Bin Laden may have just escaped U.S. forces

[jefferson_dem]

Source: NBC News

Bin Laden may have just escaped U.S. forces
August mission in Tora Bora almost snared 'high value target'
By Justin Balding, Adam Ciralsky and Robert Windrem
NBC News

A little more than a month ago, with the anniversary of Sept. 11 approaching and fears of a new al Qaeda attack rising, some U.S. intelligence and military analysts thought they had found one of the world’s two most wanted men just where they last saw them six years ago.

For three days and nights — between Aug. 14 and 16 — U.S. and Afghanistan forces pounded the mountain caves in Tora Bora, the same caves where Osama Bin Laden had hidden out and then fled in late 2001 after U.S. forces drove al Qaeda out of Afghanistan cities. Ultimately, however, U.S. forces failed to find Bin Laden or his deputy, Ayman al Zawahiri, even though their attacks left dozens of al Qaeda and Taliban dead.

One of the officials interviewed by NBC News, a general officer, admitted Tuesday that it was “possible” Bin Laden was at Tora Bora, saying, in fact, "I still don’t know if he was there."

Still, some in the special operations and intelligence community are telling NBC News that there was a lack of coordination particularly in the choice of support troops. But with intelligence limited on who was there, no one is willing to say that the lack of key units permitted Bin Laden or Zawahiri to escape.

Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21000298/

[Thor_MN]

1. You know, I almost ran into him on the stairs the other day

but since I don't know if we are looking for the fat bin Laden, or Mr. Graybeard, I'm not willing to say that he almost wasn't there.

[RantinRavin]

2. bin Laden is very safe

until next October when he will finally be captured.

[Psephos]

10. That sentiment was posted here often and vociferously in fall of 2004

After the election, those posters just kind of went away, all quiet-like. There were lots of predictions about Saddam being frog-marched in October, too, but it didn't happen. Saddam was captured in December, after the election.

The whole idea makes little sense, for the same reason MIHOP makes little sense for 9/11. All other considerations aside, keeping OBL in the tank, just like covering up 9/11, would require an immense conspiracy involving hundreds of people without a direct political stake in the outcome. In other words, hirelings. The chance that no hireling would leak on that is zero. The lure of fame and enrichment for the whistle-blower would be impossible to resist. If Bushco were demonstrated to have somehow pulled either of these feats off, and conspired to keep them secret, it would mean the destruction of the GOP. Gone forever. There is no chance repug leadership would ever let the party be put at such catastrophic risk. There would be a coup before there would be a cover-up.

Hey, that's not a bad idea... :-)

[Yupster]

11. Also remember all the warnings that the elections of 2004

and 2006 would be canceled.

Gets everyone up in arms, and then when nothing happens, everyone goes away until next time.

It's one of the things about the internet.

[SayWhatYo]

29. The 2006 elections were canceled

They just put on a fake one to make it seems as if they really did take place. They also set the results so that no one got suspicious.

[CJCRANE]

19. And that's why

Sibel Edmonds is a multi-millionaire. Those whistleblowers really do live the high life, paid millions by the MSM and feted by politicians everywhere.

Oh waitaminute...

[Psephos]

32. Edmonds' case is explosive, but like an IED, not a nuclear bomb

Edmonds' contentions deserve 10x the attention they got, but even if all she says is accurate, it's not, in the end, GOP-eradicating material.

No offense, but the scale difference makes your comparison inapt. Edmonds' case has already shown it doesn't have the firepower to move mountains. That's an observation, not an opinion.

[Chemical Bill]

30. Does the name Colleen Rowley mean anything?

http://www.time.com/time/covers/1101020603/memo.html

[Psephos]

31. Of course, on its own, but absolutely not, in the context I referred to

The scale is different by a large factor, which makes the analogy not very instructive.

It is, however, a case that needs lots more publicity. Even if it isn't a Bushco-killer, it can do some collateral damage.

[Chemical Bill]

33. So let me get this straight...

MIHOP didn't happen unless someone comes forth and confesses all facets of what you insist has to be an enormous operation, of which everyone involved must surely have known every aspect.

Got it.

Bill

[Psephos]

34. No, you didn't get it straight

However, you don't seem like the sort who can see that others with different opinions still deserve simple respect.

Sorry, got to be moving on now.

[bdamomma]

18. oh yea, * is keeping him safe.

oil buddies they are.

[Myrina]

36. ... he's been at a Club Med, on a hammock since 9/10/01 ...

... courtesy of the Carlyle Group. :mad:

[zonkers]

4. I saw him at Pinkdot ordering a a large yogurt.

[NYC]

5. Last night, I saw upon the stair

a little man who wasn't there.
He wasn't there again today.
Oh, how I wish he'd go away!

[jimshoes]

3. Slippery as an eel that Goldstien, er

bin Laden. Who cares about him anyway .... we got us a brand new super villain in Amadinejad.

[dickbearton]

13. Exactly, K&R.

[youngharry]

6. Bin Laden escape

This is just more bullshit propaganda to show that Bin Laden is still alive, therefore the video released a few weeks ago with Bin Laden is real. THAT VIDEO WAS A FAKE AND NO AMOUNT OF PROPAGANDA WILL PROVE OTHERWISE.
Any analysis of the story, "possible" "not confirmed" "I still don't know he was there" REVEALS IT IS JUST GAMES OF DISINFORMATION TO CONFUSE AMERICANS. BULLSHIT, BULLSHIT, BULLSHIT.

[sce56]

15. Bingo!

[JohnyCanuck]

7. Well knock me down with a feather,

the wily boogie man and overlord of all evil-doers, Emmanuel Goldst...., er, I mean, Osama bin Laden, escapes by the skin of his teeth the clutches of justice one again. You might think dragging a kidney dialysis machine behind him every where he went would slow him down somewhat, but apparently that's not the case.

[Pastiche423]

8. OBL found...

...kinda

[OnyxCollie]

9. Missed him by that much...

With all respect to Don Adams.

[Mz Pip]

12. Well, that news merits

a big f*cking WHATEVER!

Wake me up when someone really get him. Almost only counts in horseshoes.

Maybe he's really the tall guy down at Home Depot trying to get some day work. :eyes:

Mz Pip
:dem:

[Chovexani]

14. Sorry, Mario, but your princess is in another castle.

:eyes:

[erpowers]

16. Twice On Bush's Watch

This is the second time during Bush's time in office that Bin Laden may have slipped away from the military. This also happens to be the third time that a top level Al Queda official may have gotten away from Bush. A few months ago it was reported that some CIA officials were claiming that they had located Bin Laden's second in command, but at the last minute Rumsfeld call off the operation, because he thought it was too risky. So, now will Republicans begin to claim that he is soft on terrorism? Will they now begin to make a big deal about how Bush seems to be unable to get Bin Laden? It just seems that Bush is having a hard time getting the job done.

[Javaman]

17. Missed him by that much!

Smart: We had a whole division looking for him.

Kaos: no

Smart: would you believe a platoon of highly trained special ops?

Kaos: no

Smart: would you believe one angry boyscout?

[CJCRANE]

20. In summary:

they don't know if he was there, but he might have been, and if he was - they just missed him. But if they had more support troops they might (or might not) have had a better chance of capturing him - if he was there.

[daleo]

21. I wonder who they actually killed then?

They say they were Al Qaeda, but who really knows. Since the military didn't even claim they got the usual "number three man", it could have been a bunch of luckless locals for all we know.

[olddad56]

22. Does that mean they moved his body to a different storage locker?

I think the guy has been on ice for a few years. They have to wait for the perfect time to pull him out. Maybe as Bush's swan song.

[Feral Libertarian]

23. Bush doesn't want to capture Been Forgotten

he wants him free and releasing video tapes so he can keep the kool-aid drinkers hiding under their beds if fear of the big bad boogie man with a towel on his head.

[allisonthegreat]

35. no greater truth has been spoken n/t

[Solly Mack]

24. I needed waders for this

[tabasco]

25. This isn't news.

This has been a daily event for six years.

Thanks to Bush's oil grab, we are unable to kill the world's most dangerous terrorist.

[KansDem]

26. Time to revisit Slate's "Osama Palindrome Contest"

To commemorate the coming of 2002, which is the second palindromatic year since 1991, and the only palindromatic year set to occur in the coming 109 years, Chatterbox invited readers to submit palindromes about the current worldwide hunt for Osama Bin Laden. Here are the winners.

Tenth runner-up, Michael Helsem:
No Osama soon.

Ninth runner-up, Mike Walby:
Part-caves doom Osama, so mood's 'Evac trap.'

Eighth runner-up, David Dubov:
Evil, evac a cave: live!

Seventh runner-up, Texas Monthly editor Evan Smith:
(What Clinton said to Gore):
Laden? I pined, Al.

Sixth runner-up, Michael Marchando:
Caves. Bombers. Osama S.O.S. Reb mobs evac.

Fifth runner-up, Brian Robison:
Ram! O, set a general glare, Taliban. A bilateral glare negates Omar.

Fourth runner-up, Adam Schmuckler:
Men rub at? Ta. Tora Bora Hora: Osama soar. Oh, a rob, a rot. Atta: Burn 'em.

Third runner-up, Tim Weiner (a reporter who's recently returned from Afghanistan):
Taps Barak: Sir! Goddamn mad! Osama! So damn mad! Dog! Risk Arab spat.

Second runner-up, Matt Franklin:
Dog it! Nastily dismal side to Osama sooted Islam's idyl. It's anti-God.

First runner-up, Brian Robison:
No, it is optimal, eh? War won. Bury alive Osama, so evil! Ay, rub, now raw: He lam it. (Position?)

…and the winner is--Matt Franklin:
Mad dash, saber, draw no Osama. So: onward re-bash Saddam!

Slate

[Strelnikov_]

27. Well, with a five star cave complex like this as a draw . .

More bullshit.

[sakabatou]

28. Mr. President, we need for boys for the war.

Excellent. More blood for the blood god. More bones for my skull throne! BWAHAHAH! Oh and make sure that our #1 enemy escapes. Muwahaha...