Wednesday, July 12, 2006
Osama bin Laden: Why Has He Not Been Captured?
Since September 11, 2001, why haven't efforts to capture Osama bin Laden and Mullah Omar (the former leader of the Taliban in Afghanistan) been successful? How is it possible for two individuals to elude the combined might of the United States and allied military and intelligence forces?
I am posing this question to a number of government agencies and officials. I hope to post some of their responses in the near future.
Update: On July 12, 2006, the U.S. Department of State responded as follows:
You will need to contact the Department of Defense for specific information
although most materials will most likely be classified. You should also ask your
local congressman.Thank you.
Update: On July 13, 2006, the U.S. Department of State provided this additional response:
The best we can give you is information on Afghanistan (http://www.state.gov/p/sca/ci/af/), Pakistan (http://www.state.gov/p/sca/ci/pk/), coutner (sic) terrorism (http://www.state.gov/s/ct/), and the State Department Intelligence division (http://www.state.gov/s/inr/). You may want to check out some open sources like the DoD Jane's Report, the Economist magazine, and Foreign Affairs. Try doing a Lexis Nexus search on Osama Bin Laden and see what comes up. Check out the CIA and DIA websites as well. Thank you.
Update: On July 14, 2006, the National Security Agency responded as follows:
The National Security Agency does not speak on behalf of the Armed Forces nor the Intelligence Community. The Department of Defense (for the Armed Forces) and the Director of National Intelligence (for the Intelligence Community) would be the appropriate points of contact.
Comments:
<< Home
Interesting. I'm going to go way out on a limb and offer a theory. The State Department guy you've contacted is asserting the viewpoint, without coming out and actually saying so, that has prevailed since at least 2004:
http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/asiapcf/09/27/pakistan.musharraf.binladen/index.html
Lt. Gen. David Barno, commander of U.S-led coalition forces in Afghanistan, told Reuters news agency that top al Qaeda leaders, including bin Laden and his deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri, were more likely to be in Pakistan than Afghanistan.
"We see relatively little evidence of senior al Qaeda personality figures being here (in Afghanistan) because they can feel more protected by their foreign fighters in remote areas inside Pakistan," he said on Monday.
Your pipsqueakish comments to the Rottweiler notwithstanding, you're raising here what I believe should be the Number One issue for all our federal elections. It reflects rather poorly on our elected officials that it isn't discussed more, but since that is an issue to be settled by the public, it reflects much more poorly on all of us.
Post a Comment
http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/asiapcf/09/27/pakistan.musharraf.binladen/index.html
Lt. Gen. David Barno, commander of U.S-led coalition forces in Afghanistan, told Reuters news agency that top al Qaeda leaders, including bin Laden and his deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri, were more likely to be in Pakistan than Afghanistan.
"We see relatively little evidence of senior al Qaeda personality figures being here (in Afghanistan) because they can feel more protected by their foreign fighters in remote areas inside Pakistan," he said on Monday.
Your pipsqueakish comments to the Rottweiler notwithstanding, you're raising here what I believe should be the Number One issue for all our federal elections. It reflects rather poorly on our elected officials that it isn't discussed more, but since that is an issue to be settled by the public, it reflects much more poorly on all of us.
<< Home
Stumble It!