Article

2010-01-07 Afghanistan

Suicide attack on CIA agents 'was planned by bin Laden inner circle'

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Posted by Steve White 2010-01-07 10:26|| || Front Page|| [3 views ] Top

#1 He had already provided accurate information on the whereabouts of lower-level al-Qaeda and Taleban operatives

Sometimes you must give up operatives to make operatives. Not an entirely new concept.

Posted by Besoeker 2010-01-07 11:04|| 2010-01-07 11:04|| Front Page Top

#2 From James Risen's "State of War" (2006)

Bill Clinton Decimated the CIA

Upon taking power in 1993, Risen reports, the Clinton administration "began slashing the intelligence budget in search of a peace dividend, and Bill Clinton showed almost no interest in intelligence matters."

The agency cutbacks combined with presidential disinterest took their toll almost immediately.

"Over a three-or-four-year period in the early-to-mid 1990s," reports Risen, "virtually an entire generation of CIA officers - the people who had won the Cold War - quit or retired. One CIA veteran compared the agency to an airline that had lost all of is senior pilots . . . "

After Clinton CIA Director John Deutch cashiered several senior officers over a scandal in Guatamala, the situation got even worse.

"Morale [at the CIA] plunged to new lows, and the agency became paralyzed by an aversion to high-risk espionage operations for fear they would lead to political flaps. Less willing to take big risks, the CIA was less able to recruit spies in dangerous places such as Iraq."

The Clinton era of risk aversion also hobbled CIA efforts to get Osama bin Laden. In early 1998, Risen says, the agency was prepared to launch a special operation to kidnap the al Qaeda chief in Afghanistan.

"To be sure the operation was high risk, and there was a strong possibility that it would be so messy that bin Laden would be killed rather than captured. [CIA Director George] Tenet and the CIA's lawyers worried deeply about that issue; they believed the covert action finding on al Qaeda that President Clinton had signed authorized only bin Laden's capture, not his death."

Frustrated by restrictions that made dealing with the big challenges too difficult, the agency turned its energy to lesser problems.

Reports Risen: "Thanks to Vice President Al Gore, for example, the CIA briefly made the global environment one of is priorities."

Posted by Willy 2010-01-07 12:03|| 2010-01-07 12:03|| Front Page Top

#3 I think that there was always the concern, especially after the turnaround in Iraq, that AQ et al would lay low until after the US Presidential election where a Democrat was all but assured a win, most likely on a toning down on the war. ~~Human~~ Man caused disasters? That is someone smoking while filling the car up with gas, VH1 programming, Congress, not a term for what should be considered SF operations.

There are the symbolic attacks, but disruption of economics/trade was also a strategy. The important Aden theatre has been a quiet hot for a couple years. We have seen a counter offensive after quietly expanding the operations in this region, which should have been anticipated.

That an airline bomb and high level turncoat were big cards played everyone needs to understand, and to people not on the in the KSM trial and non-conclusion of Ft. Hood is like playing Blackjack without checking the down card. There is hush-hush then there is the obvious expansion of this killing confict without acknowledgement from the commander in chief in any effort other than passing phrases IMHO.

Posted by swksvolFF 2010-01-07 12:59|| 2010-01-07 12:59|| Front Page Top

#4 B. Raman disagrees with this interpretation of the attack. He doesn't believe that it was done by bin Laden's inner circle and the Haqqanis. He beleives instead that it was Al Qaeda in Iraq and Pakistani (though not Afghan) Taliban. He lays out his thinking here and here.

Posted by Pstanley 2010-01-07 15:17|| 2010-01-07 15:17|| Front Page Top

#5 It ain't over yet, someone's gonna pay. Stay tuned.

Posted by Deadeye Turkeyneck6035 2010-01-07 22:16|| 2010-01-07 22:16|| Front Page Top

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