The Bin Laden and Bush connection

[thewiseguy]

On October 29, the Arabic news agency Al Jazeera aired a video of Osama bin Laden ). In a speech that justifies and takes responsibility for the actions of September 11th, bin Laden calls out the Bush administration and the American position in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. "Your security does not lie in the hands of Kerry, Bush, or al-Qaeda," Osama claimed; "Your security is in your own hands." This is believed to have helped President Bush's campaign as it thrust the War on Terrorism back into the public eye. There is debate as to whether bin Laden was aware of the effect the video would have on the elections; the "Bush bounce" from the video did not surprise most outside observers of the 2004 election.



Property records obtained by the AP on Wednesday show that a man named Mohammed Arshad bought the land where bin Laden's compound was built between 2004 and 2005 and paid $48,000.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2011-05-04-pakistanis-doubt-government-osama_n.htm

CIA Reportedly Disbands Bin Laden Unit
The Associated Press
Tuesday, July 4, 2006; 11:19 AM

NEW YORK -- A CIA unit that had hunted for Osama bin Laden and his top deputies for a decade has been disbanded, according to a published report.

Citing unnamed intelligence officials, The New York Times reported Tuesday that the unit, known as "Alec Station," was shut down late last year. The decision to close the unit, which predated the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, was first reported Monday by National Public Radio.

The officials told the Times that the change reflects a view that al-Qaida's hierarchy has changed, and terrorist attacks inspired by the group are now being carried out independently of bin Laden.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/04/AR2006070400375.html

Osama bin Laden in a Pakistan Villa? Source Told Christiane Amanpour in 2008

http://blogs.abcnews.com/thenote/2011/05/osama-bin-laden-in-a-pakistan-villa-source-told-christiane-amanpour-in-2008.html

After 2004 Bin Laden never released a new video...


:shrug:

[Turbineguy]

1. Bush was certainly

bin Laden's candidate of choice. For a guy bent on causing the economic destruction of the US (and the western world), Bush was the one. And he almost succeeded. Of course he had lots of other help as well.

[thewiseguy]

2. I think the Christian Amanpour bit is very interesting

she had sources telling her Bin Laden was hiding in a villa as of 2008. It is impossible to believe the CIA did not know.

[riderinthestorm]

4. There are a couple of other threads along the same lines. Check out tinrobot's and randr's threads

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x1038291

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x1033188

[randr]

3. Bush had also disbanded the original group Clinton had setup to

go after Bin Laden prior to 9/11 as I recall.

[thewiseguy]

5. Yup I have that information in the OP. That team was disbanded in 2005.

Bin Laden's election tape came out in 2004. The compound was built in 2005. CIA hunt team was disbanded in late 2005. Osama never released a video. Christian Amanpour was saying her sources indicated that Bin Laden was hiding in a villa in Pakistan in 2008.

[pacalo]

6. Richard Clark was demoted soon after Bush was installed in the WH.

His staff was removed & he wasn't allowed to attend the daily briefings.

[tinrobot]

7. He helped push Bush over the top...

In exchange, Bush "forgot" about him and called off the search.

Bin Laden retires with a wife or two to a comfortable prison not far from a major military installation.

Considering the family connections between the Bushes and the Bin Ladens, it is not as far fetched as it sounds.

[CoffeeCat]

8. So what precipitated the need...

...to take out bin Laden now?

If he was hiding securely and there was an agreement--what happened to
put the recent events (his death) into play?

[tinrobot]

9. Not all secrets get told.

I doubt that the outgoing party would tell the opposition about such agreement, particularly considering the political ramifications had it come to light.

[Old and In the Way]

11. Obviously, Obama was not operating under the same mindset.

He actually considered OBL to be the enemy.

There would never have been a written agreement, but Pakistan was given billions of dollars to 'fight terrorism' (wink, wink) in the past. Having OBL alive continued the justification to keep our military engagements going...and kept the ME in high enough state of turmoil to keep oil valuations 4X their historical rates. Rachael Maddow noted on her show tonight that oil was $27.00+/barrel the week before 9/11.

[thewiseguy]

10. Apparently the Bin Laden and his folks did not put up any resistance

Maybe they thought they were protected by us.