Were you, like me, treated to an Abu Dhabi photo-op? Abu Dhabi royals introducing George W Bush to the arts and sciences of falconry?
Where are the sharp-eyed falcons of the American media? Why was the irony of the moment not an issue.
Ronald Reagan, rather than admit an error, proceeded with a visit to a war cemetary in Bitburg, Germany that contained among others, the remains of some SS officers. However, our media caught on to the issue and made it a lead story for days. The very word Bitburg is GOP code for a media relations boo-boo.
And so why is falconry in Abu Dhabi a new Bitburg?
Abu Dhabi is a constituent element of the United Arab Emirates.
The United States of America had an opportunity to nix Osama bin Laden with a missile strike near Kandahar.
The missile attack was cancelled because bin Laden was hosting members of the UAE royal family for an ascetic day of tent-dwelling, simple foods and falcon hunting.
Damned if I can post photos here but please enjoy this link ever so briefly if you will.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/...
Consider the photo above with the following:
Sheik Mohammed ibn Rashid al Maktum, who is said to go falcon hunting with bin Laden, will later rule the emirate that owns DP World, the UAE company attempting to purchase a number of US ports in 2006. [Source: UAE Government]After the Taliban takes control of the area around Kandahar, Afghanistan, in September 1994, prominent Persian Gulf state officials and businessmen, including high-ranking United Arab Emirates and Saudi government ministers, such as Saudi intelligence minister Prince Turki al-Faisal, frequently secretly fly into Kandahar on state and private jets for hunting expeditions. [Los Angeles Times, 11/18/2001] General Wayne Downing, who will later serve as one of President Bush’s counterterrorism "tsars," says: "They would go out and see Osama, spend some time with him, talk with him, you know, live out in the tents, eat the simple food, engage in falconing, some other pursuits, ride horses." [MSNBC, 9/5/2003] One noted visitor is Sheik Mohammed ibn Rashid al Maktum, United Arab Emirates Defense Minister and Crown Prince for the emirate of Dubai. While there, some develop ties to the Taliban and al-Qaeda and give them money. Both bin Laden and Taliban leader Mullah Omar sometimes participate in these hunting trips. Former US and Afghan officials suspect that the dignitaries’ outbound jets may also have smuggled out al-Qaeda and Taliban personnel. [Los Angeles Times, 11/18/2001] On one occasion, the US will decide not to attack bin Laden with a missile because he’s falconing with important members of the United Arab Emirates’ royal family (see February 11, 1999).
Entity Tags: Turki al-Faisal, Taliban, Al-Qaeda, United Arab Emirates, Mullah Omar, Sheik Mohammed ibn Rashid al Maktum, Osama bin Laden, Wayne Downing
Category Tags: Osama Bin Laden, Saudi Arabia
Can someone explain why the media... even Keith O. missed this astonishing and sad irony.
I am not sure if the SS, it's political wing, or it's special divisions within the Wehrmacht accounted for 3,000 deaths in the American military overall. Bill O'Reilly obviously hadn't read up on Malmedy before opening his yap. But we live in a world where visits to a particular Shinto shrine by Japanese imperial or political figures stirs controversy in Asia at large. We live in a world where Bitburg was too politically "hot" for symbolic rapprochement with Germany.
And yet it goes without passing note that George Bush goes for falconing lessons with a royal family whose affinity-members include Osama bin Laden's falconing partners.
Take a break from Dem candidate wars. If it was announced today that an idiot regime would have 1 year to govern America it would be news. And so it is. We have almost exactly one year to go. The fun has not stopped.
Someone in the media needs to be covering the White House and NOT the possible slurs leading up to debate number 36.
George Bush falconing with Abu Dhabi royals. Bitburg revisited.