Osama Bin Forgotten

[techweenie]

It's official. The de-prioritization of the architect of the 9/11 attacks is complete.

C.I.A. Closes Unit Focused on Capture of bin Laden

By MARK MAZZETTI
Published: July 4, 2006

WASHINGTON, July 3 — 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.

The unit, known as Alec Station, was disbanded late last year and its analysts reassigned within the C.I.A. Counterterrorist Center, the officials said.

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.

Agency officials said that tracking Mr. bin Laden and his deputies remained a high priority, and that the decision to disband the unit was not a sign that the effort had slackened. Instead, the officials said, it reflects a belief that the agency can better deal with high-level threats by focusing on regional trends rather than on specific organizations or individuals.

"The efforts to find Osama bin Laden are as strong as ever," said Jennifer Millerwise Dyck, a C.I.A. spokeswoman. "This is an agile agency, and the decision was made to ensure greater reach and focus."

The decision to close the unit was first reported Monday by National Public Radio.

Michael Scheuer, a former senior C.I.A. official who was the first head of the unit, said the move reflected a view within the agency that Mr. bin Laden was no longer the threat he once was.

Mr. Scheuer said that view was mistaken.

"This will clearly denigrate our operations against Al Qaeda," he said. "These days at the agency, bin Laden and Al Qaeda appear to be treated merely as first among equals."

In recent years, the war in Iraq has stretched the resources of the intelligence agencies and the Pentagon, generating new priorities for American officials. For instance, much of the military's counterterrorism units, like the Army's Delta Force, had been redirected from the hunt for Mr. bin Laden to the search for Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was killed last month in Iraq.

An intelligence official who was granted anonymity to discuss classified information said the closing of the bin Laden unit reflected a greater grasp of the organization. "Our understanding of Al Qaeda has greatly evolved from where it was in the late 1990's," the official said, but added, "There are still people who wake up every day with the job of trying to find bin Laden."

Established in 1996, when Mr. bin Laden's calls for global jihad were a source of increasing concern for officials in Washington, Alec Station operated in a similar fashion to that of other agency stations around the globe.

The two dozen staff members who worked at the station, which was named after Mr. Scheuer's son and was housed in leased offices near agency headquarters in northern Virginia, issued regular cables to the agency about Mr. bin Laden's growing abilities and his desire to strike American targets throughout the world.

In his book "Ghost Wars," which chronicles the agency's efforts to hunt Mr. bin Laden in the years before the Sept. 11 attacks, Steve Coll wrote that some inside the agency likened Alec Station to a cult that became obsessed with Al Qaeda.

"The bin Laden unit's analysts were so intense about their work that they made some of their C.I.A. colleagues uncomfortable," Mr. Coll wrote. Members of Alec Station "called themselves 'the Manson Family' because they had acquired a reputation for crazed alarmism about the rising Al Qaeda threat."

Intelligence officials said Alec Station was disbanded after Robert Grenier, who until February was in charge of the Counterterrorist Center, decided the agency needed to reorganize to better address constant changes in terrorist organizations.

[cowtown]

Originally posted by techweenie
[B]It's official. The de-prioritization of the architect of the 9/11 attacks is complete.


Agency officials said that tracking Mr. bin Laden and his deputies remained a high priority, and that the decision to disband the unit was not a sign that the effort had slackened. Instead, the officials said, it reflects a belief that the agency can better deal with high-level threats by focusing on regional trends rather than on specific organizations or individuals.

I doubt you even read the article. You saw the headline, and .... Ah, never mind.

[Joeaksa]

Originally posted by cowtown
I doubt you even read the article. You saw the headline, and .... Ah, never mind.

You mean he is acting like weenie always does? Why are we not surprised? And we have soldiers fighting and dying for people like this...

[speeder]

They would have found him by now, but the liberals and the liberal press will not let the military properly do its job. It's the liberals' fault.

[Joeaksa]

Originally posted by speeder
They would have found him by now, but the liberals and the liberal press will not let the military properly do its job. It's the liberals' fault.

Took us 5-6 years to find the bomber hiding in the mountains and hills of the Carolina's, and thats with our speaking the language and knowing the area.

We will get him and the other vermin that run with him. Does not matter to most of the libs as they will find something else to moan about...

Course with the NYT exposing our top secret projects it might take a bit longer... jerks. Hope they rot in hell.

[techweenie]

Originally posted by cowtown
I doubt you even read the article. You saw the headline, and .... Ah, never mind.

Yeah, they abandoned the team assigned to him but he remains a high priority.

I have a bridge to sell you.

[Aurel]

Originally posted by Joeaksa
jerks. Hope they rot in hell.

Nice, from an american talking about other americans. The terrorists must rejoyce to see americans hating eachother like that, doing their job for them.

Aurel

[nostatic]

Originally posted by Joeaksa
T
Course with the NYT exposing our top secret projects it might take a bit longer...

Joe, if it was easy for the NYT to get the top secret information, who exactly wasn't doing their job? I mean come on...these are NYT reporters, how clever can they be, right?

[914GT]

Bin Laden still on the top of the FBI terrorist list.

http://www.fbi.gov/wanted/terrorists/fugitives.htm

Mr. Zarqawi's photo recently taken down.

[kach22i]

Originally posted by techweenie
Michael Scheuer, a former senior C.I.A. official who was the first head of the unit, said the move reflected a view within the agency that Mr. bin Laden was no longer the threat he once was.

Mr. Scheuer said that view was mistaken.

"This will clearly denigrate our operations against Al Qaeda," he said. "These days at the agency, bin Laden and Al Qaeda appear to be treated merely as first among equals."

In recent years, the war in Iraq has stretched the resources of the intelligence agencies

Read it again.....................

Michael Scheuer..........."This will clearly denigrate our operations against Al Qaeda," he said.

den·i·grate
http://www.answers.com/topic/denigrate

To disparage; belittle

.........and read it again.

In recent years, the war in Iraq has stretched the resources of the intelligence agencies

Sounds like to me that the US is so busy in Iraq that it can't track down the 911 terrorist. This is the best of Republican leadership?

We can do better and must to do better.

[Jeff Higgins]

...Agency officials said that tracking Mr. bin Laden and his deputies remained a high priority, and that the decision to disband the unit was not a sign that the effort had slackened. Instead, the officials said, it reflects a belief that the agency can better deal with high-level threats by focusing on regional trends rather than on specific organizations or individuals.

"The efforts to find Osama bin Laden are as strong as ever," said Jennifer Millerwise Dyck, a C.I.A. spokeswoman. "This is an agile agency, and the decision was made to ensure greater reach and focus."...


See kach, I can cherry-pick too.

[Joeaksa]

Originally posted by Aurel
Nice, from an american talking about other americans. The terrorists must rejoyce to see americans hating eachother like that, doing their job for them.

Aurel

Just because someone is an American does not mean that I have to love or even like them. The reporters and editor in this case are *********s and I hope that they rot in hell.

Hope you can figure out my feelings towards ANY reporter or news agency that tries to skew the news they report to suit their personal feelings or agenda.

[Joeaksa]

Originally posted by nostatic
Joe, if it was easy for the NYT to get the top secret information, who exactly wasn't doing their job? I mean come on...these are NYT reporters, how clever can they be, right?

People come to the NYT and other news agencies and tell them about classified goings on from time to time, and in the past for the most part the papers and television would sit on it, especially when asked by members of both political parties and the administration.

Someone "in the know" who wanted this leaked broke the law by giving this info to the NYT. First of all this person needs to be identified, prosecuted and when convicted, thrown in jail. This is black and white, that you do not disclose classified material. When you have a security clearance you are "recleared" every six months and sign a statement to this effect. I still have several of mine and its in bold print.

Then the two people who wrote the article and the editor to agreed to publish it as well need to be prosecuted and if found guilty then they need to join the person who leaked this information.

In this situation all sorts of people begged the NYT to hold on publishing the article. Democrats, Republicans, both in and out of office as well as others "in the know" asked the editor to hold but to no avail. They needed to sell newspapers and broke the law doing so. Believe that there is a newspaper at the prison and hope that they enjoy working on it for the next 20 years or so. At the end of this time they might better understand classified materials and their handling.

[RoninLB]

I don't believe everything the CIA says as being complete reality.

[Rodeo]

In other news, the Red Sox have moved out of Boston.

A Sox spokesman stated that the team's commitment to Boston is stronger than it has ever been, and that this reorganization to a midwest city should not be misconstrued as a lack of interest in the New England region.

[techweenie]

Originally posted by Rodeo
In other news, the Red Sox have moved out of Boston.

A Sox spokesman stated that the team's commitment to Boston is stronger than it has ever been, and that this reorganization to a midwest city should not be misconstrued as a lack of interest in the New England region.

LOL.

Maybe the sports analogy will work for the poliically naive. Then agaon...

[kach22i]

Originally posted by Jeff Higgins
See kach, I can cherry-pick too.

The first negative reply to this thread was a cherry picked quote from a current CIA official (An intelligence official who was granted anonymity).

My quote was from a former CIA official, the head of the program a guy with a name and face.

If given a choice, I'd tend to trust the guy who no longer needs to lie to keep his job.

[Jeff Higgins]

Originally posted by kach22i
If given a choice, I'd tend to trust the guy who no longer needs to lie to keep his job.

I see it another way. We have probably all seen, in our own careers in the private sector, projects or assignments come and go. Some get finished, some get cancelled. Isn't it rather typical for the former head of a cancelled project to bad mouth the folks and or the decision that cancelled it? I have seen it time and time again. A project gets nowhere, or is achieving poor results. Maybe in part due to poor leadership, lack of resources, or a combination of factors. So the project head leaves; he is either asked to resign, he retires, is re-assigned, or whatever. I have never heard one say it was a good idea to cancel his project.

[Tobra]

Originally posted by techweenie
LOL.

Maybe the sports analogy will work for the poliically naive. Then again...

I guess analogy must not mean what I think it does, I figured this would be a term used to compare similar situations. You spend your entire life thinking you know a language and then something like this comes along

As stupid and incompetent as all the folks in charge happen to be, I would have expected you guys to find it easier to find articles supporting your position, making assumptions again, my bad

[Rodeo]

For Tobra and the other 20 per-centers** out there:

Quietly shutting the CIA office dedicated to catching ObL means simply that our president has re-expressed his commitment to bring this man to justice, that under Bush's great leadership and vision, our efforts as a nation to avenge the 9/11 massacre remain strong and resolute. It means that those "dead or alive" words uttered so many years ago were not the hollow words of a hollow man, but an unwavering commitment on behalf of a great nation.

If you need further proof or Bush's unwavering efforts to catch ObL, look no further than the "out of business" sign on the door.




**No matter how badly this administration bungles its responsibilities, 20% of the population will never, ever do anything but love our fearless leader and his crack team. This is something I've come to terms with. Kinda like Richard Simmons, you can't possibly understand, but you have to accept.