Booman Tribune ~ "We had bin Laden in our sights" French Special Forces

French soldiers say they identified Bin Laden both visually and audio (voice). The first time, they thought that not getting orders from the American command came from a communication problem. The second time, they started to wonder...

"ne te courbe que pour aimer..." René Char

All on the same team. Bin Laden and Dubya look into each other's eyes and say, "You complete me".

Has anyone ever heard of Tora Bora? Can anyone believe that Osama can't be found? What is the official explanation for the failure to capture him? The proverbial American people don't seem to give a hoot about all of this. I've never heard Democrats talk about this either. Obama strutted around back towards the beginning of the primary campaign that he'd go into Pakistan and get Osama. I must be deaf because I missed hearing the cheering that could be heard around the country about his implicit criticism of Bush's failure. And don't think you might be going deaf if he don't hear Obama leading the charge. Osama has been intentionally spared. Instead, who knows how many Afghan wedding parties have been savaged by U.S. bombs, not to belittle all the other Afghan civilians who were killed only going to wedding parties. Now the whole failure of Afghanistan is being pinned on Karzai. Instead the crux of the failure is the choice of Karzai himself in the first place. When he appeared on the scene the media went into ecstacy about his winning smile and traditional garb. We're all suckers in all of this, complete fools, from the very moment the hysterical government propaganda machine went into overdrive just a few hours after Bush put down his book about a goat and decided instead to play 'war on terror'.

At some point 'sensible liberals' have to start apologizing to the LIHOP conspiracy 'nuts' (LIHOP = let it happen on purpose). Certainly that has been post-9/11 policy, so why not before?


Anyone know a good plumber?

You can't sell the "war on terror" unless you have an enemy to hate, to stir up the populace, the power brokers. Cheney NEEDED bin Laden alive for the propaganda value, a value of billions of dollars pumped into "defense" contractors like Lockheed, KBR, GE and all the rest.

Plain and simple. No reason to speculate here, bin Laden is about propaganda value.

Share. Share resources, share delight, share burdens, share the healing. Sharing will bring us back from mass suicide. www.share-international.org

I understand that part of the world has very difficult terrain, has tight knit clans, etc.  But, I've always doubted our actual inability to find one 6 foot 5 guy over there in 7 years.  No doubt he has served a useful role for the Administration.

I think the post below will prove that American Forces had an opportunity to capture OBL at Tora Bora, but failed. Allowed OBL to bride his way to safety, by letting Afghan troops secure Tora Bora.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2002/0304/p01s03-wosc.html

CS Monitor a well respected paper, I believe.

Six foot five and on dialysis and the greatest power in history cannot bring this guy to justice.  Come on now, that is like believing that a small number of terrorists on their own brought down the Twin Towers.

In using propaganda techniques the bigger the lie the better.  The masses and part of the intelligentsia (maybe most of the intelligentsia) will then extend their belief because this deception just has to be true. Life would become too complicated and too dangerous were it otherwise.

A child who has been loved and respected will have no motivation to wage war on others. Alice Miller

Of course he did.  The guy works for the neocons.  The whole 9-11 attack was known before hand and the U.S. stood down to let it happen:

Timeline to 9-11:

July 26, 2001 Ashcroft stops flying on commercial planes. See also Fox News and San Francisco Chronicle

August 4-30, 2001 24 hour fighter cover over the Bush ranch while the president is on a 30 day vacation.

August 6 Bush receives a briefing entitled "Bin Laden to Strike in US" and then left to go fishing the rest of the day.

Sept. 3, 2001 Salmon Rushdie banned from taking internal flights in the US.

September 10, 2001 Bush spends the night in Sarasota, Florida with a SAM missile battery placed upon the roof of the resort he was staying at.

Sept. 10, 2001 Top Pentagon officials >cancel their plane trips for the next day due to a urgent warning.

Sunrise, Sept. 11, 2001 NORAD is conducting Operation Vigilant Guardian, a war game. They are fully staffed and alert with senior staff manning stations across the US. Extra fighter planes are put on alert due to the operation. See also, Ottawa Citizen, Code One Magazine, Aviation Week and Space Technology, and ABC News twice.

8:00 am All four hijacked flights are scheduled to take off. Flight 93 is delayed on the runway for 40 minutes.
Warren Buffet is hosting a charity benefit inside the high security Offut military base. Attending are several executives from the World Trade Center. (You'll have to scroll down a ways to find the Buffet reference.) Originally I linked to the New York Times

8:13 Communications lost with Flight 11 and transponder turned off. Flight considered a "possible" hijacking.

8:14 Captain Ogonowski begins turning the talk back button off and on, allowing air traffic controllers to hear that something is amiss.

8:16 Flight 175 takes off late.

8:20 Flight 77 takes off 10 minutes late.

8:24 Ogonowski flicks on the talk back button and airtraffic controllers hear hijackers talking to the passengers and realize Flight 11 has indeed been hijacked.

8:31 The FAA notifies NORAD of the hijacking of Flight 11.

8:42 Flight 175's radio and transponder are cut off. NORAD's technicians are now linked to Bostons flight control tower so they learn this the same time Boston does.
Flight 93 finally takes off.

8:43 Flight 175's transponder comes back on but with a changed signal not designated to any plane anywhere that day. Incredibly, this allows the flight controllers to track Flight 175 easily.

8:44 ELT from Flight 175 picked up signalling the flight has been hijacked.

8:45 New York traffic controllers finally informed of a problem with Flight 11

8:46 2 fighters scrambled at Otis airforce base. Flight 11 crashes into the WTC. 3 F16's are flying a training mission 207 miles from Washington. They are not recalled for another hour.

8:50 flight controllers lose radio contact with Flight 77. Again, since NORAD is now linked directly to the flight controllers, they learn this immediately.

approximately 8:50 two open telephone conference calls made between the FAA, NORAD, the Secret Service and several other government agencies. Cheney is heard speaking on these calls.

8:52 The 2 fighters take off from Otis airforce base. According to the flight leader, they were at "full blower all the way." That would be 1875 mph. They never intercept anything or play any part in the unfolding events. Even though they could easily intercept Flight 175.

8:55 a public announcement is broadcast in the South Tower saying the building is secure and people can return to their offices.

8:56 Flight 77, already far off course and not responding, turns off its transponder.

9:03 Flight 175 >smashes into the South Tower. It is NOW, when all hell is breaking loose, that George W. Bush >sits down with a class of 2nd graders and begins a 20 minute book reading. Card waits patiently for a pause in the reading to inform the president that america is under attack.

9:04 Calls come streaming in to NORAD. Air bases want to know what they can do. "The nation is under attack."-Col. Robert Marr
"Give me 10 minutes and I can give you hot guns"-Syracuse Air National Guard.
NORAD did not issue scramble orders to any of these Air bases until 10:01. George Bush reads The Pet Goat, page two.

9:05 This is the time that NORAD later claimed it was first notified of any hijackings even though
their technicians had linked in to Boston air control already!!!!
Card now informs Bush that "America is under attack."
Bush does not ask WHO is attacking the US. He does not ask what is being done. He does not ask anything at all nor does he give any orders. He says nothing.
The Secret Service does not hustle him away to Air Force One.

9:09 NORAD claims they ordered Langley AFB to battle stations (26)

9:16 FAA tells NORAD that Flight 93 has been hijacked. Incredibly, it will be 42 minutes before anyone sends any fighter planes in its direction! (although one General states that no planes were ever sent to intercept Flight 93 at all). (27)

9:18 Bush finally leaves the schoolhouse, waiting until AFTER all reporters have left! (28)

9:24 This is the time that NORAD later claimed it was first notified of Flight 77's hijacking. A claim it later retracted. (29)

9:26 FAA orders a national ground stop, forbidding all military, commercial and law enforcement aircraft to take off. (30)

9:27 Langley AFB ignores the FAA order and scrambles 3 fighters.

9:30 3 Fighters take off from Langley AFB. They can make it to the Pentagon in 7 minutes. (31)

9:38 Flight 77 smashes into the Pentagon building. The 3 fighters from Langley have flown 24 miles from their AFB. That's an astounding 180mph. Well below their stall speed!!! Fortunately, the fighters hadn't stalled. Unfortunately, they were still so close to Langley because instead of being vectored towards Flight 77 they had been vectored to fly out over the Atlantic Ocean AWAY from the incoming plane!!! (32)

9:45 passengers of Flight 93 call loved ones and inform them of a plan to try to retake the plane.

9:55 Bush finally gives the order to allow fighter pilots to shoot down US planes. (33)

9:56 Still no fighter has intercepted Flight 93

9:57 "Let's roll."

3:00pm Bush joins Warren Buffet and several executives from the World Trade Center at Offut military base. (34)

11:30 p.m., Bush wrote in his diary, "The Pearl Harbor of the 21st century took place today.... (35)

Signed, sealed and delivered by the neocons right hand man, Osama bin Ladin.  Of course they aren't goint to bring in one of their own.  He was the excuse to get them control of the heroin and put pipelines into Afghanistan.  He allowed Bush to invade Iraq.

It was all part of a very coordinated plan that went right to the top.

steven, l don't doubt for a ny minute that cheney, bushco™, etal are capable of manipulation of the OBL boogyman and it's attendant paranoia.

but l have to say, this just doesn't sound right. so l'll play devils advocate here.

it's inconceivable to me that even in 2003, when the neoCONs were at the height of their power, that the micro management of the gwot extended that deeply into the field.

imagine if you will, that you're that sniper, in concealment, and you have a target in your sights that is the a #1 top of the hit list, wanted dead or alive...to borrow chimpy's phrase...do you call washington and ask for permission to shoot?

short answer, imo, no. that's not how the chain of command works, especially in a combat zone. you might ask your sergeant, or squad leader but you pull the trigger, because that's your job and he's a high-priority target. in all likelihood, your thoughts would be that you'd be greeted as a hero when the news got out.

                                 the man who got OBL!

this whole thing reeks of some type of psy-op; for what purpose, l know not, it just doesn't make sense on the most basic level of how things work in the field.

my 2¢.

the revolution will not be televised...Peace

We should ask Lieberman, Rumsfeld, Netanyahu, Wolfowitz and Cheney.