Harboring Terrorists: BFD, Apparently

[RTFirefly]

I started to put this in GD, but I couldn’t see much of a debate.

Back on September 20, 2001, Bush said:

we will pursue nations that provide aid or safe haven to terrorism. Every nation, in every region, now has a decision to make. Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists. From this day forward, any nation that continues to harbor or support terrorism will be regarded by the United States as a hostile regime.

We’ve known for awhile that al-Qaeda is active in the Waziristan provinces of Pakistan, but it’s apparently gotten more structured lately:

WASHINGTON, Feb. 18 — Senior leaders of Al Qaeda operating from Pakistan have re-established significant control over their once-battered worldwide terror network and over the past year have set up a band of training camps in the tribal regions near the Afghan border, according to American intelligence and counterterrorism officials.

American officials said there was mounting evidence that Osama bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri, had been steadily building an operations hub in the mountainous Pakistani tribal area of North Waziristan. Until recently, the Bush administration had described Mr. bin Laden and Mr. Zawahri as detached from their followers and cut off from operational control of Al Qaeda.

The United States has also identified several new Qaeda compounds in North Waziristan, including one that officials said might be training operatives for strikes against targets beyond Afghanistan.

American analysts said recent intelligence showed that the compounds functioned under a loose command structure and were operated by groups of Arab, Pakistani and Afghan militants allied with Al Qaeda. They receive guidance from their commanders and Mr. Zawahri, the analysts said. Mr. bin Laden, who has long played less of an operational role, appears to have little direct involvement.

Officials said the training camps had yet to reach the size and level of sophistication of the Qaeda camps established in Afghanistan under Taliban rule. But groups of 10 to 20 men are being trained at the camps, the officials said, and the Qaeda infrastructure in the region is gradually becoming more mature.

And:

As recently as 2005, American intelligence assessments described senior leaders of Al Qaeda as cut off from their foot soldiers and able only to provide inspiration for future attacks. But more recent intelligence describes the organization’s hierarchy as intact and strengthening.

“The chain of command has been re-established,” said one American government official, who said that the Qaeda “leadership command and control is robust.”

American officials and analysts said a variety of factors in Pakistan had come together to allow “core Al Qaeda” — a reference to Mr. bin Laden and his immediate circle — to regain some of its strength. The emergence of a relative haven in North Waziristan and the surrounding area has helped senior operatives communicate more effectively with the outside world via courier and the Internet.

So, does anyone think Pakistan or its government will pay a price for harboring our real enemy?

And of course, there are Bush’s remarks on March 13, 2002:

Q Mr. President, in your speeches now you rarely talk or mention Osama bin Laden. Why is that? Also, can you tell the American people if you have any more information, if you know if he is dead or alive? Final part – deep in your heart, don’t you truly believe that until you find out if he is dead or alive, you won’t really eliminate the threat of –

THE PRESIDENT: Deep in my heart I know the man is on the run, if he’s alive at all. Who knows if he’s hiding in some cave or not; we haven’t heard from him in a long time. And the idea of focusing on one person is – really indicates to me people don’t understand the scope of the mission.

Terror is bigger than one person. And he’s just – he’s a person who’s now been marginalized. His network, his host government has been destroyed. He’s the ultimate parasite who found weakness, exploited it, and met his match. He is – as I mentioned in my speech, I do mention the fact that this is a fellow who is willing to commit youngsters to their death and he, himself, tries to hide – if, in fact, he’s hiding at all.

So I don’t know where he is. You know, I just don’t spend that much time on him, Kelly, to be honest with you. I’m more worried about making sure that our soldiers are well-supplied; that the strategy is clear; that the coalition is strong; that when we find enemy bunched up like we did in Shahikot Mountains, that the military has all the support it needs to go in and do the job, which they did.

And there will be other battles in Afghanistan. There’s going to be other struggles like Shahikot, and I’m just as confident about the outcome of those future battles as I was about Shahikot, where our soldiers are performing brilliantly. We’re tough, we’re strong, they’re well-equipped. We have a good strategy. We are showing the world we know how to fight a guerrilla war with conventional means.

Q But don’t you believe that the threat that bin Laden posed won’t truly be eliminated until he is found either dead or alive?

THE PRESIDENT: Well, as I say, we haven’t heard much from him. And I wouldn’t necessarily say he’s at the center of any command structure. And, again, I don’t know where he is. I – I’ll repeat what I said. I truly am not that concerned about him. I know he is on the run. I was concerned about him, when he had taken over a country. I was concerned about the fact that he was basically running Afghanistan and calling the shots for the Taliban.

But once we set out the policy and started executing the plan, he became – we shoved him out more and more on the margins. ** He has no place to train his al Qaeda killers anymore. And if we – excuse me for a minute – and if we find a training camp, we’ll take care of it. Either we will or our friends will. That’s one of the things – part of the new phase that’s becoming apparent to the American people is that we’re working closely with other governments to deny sanctuary, or training, or a place to hide, or a place to raise money. **

I guess all that is as inoperative as a Ron Ziegler statement.

Besides, at about that time, Bush pulled our Special Ops people off bin Laden’s trail and sent them to scout out Iraq.

And now bin Laden’s trail is cold:

The United States believes Osama bin Laden is still alive, but intelligence on the Al-Qaeda mastermind has gone “cold,” the former commander of US forces in Afghanistan said.

“Our working assumption is that Osama bin Laden is alive,” Lieutenant General Karl Eikenberry told CNN’s “Late Edition.”

But asked whether he knew where bin Laden was located, Eikenberry said: “The intelligence has gone cold on Osama bin Laden.”

Charming. Just charming.

[AskNott]

Fearless Leader is a talented dancer on the stage of facts and motives. He bobs, he weaves, and folks let him get away with it. Osama bin Laden was a misdirection, never the reason. Greed was the reason. Forget all that WMD stuff, and spreading joyful democracy. Look at the list of the nations with the greatest oil reserves: 1. Saudi Arabia, 2. Iraq, 3. Iran. For four years, billions of your tax dollars have been gushing into the gaping maws of a handful of profiteering contractor corporations. Now, though, we seem to be getting down to the real goal.

Oil, glorious oil, and taking control from OPEC at last. http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/02/20/1523250
That’s what GWB’s whole career has been leading up to.