Bush's failed Bin laden Hunt

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July 1, 2008

by Faiz Shakir, Amanda Terkel, Satyam Khanna, Matt Corley, Ali Frick, Benjamin Armbruster, and Igor Volsky

TERRORISM

Bush's Failed Bin Laden Hunt

An article in yesterday's New York Times criticized the Bush administration for failing "to develop a comprehensive plan to address the militant problem" along the Afghan-Pakistan border, where Osama bin Laden is reportedly rebuilding the al Qaeda terror network. After expressing enthusiasm for capturing bin Laden shortly after the Sept.11 attacks, the Bush administration has since indicated that "bin Laden doesn’t fit" with its "strategy for combating terrorism" and is "not a top priority use of American resources." Beginning in 2002, the administration "shifted its sights...from counterterrorism efforts in Afghanistan and Pakistan to preparations for the war in Iraq" and outsourced the hunt for bin Laden to Pakistan. As a result, "the Bush administration will leave office with Al Qaeda having successfully relocated its base from Afghanistan to Pakistan's tribal areas, where it has rebuilt much of its ability to attack from the region and broadcast its messages to militants across the world."

SHIFTED RESOURCES TO IRAQ: According to "current and former military and intelligence officials" interviewed by the Times, "the war in Iraq diverted resources and high-level attention from the tribal areas" on the border of Pakistan and Afghanistan and "drained away most of the CIA officers with field experience in the Islamic world." Intelligence officials have long warned the administration of the dangers of shifting resources prematurely. On Feb.19, 2002, Gen. Tommy Franks reportedly told then-Sen. Bob Graham (D-FL), "We are not engaged in a war in Afghanistan" because "military and intelligence personnel are being redeployed to prepare for an action in Iraq." Similarly, an Army War College report published in December 2003 concluded that the Iraq war "diverted attention and resources away from securing the American homeland against further assault by an undeterrable Al Qaeda." Where the specialists went, the equipment followed. Officials told the New York Times, for instance, that when they "requested additional Predator drones to survey the tribal areas, they were told no drones were available because they had been sent to Iraq." As Graham pointed out, the removal of Predator drones from Afghanistan is "a clear case of how the Bush administration's focus on Iraq undermined the war against al Qaeda in Afghanistan."

UNRELIABLE ALLY: The Iraq war also bolstered the view "among Pakistanis that American forces in the tribal areas would be a prelude to an eventual American occupation" and made it difficult for the administration "to have insisted that American forces be allowed to cross from Afghanistan into Pakistan." In fact, the Pakistani government "flatly refused" American proposals to allow Special Operations forces to establish operational bases along the border, and in 2003, "under pressure from Pakistan, the Bush administration decided…to end the American military presence on the ground." With the hunt for bin Laden virtually outsourced to Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf and the administration distracted by the "spiraling violence in Iraq," Bush backed Pakistan’s failed strategy of signing cease-fire agreements "with the Taliban inside Afghanistan." But rather than reducing "cross-border incursions," the agreements allowed al Qaeda to establish an even stronger foot hold in the Pakistan tribal regions. Thus while the Bush administration has propped up "the Muslim world’s most powerful military dictator as an essential ally," Pakistan has shown little commitment to capturing bin Laden. In fact, in January 2008, Musharraf admitted that "the 100,000 troops that we are using...are not going around trying to locate Osama bin Laden and Zawahri, frankly."

BOLSTERED AL QAEDA: The war in Iraq and Bush's over-reliance on Pakistan have allowed al Qaeda to regroup along the Pakistan-Afghan border. Intelligence sources interviewed by the Times suggest that "the makeshift training compounds" in Pakistan's tribal areas "now have as many as 2,000 local and foreign militants, up from several hundred three years ago." The build-up of members has reshaped al Qaeda into a threat that is "comparable" to what the United States faced on Sept. 11, 2001. Similarly, according to the 2006 National Intelligence Estimate, "Iraq jihad is shaping a new generation of terrorist leaders and operatives." Rather than reducing the terror threat, the Iraq conflict has become the "cause célèbre for jihadists, breeding a deep resentment of US involvement in the Muslim world and cultivating supporters for the global jihadist movement," the report concluded.

JUSTICE -- JUDGES CRITICIZE GOVERNMENT'S FLIMSY EVIDENCE IN DETAINEE RULING: Yesterday, an appeals court released unclassified sections of its ruling in the first case to review the government's secret evidence for holding a detainee at Guantanamo Bay. The opinion, which is "likely to guide federal judges in weighing evidence in up-coming hearings" for other detainees, not only invalidated the designation of Huzaifa Parhat, a Chinese Uighur, as an "enemy combatant," but also determined that a military tribunal relied on highly questionable evidence to justify his six-year detention. The judges found particular concern with the military assertion that evidence was reliable simply because it was repeated in at least three separate documents, comparing the government's legal argument to the nonsensical 1876 Lewis Carroll poem "The Hunting of the Snark." "Lewis Carroll notwithstanding," the court wrote, "the fact that the government has 'said it thrice' does not make an allegation true." Justice Merrick Garland, one of the judges on the appeals court panel, also expressed skepticism about the evidence used against Parhat because at least some of it appears to have been offered by the Chinese government, which has a record of persecuting ethnic Uighurs. IRAQ -- PENTAGON ORDERS RE-INSPECTION OF KBR BUILDINGS: The Defense Department ordered electrical inspections of all buildings in Iraq maintained by the Houston-based military contractor KBR after reports found that at least 13 Americans had died after being electrocuted at bases KBR operated. In a written statement made public yesterday by Sen. Robert Casey (D-PA), Gen. David Petraeus revealed that 10 Army soldiers, a Marine, and two contractors were fatally electrocuted and many others "received painful shocks" because of shoddy electrical work. The New York Times reports that although "KBR and other companies have been paid millions of dollars to repair and upgrade the buildings, including their electrical systems," the work was never carried out, and the company did not respond to repair orders. Casey has requested that the Government Accountability Office (GAO) "investigate all accidental electrocution-related deaths or injuries of military and contract personnel in Iraq as well as any other military installation where such an incident has occurred." ETHICS -- TORTURE ADVOCATE JOHN YOO MISLED CONGRESS TO CAST ASPERSIONS ON CRITIC'S CREDIBILITY: Last week, while testifying before Congress, former Justice Department lawyer and torture advocate John Yoo sought to discredit torture critic Philippe Sands by suggesting Sands had lied about interviewing him. "I can say that he did not interview me for the book," said Yoo. "So I didn't quite understand why he would tell the committee that he had actually interviewed me." Rep. Steve King (R-IA) used the allegation to claim it "would perhaps reflect on the veracity" of all of Sands' allegations. But, as MoJo blog points out, Sands never actually said he had "interviewed" Yoo for his book. Rather, Sands said, "Over hundreds of hours I conversed or debated with many of those most deeply involved. They included…the Deputy Assistant Attorney General at DoJ (Mr Yoo)." Indeed, Yoo and Sands had debated torture at the World Affairs Council in 2005. At MoJo Blog, Brian Beutler wrote that though perjury might not be the appropriate word, Yoo's goal was likely "to discredit a critic who's brought to light a great deal of damning information about the Bush administration and its allies."

Senior Pentagon officials are concerned about the "increasing likelihood" that Israel could carry out an attack on Iran's nuclear facilities "before the end of the year, an action that would have enormous security and economic repercussions for the United States and the rest of the world." The Iraqi government announced Monday that "it was opening six key oil production fields to more than 30 foreign companies, while delaying an announcement on a series of no-bid consulting contracts with a handful of Western oil companies." Critics in the Arab world and abroad cite the oil deals as reason to believe "the United States-led invasion was at least partly about access to Iraq's oil." This past month was "the worst June for the S&P 500 and the Dow industrials since the Great Depression, amid rocketing oil prices and ongoing financial market woes. ... The S&P 500 lost 8.6% in June, the worst monthly performance since September 2002 when it lost 11%, and the worst June performance since 1930, when it slumped 16.5%." A former CIA agent contends that CIA officials "ignored evidence that Iran had suspended work on a nuclear bomb." The agent, who sued the agency in 2004 after being fired, filed a motion on Friday requesting that the government "declassify legal documents describing what he says was a deliberate suppression of findings on Iran that were contrary to agency views at the time." Militants "killed more U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan in June than in Iraq for the second straight month," underscoring the Taliban's "growing strength." A Pentagon report last week "forecast the Taliban would maintain or increase its pace of attacks, which are already up 40 percent this year from 2007 where U.S. troops operate along the Pakistan border." The Second Circuit Court of Appeals yesterday dismissed a lawsuit brought by a Syrian citizen who was detained at Kennedy airport and then sent to Syria and tortured under extraordinary rendition. The court claimed that "because he was never technically inside the United States, his claims could not be heard in federal court." And finally: Yesterday was the last day of freedom for former Alaska state congressman Vic Kohring, who was found guilty of accepting bribes. Kohring had been preparing for his 3 1/2-year prison sentence by googling the Southern California facility. Kohring said he plans to write an autobiography -- called "Absolutely Innocent" -- and read a lot. "It's almost like going away on a vacation. A...Government sponsored vacation," he said.

"College loans got a little cheaper today, thanks to legislation passed last September. The interest rates on federal college loans dropped from 6.8 to 6 percent, the first of four reductions to cut the interest of loans by half over the next four years."

FLORIDA: The South Florida Water Management District "gave unanimous approval Monday to a plan for acquiring U.S. Sugar and using the company's land to help restore the Everglades."

UTAH: "In the face of $4-a-gallon gasoline, a growing number of states are offering their employees four-day workweeks to help relieve commuting costs and save on state energy bills."

ENVIRONMENT: Several western governors are mulling ways to cut pollution and slow global warming.

THINK PROGRESS: After denying "involvement" in Iraq's no-bid oil contracts, U.S. revealed to be "integral" to deals.

WONK ROOM: Citing threat of global warming, Georgia judge blocks coal plant.

WASHINGTON INDEPENDENT: Private Iraq contractor's data on violence in Iraq differs greatly from the Bush administration's numbers.

EZRA KLEIN: Health insurers charge women more than they charge men.

"I don't think the federal government of the United States needs to get involved."
-- White House Press Secretary Dana Perino, 6/25/08, on Iraqi oil contract negotiations

VERSUS

"A group of American advisers led by a small State Department team played an integral part in drawing up contracts between the Iraqi government and five major Western oil companies to develop some of the largest fields in Iraq, American officials say."
-- New York Times, 6/30/08