Why U.S. can't find Osama bin Laden

[bemildred]

(CNN) -- American taxpayers have forked over around half a trillion dollars to U.S. intelligence services since the 9/11 attacks, yet nearly a decade after al Qaeda assaults on New York and Washington, the American intelligence community still cannot answer the most basic of questions:

---

What does a top-secret clearance gain you?

Not much, judging by the content of the tens of thousands of secret documents about the Afghan War made public by WikiLeaks in July. The one surprising thing about this massive classified data dump was how little of it was in any way surprising. It contained the kind of material that the casual reader of news articles have long known: Elements of Pakistan's military intelligence service may be supporting the Taliban!

The dirty little secret of the intelligence world is that much of what you really need to know isn't exactly a secret anyway. Bin Laden declared war on the United States on CNN in 1997 and then again on ABC News a year later, and he soon made good on those threats with al Qaeda's attacks on two U.S. embassies in Africa and the bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen.

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/10/19/bergen.finding.bin.laden/?hpt=C1

[ixion]

1. They can't 'find' him because

a) The US isn't really trying to find him or know where he is; or,

b) He passed away years ago.

The rest was just a bit of smoke and mirrors to keep the cash cow (the US taxpayer) producing milk.

[Yeshuah Ben Joseph]

2. It is impossible to find a man in Afghanistan

when his current address is Hell.

[leveymg]

3. We could replace the NSA with Google, and the CIA with the Sociology Dept at Univ. of Phoenix

and probably get better results with regard to capturing UBL. CIA closed down the Bin Laden Issues Unit in 2005. Shortly after he was appointed, Leon Panetta said there are "probably no more than 50-100 al-Qaeda left in Afghanistan." That was before The Surge, of course.

Here's another Top Secret tip about preventing terrorism: if you removed all the double-agents and agents provocateur inside al-Qaeda, the group would never have existed.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

4. If you can find a copy of The CIA and the Cult of Intelligence, read it!

It was written in the 1970s, about the time of Senator Frank Church's investigations of the CIA, and it was subjected to prepublication censorship by the CIA, since the author was a former agent.

However, the author and publisher decided to make the deletions VISIBLE by showing exactly where they occurred and how long they were.

The incidents described are mostly of historical interest, but the author's main point still stands: government secrecy is NOT for reasons of "national security." Everyone's intelligence services are thoroughly infiltrated, so every government already knows what every other government has planned. The people who are affected by "covert" operations know what is happening.

The only reason that governments maintain secrecy is to prevent their own people from knowing what scoundrels they are.

[bemildred]

5. And that's the way it has always been almost everywhere.

So it's not even news.

[Tutankhamun]

6. Bin Laden is worth far more to certain politicians and the military/industrial complex if

he's supposedly alive and free. We'll need to start and fight endless wars over him. We'll need to be afraid and vote for Republicans who are "strong on terror" and "keep us safe".

Remember Bin Laden's video, released on the eve of the 2004 presidential election? The video that the CIA concluded Bin Laden had designed to help Bush get more votes? It's pretty telling when our own intelligence concludes the enemy who wants our country destroyed wants us to vote Republican.

[Politicalboi]

7. Because he's dead

That's the best reason yet. He's just being used to scare us, but it doesn't work. It works with Repukes, but not with me.

[bergie321]

8. He's either dead

Or hiding in one of his family's mansions in Saudi Arabia. I doubt he was ever near Afghanistan.

[Cobalt-60]

10. He's dead jim

OFC they'll just get another random bearded dude to fake another tape.
I'm a 300 pound Caucasian and I look more like BIn Laden that the last guy they put up.

[Citizen Worker]

9. If UBL was captured or killed support for GWOT would end. He is much more valuable to the military/

He is much more valuable to the military/industrial/congressional complex as justification to spend more money on senseless weapons and illegal wars. OBL's value to the MICC is incalculable.

[yurbud]

13. it really should be WAB: Weekend at Bernie's

with Bin Laden as Bernie.

[kimmerspixelated]

18. Best answer so far.

[gmoney]

11. John McCain is hiding him!

Remember during the 2008 campaign, he said he knew where he was, and if elected, he'd bring Bin Laden in?

I'd guess he's in one of Cindy's 11 summer homes someplace.

[sadbear]

12. They never captured Emmanuel Goldstein, either

Perhaps there's an important lesson in there somewhere.

[bemildred]

14. Indeed. nt

[CJCRANE]

15. After he escaped over the border

we couldn't touch him.

Them's the rules.

On edit:

Or at least that's how it seemed at the time. It was a strange anticlimax.

[smiley]

16. and the myth goes on....

and on.... and on... and on.... and on... and on.... and on... and on.... and on... and on.... and on... and on.... and on... and on.... and on... and on.... and on... and on.... and on... and on.... and on... and on.... and on... and on.... and on... and on.... and on... and on.... and on... and on.... and on... and on.... and on... and on.... and on... and on.... and on... and on.... and on... and on.... and on... and on.... and on... and on.... and on... and on.... and on... and on.... and on... and on.... and on... and on.... and on... and on.... and on... and on.... and on... and on.... and on... and on.... and on... and on.... and on... and on.... and on... and on.... and on... and on.... and on... and on.... and on... and on.... and on... and on.... and on... and on.... and on... and on.... and on... and on.... and on... and on.... and on... and on.... and on... and on.... and on... and on.... and on... and on.... and on... and on.... and on... and on.... and on... and on.... 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[NorthCarolina]

17. A dead man doesn't move around much,

so they're obviously not digging in the right place.

[mudplanet]

19. Can't find him? They've known exactly where he is for over five years.

If they found him the "war" would lose it's rationale.