportunities for Saudi contacts with the Taliban and terrorists, since they first began in 1994.

Bin Laden has often been reported to be in poor health. Some accounts claim that he is suffering from Hepatitis C, and can expect to live for only two more years.

According to Le Figaro, last year he ordered a mobile dialysis machine to be delivered to his base at Kandahar in Afghanistan.

Whether the allegations about the Dubai meeting are confirmed or not, the wider leaks from the French secret service throw a worrying light on the rivalries and lack of coordination between intelligence agencies, both within the US and between western allies.

A familiar complaint of French intelligence is that collaboration with the Americans has been essentially one-way, with them happy to receive information while giving little in return.

even flow?

El_Kabong wrote:

gospel?

since single sources are acceptable to you:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/waronterror/story/0,1361,584444,00.html

CIA agent alleged to have met Bin Laden in July 2001
French report claims terrorist leader stayed in Dubai hospital

Anthony Sampson
Thursday November 1, 2001
The Guardian

Two months before September 11 Osama bin Laden flew to Dubai for 10 days for treatment at the American hospital, where he was visited by the local CIA agent, according to the French newspaper Le Figaro.

The disclosures are known to come from French intelligence which is keen to reveal the ambiguous role of the CIA, and to restrain Washington from extending the war to Iraq and elsewhere.

Bin Laden is reported to have arrived in Dubai on July 4 from Quetta in Pakistan with his own personal doctor, nurse and four bodyguards, to be treated in the urology department. While there he was visited by several members of his family and Saudi personalities, and the CIA.

The CIA chief was seen in the lift, on his way to see Bin Laden, and later, it is alleged, boasted to friends about his contact. He was recalled to Washington soon afterwards.

Intelligence sources say that another CIA agent was also present; and that Bin Laden was also visited by Prince Turki al Faisal, then head of Saudi intelligence, who had long had links with the Taliban, and Bin Laden. Soon afterwards Turki resigned, and more recently he has publicly attacked him in an open letter: "You are a rotten seed, like the son of Noah".

The American hospital in Dubai emphatically denied that Bin Laden was a patient there.

Washington last night also denied the story.

Private planes owned by rich princes in the Gulf fly frequently between Quetta and the Emirates, often on luxurious "hunting trips" in territories sympathetic to Bin Laden. Other sources confirm that these hunting trips have provided opportunities for Saudi contacts with the Taliban and terrorists, since they first began in 1994.

Bin Laden has often been reported to be in poor health. Some accounts claim that he is suffering from Hepatitis C, and can expect to live for only two more years.

According to Le Figaro, last year he ordered a mobile dialysis machine to be delivered to his base at Kandahar in Afghanistan.

Whether the allegations about the Dubai meeting are confirmed or not, the wider leaks from the French secret service throw a worrying light on the rivalries and lack of coordination between intelligence agencies, both within the US and between western allies.

A familiar complaint of French intelligence is that collaboration with the Americans has been essentially one-way, with them happy to receive information while giving little in return.

Probably met to just to finalize the "big plans".