US officials stopped plans to kill bin Laden

[HK4U]

What is your take on this?


Alex Jones' Prison Planet: The truth will set you free!
Delta Force officer: US officials stopped plans to kill bin Laden

David Edwards and Muriel Kane
Raw Story
Tuesday, Oct 7, 2008

After September 11, 2001, a team of elite Delta Force commandos was sent into Afghanistan with an assignment to find and kill Osama bin Laden at Tora Bora — but that mission failed.

The commander of the Delta Force team has now written a book which tells what he says is the true story of what went wrong. He appeared anonymously on CBS’s 60 Minutes on Sunday to summarize that story.

Bin Laden was known to be holed up at Tora Bora on a ridge with an elevation of 14,000 feet. The Delta Force team’s initial plan was to come at him from the direction he’d least expect, climbing over the mountains at his back, but that plan wasn’t approved by the higher-ups. Their second idea, to drop hundreds of landmines along the mountain passes to Pakistan to impede bin Laden’s retreat and then bring in helicopters, was also turned down.

“How often does Delta come up with a tactical plan that’s disapproved by higher headquarters?” CBS’s Scott Pelley asked the commando leader.

(Article continues below)



“In my experience, in my five years at Delta, never before,” he replied.

The only remaining option was a frontal assault by 50 US Delta Force members plus their Afghan guides — and the Afghan warlord accompanying the commandos frankly told them, “I don’t think you guys can handle it.” A few million dollars from the CIA quickly secured his cooperation, but only to a degree.

The Delta Force leader told CBS that the Afghan fighters went home every night, abandoning whatever territory had been gained that day. “It was almost like it was an agreement, an understanding between the two forces fighting each other,” he stated When the CIA did come up with an exact location on bin Laden, it was nighttime, and the Afghan support was nowhere to be found.

“It wasn’t worth the risk at that particular moment to go up there and play cowboy,” the leader told CBS. “It was better to be cautious, refit, go up there with the entire force the next day and play the battle out as we had planned.” But when he attempted to move on bin Laden the next day, his Afghan allies balked, saying they had negotiated a cease fire with al Qaeda, and even drew their weapons on the Delta force team to prevent it from acting alone.

Shortly thereafter, intercepted radio communications showed that bin Laden was on the move. A cave which al Qaeda members had been seen entering was bombed for several hours, and it was thought that bin Laden had died there. But when US forces checked the cave six months later, bin Laden’s body was not found. The Delta Force leader believes he received medical treatment in a local village and then got away safely into Pakistan.

CBS News had more details here.

This video is from CBS’ 60 Minutes, broadcast October 5, 2008.

[2beararms]

Bin Laden killed by Delta Force would make a few Americans happy for a few minutes before they stopped caring at all once again, but it would make THOUSANDS of radical Muslim jihadists into instant weapons with any and all targets on their mind and no time table.

If Bin Laden happens to disappear from the face of the earth via a heart attack or other medical problem that would be to everyone’s advantage. If he were to find himself confined in our custody somewhere that too would serve a great purpose. However making a martyr of him would be strategically stupid.

My take on this is simple, the entire mission was planned to fail from the top down. The American people see reports that Delta tried to take him out but ran into snags, the radical world gets to feel good about how poorly trained our special forces are, and thousands of innocent lives are saved.

[tattedupboy]

Bin Laden killed by Delta Force would make a few Americans happy for a few minutes before they stopped caring at all once again, but it would make THOUSANDS of radical Muslim jihadists into instant weapons with any and all targets on their mind and no time table.

If Bin Laden happens to disappear from the face of the earth via a heart attack or other medical problem that would be to everyone’s advantage. If he were to find himself confined in our custody somewhere that too would serve a great purpose. However making a martyr of him would be strategically stupid.

My take on this is simple, the entire mission was planned to fail from the top down. The American people see reports that Delta tried to take him out but ran into snags, the radical world gets to feel good about how poorly trained our special forces are, and thousands of innocent lives are saved.

You're right. It would probably be better to just kill him and not tell anyone about it.

[tattedupboy]

I still can't help but think that publicizing the killing of bin Laden would help Bush's legacy more than hurting it.

[HK4U]

Three links to ponder that may shed some light on the machinations & SNAFU's leading up to and following 9/11, cleared for FOI, which ties right in with Delta's 'check-fire' orders to capture/kill 'eyes-on-target' ObL as posted by HK4U, a confirmatory piece of the jig-saw puzzle of corruption, stupidity or some horrible foreign-policy calls. I post as conjecture only:
Bin Laden Family Allowed to Fly Home by U.S. Authorities Shortly After 9/11
Followed by this: GEORGE BUSH'S BUSINESS TIES WITH BIN LADEN FAMILY
The Internet is full of conspiracy theories, these 2 links can be proven out by MANY other online reports, take your pick. It doesn't take a genius to link one into the other, and IMHO, a swift dead ObL shortly after 9/11 may have proven we could deal-out pay-back fast, but understand in 2001 al-Queda did not have as many members/clout or safe havens as it has now, as realively small-time players (when U look at say HAMAS) with some acts of notable terror to their claim/name they were forming and even some Muslim governments had their offers to hand over bin-Laden ignored by the Clinton administration when they had him completely within their powers to do so, one our allies the Saudis! Clinton Let Bin Laden Slip Away and Metastasize
I put it to you that ObL's head stuck on a pike on the White House lawn in November 2001 may have shown many who went on to become die-hard radical Muslims not to get too ambitious with their plans as death will surely follow. IMHO ObL's charisma and following grew because we allowed it to when (the man who brought the towers down escapes alive to raise more followers since that event) we had plenty of chances to send him the way so many other failed terrorists ended their days & ways, and blew them all.
Good bye George W., & shame on you Bill Clinton, you both danced with devil and we are still paying for the tunes!
A commentary of note to some,

Canis-Lupus

I used to here a saying sometimes when I was a kid. It was "there is something roten in Denmark.

[kwo51]

The hole upper crust of the world smells like Klingon's. No hand basket for us just hell to pay

[Red Hat]

I still can't help but think that publicizing the killing of bin Laden would help Bush's legacy more than hurting it.

It probably would but at the same time all the nut cases would want all the GitMo prisoners released and everyone brought home even worse than now. So far with everyone thinking he's alive it has kept terrorism on our soil down and a continuous lookout for terrorist. Remember the only way you can stop radical Muslims is to kill them. You remove bin laden from the equation then the American people will falsely think the war on terror is over.

[tattedupboy]

[QUOTE=Red Hat;41252]It probably would but at the same time all the nut cases would want all the GitMo prisoners released and everyone brought home even worse than now. So far with everyone thinking he's alive it has kept terrorism on our soil down and a continuous lookout for terrorist. Remember the only way you can stop radical Muslims is to kill them. You remove bin laden from the equation then the American people will falsely think
That's the case now. I did not say that we should kill him; I was just making an observation on what would happen to Bush's legacy if bin Laden were killed, and down the line, we ended up winning the war on terror. Looking at what I said that way, what I said is absolutely true.

That being said, I hope that we do what is best for the country, not for Bush's legacy.