/  / Osama bin Laden

20080625
McCain - Bin Laden - Chris Shays - Charlie Black - Terrorism - Politics - History - 2004 Election - 2008 Election - Connecticut - US - Pakistan
"McCain In 2004: "Bin Laden May Have Just Given Us A Little Boost"." ... "Back in 2004['s election], as [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate John] McCain was stumping in Connecticut on behalf of GOP [GOP=Grand Old Party=Republican Connecticut Representative] Rep. Chris Shays, McCain said flatly that the recent release of an Osama Bin Laden tape had likely given the GOP a "little boost."" ... "This is courtesy of The Hour, a daily paper in Norwalk, Connecticut, in November of that year [2004] (also verified in Nexis)..."

"But as McCain greets two breakfast-eating business partners, one from Stamford [Connecticut] and the other from Bridgeport [Connecticut], the topic turns to the presidential race. The two men tell the senator they support [Republican] President George W. Bush, and to that end, McCain says, "(Osama) Bin Laden may have just given us a little boost. Amazing, huh?".... " ... "The two men, who requested anonymity, nod their heads in agreement. Later, while riding with Shays on an RV to a rally at the Stamford Government Center, McCain further explains, "(The video) is helpful to President Bush because it puts the focus on the war on terrorism.""

"The reference was to a tape of Bin Laden that had emerged a few days earlier. The McCain camp didn't immediately return an email." ... "[McCain's top adviser Charlie] Black also said that the assassination of [Pakistan's Presidential Candidate] Benazir Bhutto had also helped McCain, something the McCain camp also disavowed. But back in December [2007], when the assassination happened, he [McCain]  said it could "serve to enhance" his "credentials."" -By Greg Sargent -TPMElectionCentral .TalkingPointsMemo

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20080612
John McCain - Osama bin Laden - Afghanistan - Iraq - US - Military - People - Arizona - Del - Nev - 2008 Election
"McCain’s remark sparks an uproar." ... "[2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate and Arizona Senator] Sen. John McCain triggered a tempest over Iraq on Wednesday, saying it was "not too important" to set a timetable for American troop withdrawals from Iraq." ... "The presumptive Republican presidential nominee was asked on NBC's "Today" show if he had an estimate for when [United States] U.S. troops might leave Iraq." ... ""No, but that's not too important," he replied. "What's important is casualties in Iraq. . . . Americans are in South Korea. Americans are in Japan. American troops are in Germany. That's all fine. . . . The key to it is, we don't want any more Americans in harm's way."" ... "[Delaware Democratic Senator Joseph Biden:]" ... ""Sen. McCain's comment is evidence that he is totally out of touch with the needs of our troops and the national security needs of our nation," said Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del. [Democratic-Delaware]). "I think many of our brave soldiers and their families would disagree that it's 'not too important' when they come home."" ... "[Nevada Democratic Senator and] Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev. [Democratic-Nevada]) joined in. "McCain's statement today that withdrawing troops doesn't matter is a crystal-clear indicator that he just doesn't get the grave national security consequences of staying the course," Reid said in a statement. "Osama bin Laden is freely plotting attacks, our efforts in Afghanistan are undermanned, and our military readiness has been dangerously diminished."" -By John McCormick with contributions by Mike Dorning and Mark Silva -ChicagoTribune via -LAtimes

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20080605
Dick Cheney - Secret - Government - Military - Terrorism - Intelligence - Politics - Investigation - Osama bin Laden - Nuclear -  - US - Iraq - Iran - Czech
"Senate committee: Bush knew Iraq claims weren't true." ... "[Republicans] President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and other top officials promoted the invasion of Iraq with public statements that weren't supported by intelligence or that concealed differences among intelligence agencies, the Senate Intelligence Committee said on Thursday in a report that was delayed by bitter partisan infighting." ... "A second report found that a special office set up under then-secretary of defense Donald H. Rumsfeld conducted "sensitive intelligence activities" that were inappropriate "without the knowledge of the Intelligence Community or the State Department." That report revealed that Pentagon counterintelligence officials suspected that Iran might have tried to use the group to influence administration policymakers." ... "The Senate report, the first official examination of whether top officials knew that their public statements were unsubstantiated when they made them, reviewed five speeches by Bush, Cheney and former Secretary of State Colin Powell between August 2002 and February 2003. It also dissected key statements made by them and other top officials, including Rumsfeld and then-national security adviser Condoleezza Rice." ... "The committee found that the administration's warnings that former dictator Saddam Hussein was in league with Osama bin Laden, a highly inflammatory assertion in the wake of the [September] Sept. 11, 2001, al Qaida attacks, weren't substantiated by U.S. intelligence reports. In fact, it said, [United State] U.S. intelligence agencies were telling the White House that while there'd been sporadic contacts over a decade, there was no operational cooperation between Iraq and al Qaida, the report said." ... "The administration's repeated statements "suggesting that Iraq and al Qaida had a partnership, or that Iraq had provided al Qaida with weapons training, were not substantiated by intelligence," it said." ... "Contentions by Bush and Cheney that Saddam had to be removed because he could give terrorists weapons of mass destruction to strike the United States were "contradicted by available intelligence information" that found that the late Iraqi dictator was unlikely to make such transfers, the report said." ... "Cheney's assertions that Mohammad Atta, the chief Sept. 11 hijacker, had met months before the attack with an Iraqi intelligence officer in the Czech capital, Prague [Czech Republic], were also unsubstantiated, the inquiry found." ... "The committee said that Bush and Cheney "failed to reflect concerns and uncertainties" expressed in intelligence analyses that questioned administration assertions that Iraqis would welcome U.S. troops as liberators and warned that American forces could face violent resistance." ... "Statements by Bush, Cheney and other top officials that Saddam had stockpiled chemical and biological weapons in violation of U.N. resolutions were "generally substantiated" by what turned out to be erroneous U.S. intelligence analyses, the report said." ... "However, while intelligence reports "generally substantiated" their claims that Iraq had secretly restarted a nuclear weapons program, the committee said, Bush and other officials failed to disclose that the State Department disputed that finding." ... "The administration's statements also failed to disclose that the Energy Department joined the State Department in rejecting allegations that Iraq had tried to buy uranium in Africa, the report said." ... "The reports released Thursday brought to an end a lengthy investigation into how U.S. intelligence appeared to be so wrong in the run-up to the Iraq war." -By Jonathan S. Landay with contributions by Nancy A. Youssef and Mark Seibel -McClatchyDC.com

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[PDF] - "Senate Intelligence Iraq Phase II Report (Phase 2 a): REPORT on Whether Public Statements Regarding Iraq by U.S. Government Officials Were Substantiated by Intelligence Information."
[PDF] - "Senate Intelligence Iraq Phase II Report (Phase 2 b): REPORT on Intelligence Activities Relating to Iraq Conducted by the Policy Counterterrorism Evaluation Group and the Office of Special Plans Within the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy."
[PDF] - "Phase I Senate report on Iraq Intelligence."

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20080517
• Obama - McCain - Osama bin Laden - US - Iraq - Iran - Palestine - Israel - Russia - China - Foreign - Military - Terrorism - Intelligence - Politics - History - Illinois - 2008 Election - "Obama Strikes Back at Bush On Diplomacy." ... "[2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate and Illinois Senator] Sen. Barack Obama pushed back Friday against [Republican] President Bush's implicit criticism of his approach to foreign policy, condemning his administration for not capturing Osama bin Laden and blaming its Iraq war policy for strengthening and emboldening Iran." ... ""If [Republicans] George Bush and John McCain want to have a debate about protecting the United States of America, that is a debate that I'm happy to have anytime, anyplace, and that is a debate I will win because George Bush and John McCain have a lot to answer for," the Democratic front-runner said." ... "At a news conference later Friday, Obama called it "disingenuous" to assert that he was not the clear target of the president's comments. Obama then used the exchange to link Bush's foreign policy record to McCain's stance toward the Middle East, and to outline the ways his own approach to the world's most vexing problems would differ from those of the current administration." ... "His list of grievances included a war fought on the premise of weapons of mass destruction that were never found, the failure to capture bin Laden and turning Iran into the "greatest beneficiary" of the Iraq war." ... "He said McCain will "need to answer" for a strengthened al-Qaeda leadership, Hamas's control of the Gaza Strip [Palestine], and Iran's ability to fund Hezbollah and pose "the greatest threat to America and Israel and the Middle East in a generation."" ... ""That's the Bush-McCain record on protecting this country," Obama said. "Those are the failed policies that John McCain wants to double down on."" ... "In a later appearance, Obama added that he is "puzzled" that the concept of meeting with controversial foreign leaders is a point of debate "when this has been the history of U.S. [United States] diplomacy until very recently."" ... "He pointed to [Democratic] President John F. Kennedy's meetings with Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev when the United States and Russia were on the brink of nuclear war, and to [Republican] President Richard M. Nixon's meeting with China's Mao Zedong, "with the knowledge that Mao had exterminated millions of people." " -By Matthew Mosk with contributions by Perry Bacon Jr., Michael D. Shear and Dan Eggen -WashingtonPost

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• Barack Obama - John McCain - Osama bin Laden - US - Iran - Iraq - Palestine - Foreign - Military - Terrorism - History - Arizona - Illinois - 2008 Election - "Obama Links Bush and McCain on ‘Failed Policies’." ... "[2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate and Illinois] Senator Barack Obama responded sharply on Friday to attacks on his foreign policy, linking [Republican] President Bush and [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate and Arizona] Senator John McCain as partners in “the failed policies” of the past seven years and criticizing them for “hypocrisy, fear peddling, fear mongering.”" ... "Confronting a major challenge to his world view, Mr. Obama tried to turn the tables on his critics, saying they were guilty of “bluster” and “dishonest, divisive” tactics. He cited a litany of what he called foreign policy blunders by the Bush administration and accused Mr. McCain, the presumed Republican nominee, of “doubling down” on them." ... "“George Bush and John McCain have a lot to answer for,” Mr. Obama said at a midday forum here, listing the Iraq war, the strengthening of Iran and groups like Hamas [in Palestine] and Hezbollah, Osama bin Laden’s being still at large and stalled diplomacy in other parts of the Middle East among their chief failings." ... "“If George Bush and John McCain want to have a debate about protecting the United States of America,” Mr. Obama said, “that is a debate I am happy to have any time, any place.”" (1, 2) -By Larry Rohter with contributions by Michael Powell -NYTimes 

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20080430
• US - Pakistan - Afghanistan - Global - Usama bin Ladin - Military - Terrorism - Intelligence - "Country Reports on Terrorism 2007." ... "Chapter 1 -- Strategic Assessment." ... "AL-QA’IDA AND ASSOCIATED TRENDS: Al-Qa’ida (AQ) and associated networks remained the greatest terrorist threat to the United States and its partners in 2007. It has reconstituted some of its pre-9/11 operational capabilities through the exploitation of Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), replacement of captured or killed operational lieutenants, and the restoration of some central control by its top leadership, in particular Ayman al-Zawahiri. Although Usama bin Ladin remained the group’s ideological figurehead, Zawahiri has emerged as AQ’s strategic and operational planner." ... "AQ and its affiliates seek to exploit local grievances for their own local and global purposes. They pursue their own goals, often at large personal cost to the local population. These networks are adaptive, quickly evolving new methods in response to countermeasures. AQ utilizes terrorism, as well as subversion, propaganda, and open warfare; it seeks weapons of mass destruction in order to inflict the maximum possible damage on anyone who stands in its way, including other Muslims and/or elders, women, and children." ... "Despite the efforts of both Afghan and Pakistani security forces, instability, coupled with the Islamabad [Pakistan's capital] brokered cease-fire agreement in effect for the first half of 2007 along the Pakistan-Afghanistan frontier, appeared to have provided AQ leadership greater mobility and ability to conduct training and operational planning, particularly that targeting Western Europe and the United States. Numerous senior AQ operatives have been captured or killed, but AQ leaders continued to plot attacks and to cultivate stronger operational connections that radiated outward from Pakistan to affiliates throughout the Middle East, North Africa, and Europe." -State.gov 

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20080423
• Barack Obama - Hillary Rodham Clinton - Karl Rove - Terrorism - Politics - Osama bin Laden - Television - Ad - Money - History - Pennsylvania - Illinois - New York - Iran - Israel - US - Military - 2008 Election - "The Low Road to Victory." ... "The Pennsylvania campaign, which produced yet another inconclusive result on Tuesday, was even meaner, more vacuous, more desperate, and more filled with pandering than the mean, vacuous, desperate, pander-filled contests that preceded it." ... "Voters are getting tired of it; it is demeaning the political process; and it does not work. It is past time for [2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate and New York] Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton to acknowledge that the negativity, for which she is mostly responsible, does nothing but harm to her, her opponent, her party and the 2008 election." ... "If nothing else, self interest should push her in that direction. Mrs. Clinton did not get the big win in Pennsylvania that she needed to challenge the calculus of the Democratic race. It is true that [2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate and Illinois] Senator Barack Obama outspent her 2-to-1. But Mrs. Clinton and her advisers should mainly blame themselves, because, as the political operatives say, they went heavily negative and ended up squandering a good part of what was once a 20-point lead." ... "On the eve of this crucial primary, Mrs. Clinton became the first Democratic candidate to wave the bloody shirt of 9/11. A Clinton television ad — torn right from Karl Rove’s playbook — evoked the 1929 stock market crash, Pearl Harbor, the Cuban missile crisis, the cold war and the 9/11 attacks, complete with video of Osama bin Laden. “If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen,” the narrator intoned." ... "If that was supposed to bolster Mrs. Clinton’s argument that she is the better prepared to be president in a dangerous world, she sent the opposite message on Tuesday morning by declaring in an interview on ABC News that if Iran attacked Israel while she were president: “We would be able to totally obliterate them.”" -NYTimes

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20080416
• John McCain - Osama bin Laden - Terrorism - 2008 Election - Arizona - US - Iraq - Afghanistan - Military - Politics - "McCain reveals confusion over Petraeus role." ... "[2008 Election] Republican presidential candidate [Senator] Sen. John McCain of Arizona may not have been paying the closest of attention last week during hearings on the [Republican President] Bush administration’s Iraq policy." ... "Speaking Monday at the annual meeting of the Associated Press, McCain was asked whether he, if elected, would shift combat troops from Iraq to Afghanistan to intensify the search for al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden." ... "“I would not do that unless Gen. [David] Petraeus said that he felt that the situation called for that,” McCain said, referring to the top U.S. [United States] commander in Iraq." ... "Petraeus, however, made clear last week that he has nothing to do with the decision. Testifying last week before four congressional committees, including the Senate Armed Services Committee on which McCain is the ranking Republican, Petraeus said the decision about whether troops could be shifted from Iraq to Afghanistan was not his responsibility because his portfolio is limited to the multi-national force in Iraq." ... "Decisions about Afghanistan would be made by others, he said." ... "“I’ve been sort of focused on another task,” Petraeus said when pressed about whether more troops should be diverted to Afghanistan rather than Iraq." -By Rick Maze -ArmyTimes.com

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20080328
Gordon England - Secret - Military - Law - Terrorism - Politics - 2008 Election - 2006 Election - Osama bin Laden - War Crimes - US - Guantánamo - Cuba - Intelligence - Torture - Prison - Michael V Hayden
"Navy Lawyer: Gitmo trials pegged to political campaign." ... "The Navy lawyer for Osama bin Laden's driver argues in a Guantánamo [Guantánamo Bay, Cuba] military commissions motion that senior Pentagon officials are orchestrating war crimes prosecutions for the 2008 [Election] campaign." ... "The brief filed Thursday by Navy [Lieutenant Commander] Lt. Cmdr. Brian Mizer directly challenged the integrity of [Republican] President Bush's war court." ... "Notably, it describes a [September] Sept. 29, 2006, meeting at the Pentagon in which Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England, a veteran [Republican President Bush] White House appointee, asked lawyers to consider Sept. 11, 2001, prosecutions in light of the campaign [2006 Election ]." ... "''We need to think about charging some of the high-value detainees because there could be strategic political value to charging some of these detainees before the election,'' England is quoted as saying." ... "The brief quotes England as a stipulation of fact and cites other examples of alleged political interference, which Mizer argues makes it impossible for Salim Hamdan, 37, to have a fair trial." ... "It asks the judge, Navy [Captain] Capt. Keith Allred, to dismiss the case against Hamdan as an alleged 9/11 co-conspirator on the grounds that Bush administration leadership exercises ``unlawful command influence.''" ... "As described the Hamdan brief, the England meeting came three weeks after President Bush disclosed in a live address that he had ordered the CIA [Central Intelligence Agency] to transfer ''high-value detainees'' from years of secret custody to Guantánamo for trial." ... "Bush also disclosed that the CIA used ''an alternative set of procedures'' to interrogate the men into confessing -- since revealed by the CIA director, Air Force [General] Gen. Michael V. Hayden, to include waterboarding." -By Carol Rosenberg -MiamiHerald

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20080320
• Barack Obama - John McCain - US - Iraq - Afghanistan - Pakistan - Military - Terrorism - Intelligence - Osama bin Laden - North Carolina - Illinois - Arizona - 2008 Election - "Obama says Iraq war has hurt U.S. security." ... "[2008 Election Democratic] Presidential hopeful Barack Obama traveled Wednesday to a community college near Ft. Bragg [North Carolina], home of the 82nd Airborne Division and the Army Special Operations Command, to argue that the Iraq war had opened a "security gap" for the United States." ... "Speaking on the fifth anniversary of the start of the Iraq war, the Illinois senator said it had emboldened enemies such as Iran and Al Qaeda while weakening U.S. support in the Middle East." ... "And Obama teased [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate] John McCain, a supporter of the war and the presumptive Republican nominee for president, for a mix-up Tuesday during a visit to the Middle East." ... ""Just yesterday, we heard [Arizona Senator] Sen. McCain confuse Sunni and Shia, Iran and Al Qaeda," Obama said. "Maybe that is why he voted to go to war with a country that had no Al Qaeda ties. Maybe that is why he completely fails to understand that the war in Iraq has done more to embolden America's enemies than any strategic choice that we have made in decades."" ... "Likewise, Obama targeted McCain's frequent vow that as president he would pursue Osama bin Laden "to the gates of hell." Obama argued that the promise was meaningless given McCain's focus on the conflict in Iraq rather than devoting greater military resources to Afghanistan and the Pakistani border regions, where Bin Laden is believed to be hiding." ... ""We have a security gap when candidates say they will follow Osama bin Laden to the gates of hell but refuse to follow him where he actually goes," Obama said." -By Mike Dorning -ChicagoTribune via -LAtimes 

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20080310
• US - Iraq - Military - Osama bin Laden - Terrorism - Intelligence - Archives - History - Declassification -  - "Exhaustive review finds no link between Saddam and al Qaida." ... "An exhaustive review of more than 600,000 Iraqi documents that were captured after the 2003 U.S. invasion has found no evidence that Saddam Hussein's regime had any operational links with Osama bin Laden's al Qaida terrorist network." ... "The Pentagon-sponsored study, scheduled for release later this week, did confirm that Saddam's regime provided some support to other terrorist groups, particularly in the Middle East, U.S. officials told McClatchy. However, his security services were directed primarily against Iraqi exiles, Shiite Muslims, Kurds and others he considered enemies of his regime." ... "The new study of the Iraqi regime's archives found no documents indicating a "direct operational link" between Hussein's Iraq and al Qaida before the invasion, according to a U.S. official familiar with the report." ... "[Republican] President Bush and his aides used Saddam's alleged relationship with al Qaida, along with Iraq's supposed weapons of mass destruction, as arguments for invading Iraq after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks." ... "Then-Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld claimed in September 2002 that the United States had "bulletproof" evidence of cooperation between the radical Islamist terror group and Saddam's secular dictatorship." ... "Then-Secretary of State Colin Powell cited multiple linkages between Saddam and al Qaida in a watershed February 2003 speech to the United Nations Security Council to build international support for the invasion. Almost every one of the examples Powell cited turned out to be based on bogus or misinterpreted intelligence." ... "As recently as last July, Bush tried to tie al Qaida to the ongoing violence in Iraq. "The same people that attacked us on September the 11th is a crowd that is now bombing people, killing innocent men, women and children, many of whom are Muslims," he said." ... "The new study, entitled "Saddam and Terrorism: Emerging Insights from Captured Iraqi Documents", was essentially completed last year and has been undergoing what one U.S. intelligence official described as a "painful" declassification review." -By Warren P. Strobel -McClatchyDC.com

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