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As we celebrate the successful operation of killing of Osama Bin Laden, aka Geronimo, with “talking heads” referring to earlier efforts in the Tora Bora mountains, I felt it timely to write this post. What do we know about that rugged mountain area where CIA led teams engaged the enemy at 11,000 feet altitude as they chased and killed vast numbers of al-Qaeda forces yet were unable to catch Bin Laden.
On March 30, 2006 producers Ron and Anna Winship and myself interviewed Gary Berntsen, the CIA’s key field commander “coordinating the fight against the Taliban forces around Kabul, and the drive toward Tora Bora in his no-holds-barred pursuit of Osama Bin Laden.” That stealth location interview is still available in the www.CuttingEdge-atalkshow.com archives under the title “Company Business.”
With assistance from award winning screenwriter Ralph Pezzullo, Gary authored the book entitled “Jawbreaker.” The opening sentence reads: “This is a book that the CIA didn’t want you to read.”
Having read the book from cover to cover I can report that Gary and Ralph had to make many concessions as sentences to paragraphs and pages, representing 40 pages of the original draft, were redacted in order to finally see the light of day. Being stonewalled by his bosses Gary was forced to file a lawsuit against the CIA to gain approval from a Federal Judge to publish this account of his involvement in the “company.”
To honor the victims of 9-11 we would remiss not to remember and point out other victims whose names, to the best of my knowledge, we have not seen in print or heard on the tube. From Jawbreaker.
“Master Sergeant Jefferson Donald Davis, staff Sergeant Brian Cody Prosser and Sergeant First Class Daniel H. Petithor who all had fought valiantly in the defense of the town of Tarin Kowt, only to be killed as a result of friendly fire on Dec 5, 2001 along with three of (Hamid) Karzai’s mujahideen fighter as we were planning an assault on Kandahar.
They were members of Special Forces Team ODA 574. Five minutes after the blast, a shaken Karzai received a satellite phone call informing him that he’d been selected to lead Afghanistan’s new interim government.”
Fast forwarding to chapter 17, “The Battle of Milawa.”
“The four men from Jawbreaker Juliet returned with the dead from [Pashai warlord] Babrak’s security detachment then turned around and humped back into the mountains with their mules. Ahead of them lay large trails and even roads, which they avoided for fear of being detected by an enemy that outnumbered them by at least 100 to 1.
Babrak’s guides knew exactly where to go, leading them through a primitive agricultural area towards a valley high in the mountains nestled between two sharp sets of peaks. Parker, Dusty, Lance and Reno were at over 10,000 feet and counting. With increasing frequency they stopped to examine hilltops through their binoculars and scopes.
Climbing into the thinning oxygen for two days, they stopped at a bluff overlooking a valley with small villages and primitive farms .
Babrak’s guides pointed to a military camp built into the embankment, where they spotted trucks, houses, command posts, checkpoints, machine gun nests, an obstacle course and hundreds of Bin Laden’s men.
“Bingo!” Parker exclaimed.
Carefully they moved their mules out of sight and established a position behind rocks and some scrawny trees where they couldn’t be seen.”
Reading ahead. Providing coordinates to pilots the four men directed strike after strike with B-1’s, B-2’s and F-14s onto the al-Qaeda encampment with incredible precision. Somehow through the massive bureaucracy, thousands of miles of distance, reams of red tape and a diffuse system of command that had been hastily assembled and never used before, the U.S. had managed to place four of the most skilled men in the world above the motherload of al-Qaeda, with a laser designator and communications system linked to the most potent air power in history. Al-Qaeda soldiers who once dreamed of wreaking havoc on the West were now paying with their lives.
As I listened over our encrypted radio network, one word kept pounding in my head: revenge. I thought let’s do this right and finish them off in the mountains.
Onto page 269 where it reads:
“Hello Gary,” I heard Hank Say.
“What’s up?”
“Gary,” he said clearing his throat. “It’s apparent that you have a team up near Tora Bora and they’re calling in a lot of air strikes.”
“Yeah, that’s us.”
“Good for you . Based on your intel and intercepts form our end it appears that bin Laden is up there too.”
“That’s correct.”
I could hear Hank chuckle with approval on the other end. “Good job. I’m proud of you. Keep it up.”
I said “I’m seeing Colonel Mulholland [Special Forces] tomorrow morning. I want to insert Colonel Alexander’s SF team–the one you sent me to train counterterrorism pursuit teams–into the mountains. They have enough men for three observation points, so we can increase our air attacks . We can train the Afghan pursuit teams later. I wan to kill as many al-Qaeda in Toro Bora right now.”
Page 274. Following the U.S. air bombardment, bin Laden and his men abandoned their Milawa camp and retreated further into the White Mountains…..
Colonel Alexander had initially planned to establish three new observation points, but decided that two were better suited to the difficult terrain and new sets of targets. The idea was to trap bin Laden and his fighters in a kill box between three promontoires manned by SF teams. Two teams would be positioned on peaks south and west–one on Tonga Mountain, another closer to Slinga farther south–while the original post near Milawa would be reestablished to the east
Note: Hank was the hard-as-nails director of CTC [CIA’s Counterterrorism Center]
Page 276. Discussing the plans for Tora Bora. Gary writes. Major General Daily arrived to discuss the issue of including the British in his operations. I told him that if he wanted to use the British, he should, but it was more important that he read the operational order drafted by Colonel Alexander and XXXX [Redacted]. He refused.
I tried to hand him the order and said “General, we’re involved in a very important combat operation down in Tora Bora and I would like you to read this document.”
“No, thank you,” he responded.
J.P. looked at me as if to say, I can’t believe this.
I was ready to raise my voice ,when Lt. Colonel Sutter stepped in covering for his boss, “I’ve seen it sir. It’s fine.”
After General Dailey departed, I turned to J.P. and said, “I don’t get it ! Why wouldn’t he read the order?”
J.P. who knew the Defense department politics better than I did, answered, “If things go badly in Tora Bora, he won’t have his fingerprints on it. If they go well, they’ll have a party for him at the Pentagon.”
Note: General Dell Dailey was head of Joint Special Operations Command (Delta Force) the highest ranking U.S. military officer in Afghanistan during the fighting in Tora Bora.
In assessing his experiences leading a Jawbreaker team right after 9-11 Gary writes:
The biggest and most important failure of CENTCOM leadership came at Tora Bora when turned down my request for a battalion of U.S. Rangers to block bin Laden’s escape.
Note: CENTCOM is the U.S. Armed Forces Central Command based in Tampa, FL
Before the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee on July 31, 2002, General Tommy Franks explained: “On Tora Bora, early December 2001, the United States at that time had about 1,300 Americans in country in seventeen different locations. Kandahar was, as of that time, still not fully under control. We had our marine forces acting out of Camp Rhino, which was our original point of entry into Afghanistan. We were very mindfull —and I guess I’ll take credit or blame for this –I was very mindful of the Soviet experience of more than ten years, having introduced 620,000 troops into Afghanistan, more than 15,000 of them being killed, more than 55,000 of them wounded.”
Moving to page 315 where Gary writes:”Where is bin Laden? He’s hiding among the millions of Pushtuns who live along the mountainous Afghan-Pakistan border and believe it’s their tribal duty to protect him from outsiders. Will we ever catch him? If we’re creative, aggressive and not afraid to take risks, yes!”
Typical redaction. ” [NOTE TO READER: CIA censors redacted a critical request for help on the battlefield that was made by me and distributed to CIA headquarters]”
Another example “[Note to reader: CIA censors redacted the details of Team Delta’s mission]”
When word reached CENTCOM that an agency operation was underway in Ghanzi, senior staff expressed anger that they hadn’t been informed and refused to send a rescue team. From their narrow bureaucratic perspective, if the Agency wanted to conduct operations without them, then the agency could organize their own transportation . What CENTCOM didn’t realize was that three of the five men on Team delta were active duty military officers–one Navy Seal, one Marine and one Army. I would have gladly sent my own helicopter to pick them up but it had a bum tail rotor that needed to be replaced.
After making Delta Team wait several hours in very dangerous territory, CENTCOM changed its mind and sent a helicopter. Team Delta throw the keys to their Hazara allies and loaded their prisoners on the bird for the trip to Bagram.
A few hours later I spoke to Hank, who said that CENTCOM was still pissed, but would get over it. “Congratulate Team Delta for me,” he said. “Capturing the number two and three in Taliban intel was a good day’s work.”
Dec 15. Later in the afternoon of the fifteenth Bilal and Dam Khan in Tora Bora were listening to the Yazoo radio Bilal had picked up from a dead al-Qaeda soldier when they heard Osama bin-Laden speak. Bill immediately recognized the al-Qaeda leaders’ voice because he’d heard it more than fifty times before in taped interviews and intercepts.
As Bilal and Adam Khan listened, bin Laden addressed his men in Arabic. Forgive me,” he said. He went on to apologize for getting them trapped in the White Mountains and pounded by American air strikes. Then he gathered them together in prayer.
Note: Bilal and Adam Kahl names changed to guard their identity.
The story goes on to say that “Bin Laden split his forces in two. One group numbering 135 men, headed east into Pakistan where they XXXXXXXXX.[Redacted] A number of al-Qaeda detainees later confirmed that bin Laden escaped with another group of two hundred Saudi and Yemenis by a more difficult route eastern route over difficult snow-covered passes into the Pushtun tribal area of Parachinar, Pakistan.
Towards the end of the book, and my lengthy overview of the Tora Bora manhunt, Even with the successes his team achieved in the months after 9-11 Gary writes. “My thoughts were more shaded with gray. Mostly, I felt frustration. If only headquarters had given me and my team another month. If only CENTCOM had sent Rangers I asked for to block and hunt bin Laden.
If only’s have haunted me throughout my career. They were hounding me again.
When will we learn? When will the bureaucrats back in Washington face the real challenges and respond appropriately?
Notes: It’s important to note that Jawbreaker was finally published in late 2005.
Respectfully, General Tommy Franks was wrong. Two dozen Navy Seals just took Obama out
Based on the successful April 30/May 1st operation we did take risks and were successful
Chasing after bin Laden in the White Mountains by itself was a major challenge. When you factor in the fact that you are engaging different war lords in a third world country it was not a walk in the park.
Beyond covert actions on foreign soil, even with the skillsets to be successful, we have many facets to directives of this magnitude be it the Foreign Government, Diplomats, Defense Dept, CIA or U.S. Armed Forces, which all may come into play. Gary discovered it as stated herein.
Final comments. “Gary spent more than 20 years as an officer in the Clandestine Service and has been awarded both the Distinguished Intelligence Medal and the Intelligence star.”
For security reasons we are kept in the dark on covert operations. Gary Berntsen’s CIA service record dates back to president Clinton’s watch. Gary undertook an operation against al-Qaeda terroists as far back as late 1999 in the Balkans. His first deployment to Afghanistan’s Panshir Valley was March 2000, long before the 9-11 terrorist attacks inside our country.
He is an American hero.
Jawbreaker is a book that once you open the front cover you won’t put it down until the reach the end.
In other words, Bush dropped the ball and Obama didn’t.
anonster.
As this is a time for all Americans to celebrate, and that our troops represent the rainbow in race, religion, color and surely political differences, I did not interject president Bush in my report. In fact president Obama acknowledges that this is a non partisan time for celebration. If you wish let me quote from pages 276/277.
“I went down to the ofice with J.P. to greet Parker and Dusty, who had just returned from Juliet Forward in the mountains of Tora Bora. We assembled the men and opened a case of beer that J.P. had brought with him from Dushanbe.
“I would like to make two toasts,” I called out.
“First, a toast to the Commander-in-Chief. God bless him for being a man who is not afraid to fight.”
“To the president!” several men yelled out.
“Next, I would like to toast Cofer and Hank for their intelligence and courage.”
“To Coffer and Hank!” they all responded.
Gilbert Note: Cofer (Black) was the Director of CTC, 1998-2004.
You did not see that text in the post as I tried to avoid your partisan attack.
We can debate who could have, who should have for the rest of today. Notice in my close is a reference to Gary’s CIA efforts in the Balkans in 1999. What were we doing there at that time and who was our president?? bin Laden had eluded three presidents UNTIL NOW!
Yes, you have not mentioned President Bush since the story broke. Nor have you mentioned President Obama. The latter tells us all we need to know.
And spare us the “Obama says it’s a non-partisan time for celebration” line. Since when you follow Obama’s advice? That’s nothing more than a convenient excuse for you not to praise him.
anonster. I did commend president Obama on another blog entry.
Get over it already. Even the president said he hopes this will be a time to bring us all together as we did on 9-12. You obviously cannot agree with his position.
Though history is always interesting, Osama & al-Qaeda had become irrelevant. For months the real action has been in North Africa & the Middle East.
Larry. Until recently, with the exception of the ongoing battles in Israel, North Africa was off the political landscape.
We must not let our guard down. I expect that Al Qaeda will engage in terrorism around the globe especially once photos are released. Osama will become a martyr.
The entire Middle East is very vulnerable right now. A few months ago I considered a post stating that the Big Three were not found in Detroit. I considered writing about unrest in Egypt, Jordan and Syria. This predated Yemen and the stalemate in Libya.
Freedom can become contageous. It also opens the door for the Muslim Brotherhood as we await the leadership change in Egypt.
you cant reason with some one as hatefull as anoster a true hater of this country .. check all her post . oh by the way annoster nice piece on leaving out gw statement at the end of the larry king interview i dont care about him .. i dont care how long it takes we will get him . you left out that part . what a far left tool you are .
Would you care to comment on the fact that he DID say “I don’t care about him”? Would you care to say anything about that?
Oh, and by the way…Bush didn’t “get him”…Obama did. In other words, Bush failed to “get him”. Let me put it another way…the Bush administration did not capture Osama bin Laden.
Any comments on that?
Larry,
Perhaps you can contact one of the most visible leaders of the GOP and suggest that SHE stop playing partisan games and praise President Obama as well. There’s also been no mention on her Twitter feed and no mention on her Facebook page. This is not patriotism…it’s rank partisanship and the desire to divide Americans.
http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_17979140#ixzz1LJBLLx8L
Larry,
This was Obama’s PRIORITY, this was Obama’s team, this was Obama’s decision, Obama’s risk and it’s Obama’s victory.
Bush didn’t make getting Bin Laden a priority, he was too focused on attacking Iraq and by all accounts his DOD wouldn’t work with the CIA, in short, there was no way Bush deserves the credit for this operation.
McCain stated during a debate in 2008 that he WOULDN’T authorize a raid into Pakistan to get OBL, Obama said HE WOULD AND HE DID.
Stop the bleeding, just say the words; Great job President Obama!
anonster. Get a life. Now you introduce John McCain?
While he spent a great deal of time in the military I don’t recall John McCain’s name appearing in the book nor my post.
Did the president close down Gitmo as promised?
And as stated by another reader how did we get the intelligence to locate and trail the couriers? That info. was obtained from whom and where?
That’s it for me. If you can’t stay on topic, which was a key CIA operative’s exposure of the interface frustration experienced between goverment agencies in a crucial covert operation, you have missed a valuable experience that you will not get in White House press briefings.
Readers: PS: Gary left the CIA before publishing the book. He is, and was, sensitive to our national security. While I was attending two meetings last night I understand that Gary appeared on Anderson Cooper’s program.
You can see and hear Gary at the following link.
http://thoroughlyandersoncooper.blogspot.com/
Larry,
Why write a post on a FAILED operation to get OBL when we just had a successful one?
What was REALLY your point?
You can try and drag Bush’s ass into the victory circle, but it’s obvious that the man was a failure and a nincompoop, what’s really bugging you is that you voted for failure and nincompoopery.
anonster.
This post was about an earlier operation against terrorists that overlapped 9-11
Today we celebrate Navy Seals. I felt it appropriate to acknowledge the efforts of CIA operatives that the vast majority of us will never get to meet no less interview.
The Jawbreaker story is not to lift up George Bush.
Are you bitter because George and Laura didn’t send you a Christmas Card?
He’s no longer there. Check it out. Mail to the White House addressed to George gets forwarded to Texas.
Larry,
Tora-Bora did NOT overlap 9-11, it happened after 9-11 and it FAILED because Bush was more obsessed with attacking Iraq than getting OBL.
Good work President Obama, one more campaign promise kept!
From 2008;
KATIE: Should the United States respect Pakistani sovereignty and not pursue al Qaeda terrorists who maintain bases there, or should we ignore their borders and pursue our enemies, like we did in Cambodia during the Vietnam War?
SEN. OBAMA: Well, Katie, it’s a terrific question.
And we have a difficult situation in Pakistan. I believe that part of the reason we have a difficult situation is because we made a bad judgment going into Iraq in the first place when we hadn’t finished the job of hunting down bin Laden and crushing al Qaeda.
So what happened was we got distracted, we diverted resources, and ultimately bin Laden escaped, set up base camps in the mountains of Pakistan in the northwest provinces there…
But I do believe that we have to change our policies with Pakistan. We can’t coddle, as we did, a dictator, give him billions of dollars, and then he’s making peace treaties with the Taliban and militants. What I have said is we’re going encourage democracy in Pakistan, expand our non-military aid to Pakistan so that they have more of a stake in working with us, but insisting that they go after these militants.
And if we have Osama bin Laden in our sights and the Pakistani government is unable or unwilling to take them out, then I think that we have to act, and we will take them out.
We will kill bin Laden. We will crush al Qaeda. That has to be our biggest national security priority.
anonster.
I feel guilty. In my hand is an autographed book signed by Gary Bernsten and Ralph Pezzullo with very pleasant greetings and thanks for our interview.
Befor putting mouth in gear, or in this case, your keyboard, get a copy of Jawbreaker.
Let me help you out.
Bear in mind that bin Laden was constantly on the move. The Tora Bora high-speed rail station was not his first stop on Amtrak.
Go to page 31 where Gary writes in part: “I stopped an assassination attempt against a major world leader, thwarted a series of bombings by Islamic militants, and hunted down and captured terrorist XXXXXX Redacted.
Gilbert note. Timeline as it is important. We are now in the fall of 1998.
“The question that burned in all our minds was: Now that we know that Osama bin Laden is responsible for the bombings, how is the Clinton administration going to respond?
Gilbert note: As the book was written and published in 2005 I had not heard the name Barack Obama. He is not relevant to Jawbreaker but deserves credit for his decision making on May 1st. This is not a defense of president Bush but a factual account of events.
Back to the timeline as you argue about dates.
Page 48. “After the East Africa bombings, the U.S. had put a three-million dollar bounty on bin Laden’s head. Bin Laden was aware that CIA officers had entered Afghanistan and worked there from time to time…”
Aug 1998. … The helicoptor lifted up, took a sharp turn, and drove forward low and fast with its head down. Heading south to the Afghan border, we quickly cleared the city of Dushanbe and were over farmland.”
Pg. 59. “At the same time a bogus source in Eastern Europe reported that bin Laden knew that a CIA team was in Afghanistan and he was planning to bomb their position..
Brock responded immediately, stating, correctly, that there had been constant rumors of CIA teams in Afghanistan, even though there weren’t. If headquarters was concerned, he suggested we simply move our team to another location.
Chief CTC Cofer Black and his deputy, Hank, remained calm. But members of Director Tenent’s seventh floor staff panicked.”
Cluless. I would argue that Gary Berntsen and his CIA team were in Afghanistan chasing bin Laden and Al Qaeda both before and after 9-11.
As we heard today, where the Navy Seals involved in the 5-1 mission may not make public appearances, but warrant our praise, the same applies to those dedicated Americans who have served in covert actions around the globe to keep us safe.
Larry,
From your own post (pay close attention to the timeline);
General Dell Dailey was head of Joint Special Operations Command (Delta Force) the highest ranking U.S. military officer in Afghanistan during the fighting in Tora Bora.
In assessing his experiences leading a Jawbreaker team right AFTER 9-11 Gary writes:
The biggest and most important failure of CENTCOM leadership came at Tora Bora when turned down my request for a battalion of U.S. Rangers to block bin Laden’s escape.
anonster.
You don’t get it do you?
Gary and his team tried to get Osama for many months. His requesting an additional month and pleading for more troops is irrelvant.
You denied his being in the area prior to 9-11. Osama was on the move with Tora Bora being one stop on the southern CA tourist map. He might have dined in Tora Bora several times as he was on the run.
While the post zooms in on this specific Mission notice that the bulk of my text begins after 200 pages more or less (as I have put the book away.)
As an aside. Ralph Pezzullo, Gary’s publisher, responded to an email copy to say “Great piece, Larry. Thank you. I’ll forward it to Gary. Best,”
Do me one favor. Go to your library and borrow the book. After you have read it from cover to cover feel free to come back to criticize my post.
Larry,
Yes your post begins 200 pgs in, but your first date is Dec.5 2001, whatever.
Yes we had guys looking for OBL before 9-11,but really, the only reference to Tora Bora that is important is the failed operation.
Even earlier Larry thought so;
“On March 30, 2006 producers Ron and Anna Winship and myself interviewed Gary Berntsen, the CIA’s key field commander “coordinating the fight against the Taliban forces around Kabul, and the drive toward Tora Bora in his no-holds-barred pursuit of Osama Bin Laden.”
anonster. The focus of the post was on Tora Bora as that name has been referenced on the airwaves. There are other villages and towns whose names no one would recognize in this poppy field goldmine where the Russians could not defeat the Taliban.
Jawbreaker covers the challenges of dealing with locals who would sell you out to the highest bidder at the drop of a hat. Even it were fiction, which it is not, it is an interesting book to read. A key war lord leader is killed by a man posing as a photographer that enters a very secure tent. Without getting the book I think he was from the Northern Alliance.
Here is the exact account from Wikipedia. Let me also point out that Gary was meeting the war lord on Sept 9, 2001 two days prior to 9-11.
“On September 9, 2001, two Arab suicide attackers, allegedly belonging to Al Qaeda, posing as journalists, detonated a bomb hidden in a video camera while interviewing Ahmed Shah Massoud in the Takhar province of Afghanistan. Commander Massoud died in a helicopter that was taking him to a hospital. He was buried in his home village of Bazarak in the Panjshir Valley.[26] The funeral, although taking place in a rather rural area, was attended by hundreds of thousands of mourning people. Sad day.”
het anon how dow like this one if we had your thinking your boy nobama would not have gotten him . IT WAS BUSHS POLICYS THAT GOT HIM . THEY GOT THE NAME FROM waterboarding something you and your boy are against . it was at gitmo a place you and your boy want to close down . . im surprise your not yelling that a woman was used as a human shield . renember your boy mcdermit wanted to become a human shield for sadam . it was your so called chaneys hit squad that got are you gonna give him credit for that . or who said this even if we catch bin laden now its been to late and that was 6 years ago your gal stretch face pelosi / i can go on with more… drones i am against drones = kkk bird .. i would go on but thats like talking to the wall with you . beacuse facts to big libs like you are like krypotine to superman . the man sets the tables cooks the food and you want to take credit for it . by eating it .
Donald Rumsfeld has confirmed that information on the courier was not obtained by water boarding…it was obtained through traditional interrogation techniques…once again proving the fact that torture isn’t necessary for garnering valuable intelligence.
Not So Great One, perhaps you should expose yourself to more that the right wing echo chamber.
http://www.newsmax.com/Headline/DonaldRumsfeld-gitmo-waterboarding-osamabinladen/2011/05/02/id/394820?s=al&promo_code=C30F-1
Hmmmmm, not so much;
From TPM;
Senate Intel Chair: Torture Did Not Lead To Bin Laden In Any Way
More and more evidence suggests a key piece of intelligence — the first link in the chain of information that led U.S. intelligence officials to Osama bin Laden — wasn’t tortured out of its source. And, indeed, that torture failed to produce it.
“To the best of our knowledge, based on a look, none of it came as a result of harsh interrogation practices,” said Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee in a wide-ranging press conference.
Yeah, but note how Feinstein fails to call it “torture”. Be careful about quoting Feinstein…she’ll throw out little morsels like this, but at heart, she’s a war hawk. Not to mention more than willing to erode civil liberties in the wake of 9/11.
Can’t wait till she’s replaced with Kamala or Gavin or Sheila Kuehl or Deborah Bowen. Almost anyone’s a better Dem actually.
Still, if SHE admits that “harsh methods” didn’t help us here, that’s a good indication that they didn’t.
Hovering over the words of Bush and McCain is the reality that there are those on the right (mostly neocons) who LOVE having a real, live bogeyman to wage war against. Business has been slow for these folks since the end of the Cold War. Bin Laden became their new bogeyman. It’s no wonder that the response from these warmongers has been muted. At the very least, bin Laden’s death calls into question our need to remain in Afghanistan. Thankfully, even some on the right are now questioning our need to stay.
http://www.cnn.com/2011/OPINION/05/03/chaffetz.afghanistan.pullout/index.html?hpt=T2
anon.
This post is not about anyone’s bogey man.
If you drive down that road you need to go back to Khobar Towers, the USS Cole and two American Embassies in Africa. PS: Guess who was president at that time. Guess who are the known terrorists? Let’s stay on point!!!
I prefer celebrating the “mission accomplished” without widening the net.
And what was the response to those incidents? A targeted cruise missile launch into Afghanistan. Would you care to mention exactly when Bin Laden became a suspect in these attacks?
What was the main response to 9/11? Invade Iraq.
Road driven down.
Anon, you are the man. Bravo!
anon rachel maddow and keith o are calling you . peter king said yesterday info was obtain by ENHANCE INTERIGATION = take a wild guess what that was . so please quit being a echo chamber of the left wing
Well I guess Mr. King needs to speak to Mr. Rumsfeld now, doesn’t he?
Which one of them is lying, Not-So-Great-One?
*Great post Larry…..it explains to our near do well group of blogging junkies…that the recent events and demise of Osama Bin Laden….was neither easy nor by pure chance. “The vision
thing” requires seeing what you want accomplished and visualizing that into reality. Those that believe this event was irrelevant or unnessary hasn’t got the most minute understanding of the “Vision thing”. With any luck, this event will create the sea change necessary to bring all but the most tactical and strategic forces home from battle fronts around the globe. Perhaps this historic event will make people finally understand what is necessary to win wars. Perhaps they will finally look at a chess board and get the idea when someone says: “Check Mate bucko!”
Anonster you take my breath away! Your talents are wasted on these bloviating bags.
“General Tommy Franks was wrong. Two dozen Navy Seals just took Obama out”????
Westie. Having spent a few hours with Gary Bernsen, CIA leader of Jawbreaker team six, I would respond by saying that there are those in high government posts who interfered with the effort to take him out in Bora Bora ten years earlier than the successful Navy Seal mission.