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Bin Laden Gets His Wish, Thanks to Bush Administration
We just don't believe them anymore. We no longer take seriously the warnings of terrorist threats coming from White House functionaries. So, this month, when Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff told the Chicago Tribune about his "gut feeling" that the nation faces an increased risk of a terrorist attack this summer, nobody paid much attention.
They've frightened us so many times before with false alarms and phony threats and hyped intelligence that we've stopped paying attention. We've forgotten where we put the duct tape and plastic and gas masks. And don't forget those color-coded alerts.
When Mr. Chertoff issued his warning, even the White House sought to rein him in, sending out a spokesman to assure us that there was "no credible intelligence" pointing to an imminent attack.
Here's where it all gets maddeningly frustrating: This time might be different. The latest National Intelligence Estimate reports that al-Qaida has regrouped and recharged. In other words, Osama bin Laden is still alive, still at large and still hell-bent on destroying this country.
And President Bush is delusional enough to believe that history will restore his reputation?
The intelligence report, which represents the consensus of the nation's intelligence agencies, warns that the United States is in a "heightened threat environment," with al-Qaida "creating new capabilities and overcoming security obstacles." Further, al-Qaida will "intensify its efforts to put operatives here."
Six years ago, the White House had the opportunity to pursue a relatively small group of jihadists across the Earth. With the support of every country that mattered, we went into Afghanistan to oust the Taliban, who had given sanctuary to bin Laden and his mad dream of global jihad.
Then, the campaign against al-Qaida took a strange turn. For reasons that remain elusive, the Bush White House allowed bin Laden to slip away and pointed the finger at Saddam Hussein, who had nothing to do with 9/11, who distrusted bin Laden, who threatened his neighbors but not the United States. Just as reliable intelligence reported that bin Laden had escaped to the caves of Tora Bora, on the border of Pakistan and Afghanistan, the Pentagon began dispatching Special Forces operatives to Iraq.
It was a strategy that bin Laden himself might have mapped out. Not only did we bog down in Iraq, provoking a multifaceted insurgency that we have been unable to contain, but we also gave bin Laden the recruiting tool he needed. Lawrence Wright, author of The Looming Tower: Al-Qaida and the Road to 9/11, writes: "Al-Qaida's duty was to awaken the Islamic nation to the threat posed by the secular, modernizing West. To do that, bin Laden told his men, al-Qaida would drag the U.S. into a war with Islam - 'a large-scale front which it cannot control.'" The invasion of Iraq did just that.
Mr. Bush continues to distort the facts - he recently insisted that "the same folks that are bombing innocent people in Iraq were the ones who attacked us in America." Although al-Qaida in Mesopotamia didn't exist on 9/11, its recruits now have battle-tested maneuvers they can bring to American shores. There is no reason to believe they can't fight us there and here at the same time.
Even if the Bush White House had remained focused on bin Laden, splintering his organization would have proved difficult. It's hard to stop every fanatic with a bomb or a gun. But we might have been better prepared if the president and his advisers had used the terrorism threat to shore up our defenses and ramp up our emergency planning rather than to manipulate us into voting for their candidates and supporting their foolish war.
In our sixth summer since 9/11, after countless color-coded alerts and shoeless shambles through airport security, we no longer believe the hype. This may be just what bin Laden had in mind.
Cynthia Tucker is editorial page editor for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Her column appears Mondays in The Sun. Her e-mail is cynthia@ajc.com.
© 2007 The Baltimore Sun
34 Comments so far
Show AllI agree with Tucker that we should not trust the government/media as they prepare us for another terrorist attack. The endless tape loop of lies deserves scrutiny and more thorough research into the history of government tricks to fool populations into war.
However, it is clear that Tucker buys into the myth of OBL. But nothing about OBL has been proven. That he was a CIA asset is a matter of historical record. That he was responsible for 9/11 is, in my view, an unsubstantiated mainstream mantra. Such claims need to be proven in a court of law, as with any other crime. Put up some evidence that OBL was responsible for 9/11--prove it in ANY court of law and produce an indictment. That would have been standard operating procedure for a lesser crime.
It is increasingly difficult to believe OBL is alive, but if he is, he must be cared for by powerful people.
Any "message" from OBL benefits, almost exclusively, the US military industrial complex, but there is never a discussion of that fact. No one else gains anything from OBL's existence; poor Muslim people near proven oil reserves have the most to lose, and perhaps Palestinians are a close second.
Never questioning the myth, that's what seems so striking about all the mainstream and vast majority of alternative news sources. Never do they question the 1984-like use of these insubstantial, always "poor quality" audio tapes that would not stand up in a court of law as evidence. Never does the media return to an investigation of OBL's ties to the CIA, his origins as a player in the geo-political struggle to wrest control of Afghanistan from Soviet control--a project underwritten by the US ...
here's some background:
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Afghanistan/Afghanistan_CIA_Taliban.html
Excellent response Stiv! And the more I read about 911 the more I think it was an inside job. What I can't figure out is the underlying reason for OBL and the Bush neocons wanting to work together. Could it be raw anti-Semitism? Sure the Right pays lipservice to supporting Isreal, but deep down they're as anti-Semitic as Radical Muslims.
Why are Bush & Cheney NOT IN JAIL?
stiv whitman, thanks for the link.
I totally agree with Whitman. The quotation from Lawrence Wright's book tells the mindset of the author, Islamic nation versus "secular and modern" West. It was this schizophrenic evangelical worldview with a hubristic view of the West as "secular and modern" that has made the author not even question these self-given CREDENTIALS of the WEST in the light of the REALITY of the status and condition of the MINORITIES in the SECULAR WEST. The insistence on the uniqueness of WESTERN values is nothing new. What the author has failed to realize is that the history has proved that this inflated sense is an overblown fiction. The author is seduced by gazing into a distorted mirror of the WEST and liking too much what she sees. It is the narcissism of national obsession. It only blinds people like the author to the REALITY of what the "SECULAR and MODERN" WEST has been inflicting on the rest of the world for its selfish interests. Terrorist organisation, whether Christian or Islamic, are the creations of the US and the WEST for their selfish interests. More than Bin Laden getting his wish fulfilled, it is the wish of the US and the West to invade other countries for OIL and natural resources that is being fulfilled by Bin Laden.
Better look into the history honestly without any "distorted" worldview. That will reveal the TRUE CREDENTIALS of the US and the WEST.
"Reasons that remain elusive"?
Ummmm.... control over the Mideast's oil, mayyybe?
Or am I the only one who remembers how quickly the Oil Ministry in Baghdad got military protection while the rest of the govenrment offices (and libraries and museums) got trashed?
This is one Tucker I would rather see on PBS than the that bow-tied twerp who shows up there now. Besides being a lot smarter, she is a lot cuter too!
This whole thing feels like 1984 where Oceana, Eastasia, and Eurasia are in endless war while thepeoples are systematically made poorer and poorer. Except it wasn't socialism that got us to this point, but it's opposite--fascism!
"the same folks that are bombing innocent people in Iraq were the ones who attacked us in America."
I'm amazed that they survived the plane crashes...
Pere Ubu - are you saying OBL and the Bush neocons want to jointly control Mideast Oil? If you read my post, I'm asking why they'd be working together, not why Bush invaded.
Bin Laden who?
I'm amazed that Congress has allowed George to destroy America to get back at a scant score of dead Saudies...
The level of the threat does not justify propogating fear in the public, including the fear that a legitimate threat might be ignored.
We need to remember that Al-Qaeda is not a unified group, and that all the members worldwide, estimated to be only in the hundreds or low thousands, are scarcely enough to fill a high school cafeteria.
Say no to alarmism.
Of course there is a possibility that the warning is real. And that would be if the false flag operation was already planned and they were laying the groundwork for blaming it on al Qaida when it does happen. I think they believe that with a successful largescale "terrorist" attack, Bush and Cheney will be able to get away with suspending the Constitution indefinitely, i.e. permanently, and they can stay in office until death, at which point they will be replaced by Cheney's handpicked successor (possibly Scooter).
Moonraven, I agree with you. I think one day we will all find out that the same people who attacked us on 9/11 are indeed the same folks mucking up the works in Iraq: THE BUSH BOYS. From the start, the fix was in to 'let' bin Laden take the blame for 9/11 and then agree to let him go. He was their 'boogie man.' After all, the Bush Admin. needed a catastrophe to justify its profit-driven invasion of Iraq. Knowing that most Americans lump all Mid-Eastern cultures together, our government figured it would be easy (a cake-walk?) to create the lie that Hussein and bin Laden--actual enemies--were conspiring together. Guess what? The neo-con-artists were right. Americans, ever gullible to the 'big lie', bought this load of crap. Many still do! The Cheney/Rove/Rumsfeld/Bush cabal, defense contractors, media conglomerates, and Big Oil are laughing all the way to the bank. Plus, it's a win-win for bin Laden, who by agreeing to take credit for the 9/11 attack, maintains his freedom and claims a hero status among his flock of fundamentalist zealots, who, like many Americans, are dupes of their own rich, elite oligarchies--the folks that actually run this world.
Never has a more diabolical, psychopatholgical, criminal enterprise operated in the White House. Everything they do and say is to further their elite, neo-con agendas. How anyone could continue to believe a single word they say is beyond comprehension. These insidious, home-grown 'evil-doers' lie as easily as I breathe air. They have no character, content, or conscience. They do not feel empathy or remorse. They are arrogant liars with a distorted sense of their importance and entitlement. They have intentionally and systematically destroyed the Constitution, the American economy, and every American citizen's reputation. They have managed to convince the masses that everything that actually is a core American value, such as dissent, is un-American. They've created a fascist, neo-con bizzarro world tht glorifies corruption and oppression. They've usurped and politicized the Supreme Court and the Justice Department while rendering Congress--WE THE PEOPLE--irrelevant. What will we, the powerless, do? I suppose we will continue to bend over, grab our collective ankles, and continue to let these solipsistic liars continue their assault on our sensibilities. Pathetic...
If you want to know more about OBL's beginnings and the secret CIA war in afghanistan in the 80's you MUST read "Ghost Wars" the authors name is Coll.... its a real eye opener. Unfortunately, OBL wasnt nearly as involved as a number of other warlords, but the CIA did help make islamic fundamentalism what it is today, indirectly funding the thousands of anti-american madrassas that comprise the educational system along the pakistan/afghan border. in addition to providing the bulk of the weaponry that has been used against us for the last 6 years.
Yes.. Bin Laden has Bush looking just as he wanted him to look which is 'foolish and stupid'. Bin Laden is probably beaming with pride on just how broken our economy has become. Everything in a downward spiral in which was the richest nation on the planet.
Half or more of this country is probably owned by other counties in a financial takeover war because things here are repressed. Yup, lets buy up america because even a lot of americans can't afford to live there. First we'll get all the gas stations, then the food stores, then gobble up enough real estate that we can even move half of our country there. A quiet takeover makes much more sense than the 'noisy' war Bush is raging - he's SO obvious.
Bin Laden who? What ever happened to him anyways?
The reasons Cheneybush didn't catch bin Laden when they supposedly had the chance are: A) Without an identifiable boogyman, the masses cannot focus their fear and innate racism, and B) a quick catch would have meant the end to the Loonitary Executive's dream of being a "war president." Afghanistan would have become a rebuilding mission (while our SF and the world's best hunted down the few thousand "terrorists,") and focus would have returned to the administration's inability to govern, which was all the rage pre-9/11. Oil, power, war profiteering - important motivators for sure, but the psychological dysfunction of Cheneybush and loyalists is what's tearing America apart.
The USA CHOOSING (I emphasize the word "choosing" becasue choosing is exactly what the USA did) to take revenge on the perpretrators for September 11th 2001 was the best thing Osama bin Laden could ever wish for. The Americans played right into al-Qaeda's hands. Americans chose revenge instead of reconciliation, despite American denial and blame shifting, and Americans will have to deal with yet another blemish in their History of hypocrisy and double standards.
Most Americans do not learn from History because they are so arrogant that ignorance and total disregard for anything pure and wholesome is worth destroying. The USA can't accept the fact that there are nations "better" than them. That's all! So they waste money and American lives by waging wars agaisnt indigenous peoples throughout the world since the last century at least. No one dares mention this fact because it is a harsh part of World History. Americans are better than any culture on Earth - supposedly. My question is why? Why are Americans better than say the Iranians, or the Germans, or the Chinese? What criteria are Americans using to compare themselves to these ancient cultures?! If anything Americans should worship the grounds these cultures walk on! Especially the Chinese who could reduce the cultureless American planetary disease to sheer nothing if the Chinese wanted to. The Chinese could create Economic havoc on the USA, much worse than the Great Depression, tomorrow if they wanted to. Did you know that USA citizens? Guess what? If this scenario would happen in the future - nothing you could do about it at all! How does that make you feel? You all say "Stock Market is great! We are unstoppable!" And you forget the year prior the stock market crash of 1929 business was booming and it was completely gone overnight - literally. Modern day Americans do not think that way though because they still, as usual, been the source of misery on planet Earth, possess such concepts as "hope," "freedom," "invincibility," and "pipe dreams."
When the USA is in debt to its eyeballs beyond repair - oh yes your day of reckoning is coming for YOUR choosing not to follow the words of your favorite Philosopher, Jesus Christ, in His call for His followers to forgive people 70 times 7 (Remember that inconvenient duty as Christians Americans? Yeah you completely forgot this Teaching right after 9/11 huh?); very few nations will show pity to you. Americans have done nothing but create havoc and chaos throughout the world for several decades. If anything, 9/11 should have humbled Americans and forced them to own up to its part as to why so many nations in the world can't stand your arrogant wastes of space on the Earth, instead of choosing misdirected revenge. But hey again, although "the truth shall set you free" you are too oblivious to the truth, just like you do not have the courage to overthrow your current Government. Perhaps this shortcoming is innate in the typical American psyche.
Some have hinted at this but I'll state it categorically: the reason bin Laden remains free is simply that he is the source of neocon power. Would the Church have the power it does without Satan? Bin Laden may actually have little to do with day-to-day al Qaeda operations and decisions, just as Bush with running the country, but he is a symbol, and as such, gives the neocons something to appear to be fighting against, supposedly in the name of national security. The only national security Cheney and Gang care about is the security of our oil supply but they give great lip service to protecting us from islamo-fascist-insurgent-terrorists, or whatever the current official attribution is.
I also agree that 9/11 was very likely an inside job. Just too many coincidences that actually seem coordinated when you string them together in such a short timeframe. And weren't many of these same guys talking about a "new Pearl Harbor" back in the '90s?
Bush has been doing bin Laden's work since Bush came out of hiding on 9/11.
Bin Laden can kill some number of people, can blow up some buildings or infrastructure, cause some financial chaos, but he can't do the really hard thing.
He can't destroy America. Bush and his merry band of psychotics can do that, and have been doing that, with the willing aid of millions of Republicans and their Representatives and Senators, and not a few Democrats. Bin Laden should not be the target of American forces. Bush should.
Impeachment now, then beginning the trial.
However, the trial will take time that is true.
It will be interesting for the American public to see the evidence presented in the prosecution and again in the defense during the trial.
Perhaps we will get to see the US government more clearly.
We have all the time in the world to advance the principles of democracy and work on practicing them.
One thing that ought to keep the Democrats from pursuing impeachment is that we may find that they were very willing collaborators in the crimes of the administration. It thus will make it just as hard to vote for a Democrat as a Republican
So let's have an impeachment and a trial and then let's clean house and find human beings to represent Americans in the Congress and Executive Branch
So no one here thinks OBL and the Bush neocons are actually working together against a common enemy?
GIOVANNA: Excellent commentary!
KANE JEEVES: It's more that their interests dovetail, not that they are in cahoots, although I, too, find it more than strange that Bin Laden was chosen for the fall guy and then GIVEN a free pass and it is for the reasons others have cited, enough Americans (like the dummies the defense attorney counts on in a jury pool) could not distinguish (via racism) between one Arab (secularist) and another. I hope the truth comes out and that this whole debacle doesn't get listed right up there with the Kennedy assasination, etc.
Oh! I know how to solve the mystery, send Cheney to Abu Graib and apply all those gentle torture techniques that made an end run around Geneva Conventions, until he ADMITS who did what, and who planned what, and how it all CAME DOWN.
Cynthia Tucker nailed it on this one! She got everything right and Junior continues to get everything WRONG.
"Osama bin Laden is still alive, still at large and still hell-bent on destroying this country".
SAYS WHO?
The main reason for OBL to attack the US is the presence of US troops in Saudia Arabia. PERIOD.
Even if OBL would be thinking "about destroying" America he doesnt have the means to do so. Therefore it is absolutely ridiculous, even unscrupulous to repeat such propaganda nonsense.
Cynthia Tucker could know better.
From now on I would propose that we refer to Al Qaida by it's real name which is COBRA and to Osama bin Laden as Cobra Commander.
Hell, Tucker, you know better than anybody how George protected the bin Laden family before the 9/11 dust had settled. Nor did he lose a minute telling us he would protect us. That's not his job. He is sworn to defend the CONSTITUTION. If he has read it at all he has no respect for it.
Dumbo
I agree with you in so far as originally OBL wanted the U.S. to leave Saudi Arabia. That was all that he wanted...then. But now "Al Qaeda" activists from various backgrounds, seem to be acting for their own reasons, e.g. because of the U.S. and U.K. occupation of Iraq. Anyway what evidence do we have that OBL has any influence on what "al Qaeda" does or why its small groups do what they do?
Just because Al Qaeda and the Neo-cons/ military industrial complex need each other to each further their own individual goals, that doesn't mean they are fighting against another outside common enemy. I believe they are actually fighting each other 100%. But they still need each other to keep fighting. Each is the other side's purpose for existence.
Although I believe the fighters on each side are genuine in their hatred of the other, that doesn't rule out the possibility that "agents provocateurs" are sometimes deliberately allowed to succeed in order to keep the fires of fear and hatred burning on both sides.
It has been a common practice for the CIA or Mossat to fund or arm their enemies in order to divide opposition or in order to prevent a united front from forming. Israel once backed HAMAS to divide the Palestinians. Now of course it was reversed. And the U.S. backed BOTH sides at different times of the Iran/Iraq war (although Iraq most of the time).
In some ways Al Qaeda in Iraq versus the Shia is a continuation of that Iran/Iraq war. And we now have made real enemies of both sides. Even more so if/when Iran is bombed, and/or Pakistan is invaded. All Bush has to do is mount a substantial military attack based on a claimed "provocation" by the state he wants to attack, and that would be enough to swing much of the nation behind him whatever he does in "retaliation".
So Bush doesn't need to attack his own people - he just needs to claim the U.S. was attacked somewhere. Fox media might just go along with him on that.
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JAN: Excellent points & analysis.
by the way, numerology consigns a number value to each digit of the alphabet and FOX = 666 for those interested.
Richard Clark, our former terrorism expert said that the worst thing that Bush could do was invade Iraq. It was EXACTLY what bin Laden wanted him to do, to distract from the war on terror and give cause to their new recruiting campaign.
I find it quite awkward how six years ago when the attacks recently occurred the media stated that the terrorist would win the battle if we lived a life of fear. Now this article claims just the opposite: "we no longer believe the hype. This may be just what bin Laden had in mind." Americans do not believe the HYPE because WE now know that these terrorist that are of foreign descent and kill in the name of their GOD simply do not exist. Its all home grown, plotted many moons ago…read the book 1984! We are doing the same thing Hitler did in his mission to conquer the world; we are just using prior mistakes and trying to perfect them were others went wrong, but we are in the information age and we will not allow ourselves to be deceived by the HYPE. Laden stated he was not responsible for the attacks, Saddam had no links and Iran has no part in any of this non-sense. I believe this is being done in the name of Global Capitalism if you ask me…ALL RESPONCES WELCOME.