Zarqaw gets blown up and the Bush Administration and media cover the story full blast because it was such a blow for freedom. Such a positive for the fight to taking down the insurgency. Only it wasn’t. And they knew it.
Both of these stories got diaried over the weekend and holiday, but since a lot of folks were off having a well deserved holiday, I thought I would repeat for today. I’ve listed some of the previous diaries below, giving credit where due.
More below.
The first story from Consortiumnews.com says what most of us believed at the time. That the videotape denouncing George W. Bush that Osama bin-Laden released four days before the election in 2004, was designed to help get Bush elected. Not, as Freepers cried, to help Kerry. Osama could have cared less about Bush or Kerry, but he did know a good recruitment opportunity when he saw it. And Bush was/is a great recruitment tool for al-Qaeda.
What the ConsortumNews article points out, is that the CIA believed that as well. The article relies on a brief note in Ron Suskind’s book, “The One Percent Doctrine,” which states:
On Oct. 29, 2004 , just four days before the U.S. presidential election, al-Qaeda leader Osama bin-Laden released a videotape denouncing George W. Bush. Some Bush supporters quickly spun the diatribe as “Osama’s endorsement of John Kerry.” But behind the walls of the CIA, analysts had concluded the opposite: that bin-Laden was trying to help Bush gain a second term.
“Their [the CIA’s] assessments, at day’s end, are a distillate of the kind of secret, internal conversations that the American public [was] not sanctioned to hear: strategic analysis. Today’s conclusion: bin-Laden’s message was clearly designed to assist the President’s reelection.
“At the five o’clock meeting, [deputy CIA director] John McLaughlin opened the issue with the consensus view: ‘Bin-Laden certainly did a nice favor today for the President.’”
McLaughlin’s comment drew nods from CIA officers at the table. Jami Miscik, CIA deputy associate director for intelligence, suggested that the al-Qaeda founder may have come to Bush’s aid because bin-Laden felt threatened by the rise in Iraq of Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi; bin-Laden might have thought his leadership would be diminished if Bush lost the White House and their “eye-to-eye struggle” ended.
And ….
But the CIA analysts also felt that bin-Laden might have recognized how Bush’s policies – including the Guantanamo prison camp, the Abu Ghraib scandal and the endless bloodshed in Iraq – were serving al-Qaeda’s strategic goals for recruiting a new generation of jihadists.
So Bush KNEW bin-Laden was trying to help him and his neocons stay in power.
Bush wins the election and keeps telling us how he and his gang are dead set on bringing bin-Laden to justice. Yet over time, Bush mentions Osama less and less – simply concentrates on “the terrorists” and the “war on terror.” The one guy they claimed was really responsible for 9-11 fades back in their rhetoric.
Then I read a New York Times article, published yesterday on the 4th, which was as good as a Friday dump day for news. And what did this one say?
The Central Intelligence Agency has closed a unit that for a decade had the mission of hunting Osama bin Laden and his top lieutenants, intelligence officials confirmed Monday.
And why did they shut it down?
The decision is a milestone for the agency, which formed the unit before Osama bin Laden became a household name and bolstered its ranks after the Sept. 11 attacks, when President Bush pledged to bring Mr. bin Laden to justice "dead or alive."
The realignment reflects a view that Al Qaeda is no longer as hierarchical as it once was, intelligence officials said, and a growing concern about Qaeda-inspired groups that have begun carrying out attacks independent of Mr. bin Laden and his top deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri.
So there we have it. Bush team finally admits, what we tried to tell them before they even invaded Iraq , that Al-Qaeda, is not an organization with a CEO and Board of Directors that can be shut down via bonking their supposed leaders with our own weapons of mass destruction.
And it proves that they knew that taking out Zarqaw i wasn’t going to change a single thing. And flooded the airways with the propaganda anyway.
I believe that it also reinforces what many of us “peaceniks” have been saying for generations and certainly since the build up to the Iraq war and just about everyday since:
The solution to terrorism isn’t the guns, but the butter. The solution for Iraq and Iran and Korea and even the immigration issue, isn’t punishment, but encouraging and assisting with the good that people in the countries of origin are doing. It is using the carrot – bushel loads of them, instead of the stick.
It means that rich countries need to stop raping the resources of the poorer ones – the short term gains, lead to long term expenses – whether it is too many people wanting into the rich country to get a piece of the pie, or the rich countries having to spend countless billions on weapons and defense. Just imagine how we would be viewed in the world and the change we could effect – for our own people and the people of other nations, if we were using all that money for building up instead of blowing up.
Other related diaries you might have missed, (hope I didn't miss giving anyone credit):
Deal with the Devil: Zarqawi - bin Laden trade? By eyeswideopen on 07/04/2006
Bush Cuts and Runs From Bin Laden and Al Qaeda a by gnostic on 07/03/2006
CIA: bin Laden helped Bush in 2004 By ElMateo on 07/05/2006
NY Times: CIA "Bin Laden Unit" Disbanded a By gnostic on 07/04/2006
AP: Zarqawi traded for bin Laden by paul2port on 07/03/2006
Osama bin-Laden is George Bush's best friend by profmarcus on 07/03/2006
CIA Bin Laden unit shut down!!! ... and some humor ... on EZ writer on 07/03/2006
Bring bin Laden to Justice by Mindfuless on 07/04/2006
Osama -- Really Lucky or Really Smart? By TenStepsLeft on 07/02/2006