Republicans are the bonafide kings of hypocrisy and this past week they seemed to work overtime to retain that title. The exact same talking heads and mouthpieces at Fox News that spent nine years telling us that terrorists arrested abroad did
not require the same due process and legal rights as American citizens are now asking why Bin Laden did not receive "due process". The same clique of hypocrites that told us that the economy, war on terror, the two wars etc etc all belong to Obama now and how we need to stop blaming everything on George Bush suddenly reversed themselves. Now suddenly we are to credit George Bush with the killing of Bin Laden. This is almost laughable! If it were true it would simply show how incompetent the Bush White House was since they would have had the information to capture Bin Laden and simply did not do so. In what appears to be one of the most bizarre episodes in US political rhetoric -some Republicans and their right wing media reps appear to be taking the side of Bin Laden and even insinuating that perhaps Bin Laden should have been read his Miranda rights! This is the same GOP that issued death warrants against Bin Laden! The same folks that offered millions of dollars in reward for Bin Laden's capture Dead or Alive! And apparently even Chris Wallace did not know the difference between the role of Bin Laden in the landscape of terrorism and those of Bin Ladens followers!
Unlike his followers Bin Laden was already known as the mastermind of 911 not only through secondary evidence but he himself has appeared on video tapes all over the world admitting to his horrific deeds. Apparently Mr Wallace forgot all that in his quest to score points for Fox News. It might be however that a Pandora's Box has been open relating to this issue and that in effect the Bush Administration knew where Bin Laden was all along and simply did nothing about it. Something that we might want to examine here at this time by using the same tool that is used everyday by Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Michael Medved and others; speculation!
Some of you might have seen the video tape of President Bush at a news conference where he basically declared that Osama Bin Laden had become an unimportant player in the world of terrorism. On the video from a news conference held on March 13, 2002, President Bush appears almost as a defeated individual who goes on to tell us that Bin Laden had become somewhat of a "marginalized" person and that in fact his capture was no longer a priority for the U.S. Yes that is the absolute truth! President Bush had given up on capturing Osama Bin Laden and just this week some stations played the video of that press conference to set the record straight. Something you will not see on Fox News but which is easily available on YouTube. Now that Osama Bin Laden has been killed one can't help but ask some pertinent questions about the Bush Administration and its approach toward capturing the mastermind of 911. Most troubling is the fact that Bin Laden was residing in a huge compound built right under the nose of the intelligence community without us - The United States - knowing about it! How could that be possible?!?!
Let us think back. We are talking about a period of time when people like Dick Chaney, President Bush, Karl Rove, Dana Perino, Condoleeza Rice and others were telling us that the entire intelligence apparatus of the United States was at work all over the world on this war against terrorism. Not only that but that the centerpoint of this intelligence gathering strategy was the area of Pakistan/Afghanistan. Yet somehow construction began and ended on this huge compound which housed the Bin Laden family for the past 5 years - at least that is what has been reported. Government officials in Pakistan all claim not to have any knowledge of Bin Laden living anywhere in Pakistan even though the complex where Bin Laden was found was near some militaty installations of the Pakistan military. All of that appears to be questionable. We as Americans must analyze information and then begin the process of connecting the dots because here we have a story that simply does not make sense.
What makes this entire thing odd is the fact that in December of 2001 - just two months after 911 - the US had an opportunity to take down Bin Laden when he was spotted in the region of Tora Bora between Pakistan and Afghanistan. Yet the Bush Administration decided against taking any action against Bin Laden. Why? Then we have the March 13, 2002 news conference in which President Bush seemed to downplay the importance of capturing Bin Laden. Subsequent to that we had years of the war and thousands of soldiers supposedly involved in the search for bin Laden and his cohorts. And of course millions and millions of dollars spent on that effort which led to nowhere. Now with these revelations about the Bush Administration having the information needed to capture Bin Laden we again have to ask why it wasn't carried out?!? So what could have actually happened?
We can only speculate on what possibly could have occurred in this entire case. We are not going to suggest any ridiculous 'black helicopter' type scenarios about George Bush and Bin Laden and conspiracy plots. Nor am I going to get into calling George Bush "evil" as Donald Trump and others have done because I believe George Bush and his Administration were simply handed a monumental task following one of the most tragic events in history. There is however a pattern that can be found within all of the post 911 activities that have been described above. And here is what appears to have happened. Keep in mind this is only speculation based on what we sometimes call 'reasonable conclusions'.
It appears that right after the attacks of 911, the Bush Administration was confronted with a series of issues regarding Pakistan. One of those issues being SOVEREIGNTY. This is something that is actually part of International Law, just as it is with Water Boarding! But whereas the Administration was willing to disregard laws against water boarding that was not the case with the issue of sovereignty. It appears that the Bush White House was intimidated by the Government of Pakistan and its pro-American leader Pervez Musharraf into agreeing not to pursue Bin Laden into Pakistan. It appears that some sort of gentlemens agreement was reached that would allow Bin Laden to live the rest of his life as a sort of "retired" terrorist in a confined and safe area of Pakistan where he would no longer be a danger to the rest of the world. The fact that he was living close to military installations may have been part of his security arrangements with the government. And since the Pakistani government did not want any more trouble coming from Bin Laden it chose to take away his right to telephones and internet services. That would explain why he was found so disconnected from the rest of the world. This is nothing new of course and something that happens all the time in what we refer to as 'political asylum'.
Had we caught Bin Laden in Afghanistan then the Pakistani government would have simply agreed with whatever the US wanted to do. But if Bin Laden managed to get into Pakistan - which he did- then he would be subject to simply being left alone as a 'harmless' retired terrorist. Again we are only speculating. So what was the missing factor? The answer is simple: Arrogance! International diplomacy sometimes requires a sense of arrogance which the Bush Administration certainly displayed with domestic issues but which it seems to have lacked on the international arena. President Obama has a sense of arrogance - enough to tell the Pakistani government that if they had terrorists within their country that we were going to enter their country and find them whether they like it or not! Which is precisely what happened. What happens next only time will tell but needless to say - governments that are protecting terrorists around the world now got the message. We're coming in - like it or not!!