Two weeks ago I highlighted the comments of former NPR correspondent Sarah Chayes, who's living now in Afghanistan and recently reported that all of the reports made by the Northern Alliance about how hard they fought the Taliban and Al-Qaeda were US fabrications. This week I finally got around to watching the CNN special "In The Footsteps of Bin Laden" by Christiane Amanpour. In it, Amanpour interviewed a former CIA operative that was in Afghanistan directing efforts in the Tora Bora mountain range against Bin Laden. He claimed that they'd captured a radio from a dead Al-Qaeda fighter and they could hear Bin Laden apologizing to his soldiers for leading them to this mountain range where they were trapped. The operative said that he kept calling Washington and asking for 500 or more US soldiers to arrive to complete the mission and capture Bin Laden but that Washington continued to rebuff him.
The maximum number of soldiers they gave him? 50.
If Bin Laden was going to be captured "dead or alive" as Bush promised in the days after 9/11, why send only a few troops and let him slip away?
Logistics, simply put. You really think they didn't WANT to catch his ass? C'mon...
Well, if you ask me when I'm feeling conspiratorial, then I'll say that Bin Laden's worth more alive and free than dead and caught, yes...but I don't frequently feel that way.
The logistics answer seems incomplete, or vapid (not to say that you are Jeff) but it just seems like it lacks any real substance. I recognize that it takes a lot to move any significant number of troops into a location, especially one as remote and rugged as Tora Bora, but the guy from the CIA didn't make it seem like it was because of logistics but rather that Washington just didn't want to commit the troops.
Furthermore, during the interview with the guy they showed video showing crowds of journalists in the area watching the fighting. If CNN could land a bunch of their cameramen and reporters, couldn't the military get more than 50 people on the ground?
Logistics, hmmmm. Okay, could be. However, Maurice has a REALLY good point about the ability of journalists and CNN being able to land there. So why not the US Military? Are we to believe that Ted Turner has a news network which can establish a more effective tactical perimeter or beachhead in any given region than the US Government? Counting out CNN on this one (unless they had hired guys like Blackwater), one is forced to consider other ramifications of capturing Bin Laden. Let us all be realistic for a moment and at least CONSIDER this. Once Bin Laden has been caught, the VAST majority of normal Joe and Jane America will consider the "war on terror" to have struck the first TRULY decisive blow for the USA and I genuinely believe that *most* average Americans will want us to leave Iraq at that point. Bush has already conceded that he doesn't believe that we should leave Iraq at this stage (or any prior to it) so unfortunately you are left with a enemy who is more useful alive and running around than captured and no longer a "threat" to the USA. The sad fact is that in order for some of the calls this administration has made to work (some of which are *historically* straight out of the fascist tactics playbook) you MUST have a viable enemy/threat to the USA clear and present in the hearts and minds of the American people. Bin Laden is it for now. His true importance in orchestrating future attacks may be minimized (see Maurice’s previous post on that--Is Bin Laden Important Any More--August 18, 2006) but he IS the poster-boy for the “war on terror” in the USA. So is it at least worth considering (with the little info. we have here) that the US Government let him go in order to further their own administrative agenda in other regions? Sadly…I believe it is.
Sarah Chayes has been rumored to be a CIA agent. She is the only person who is allowed to work with the Taliban and pay them cash. She is now training the US military and going on the Al Frankin show.
She sure has it made!
Chayes is getting rid of Karzai:
Arghand and ACS both seemed to benefit from Chayes background. She helped with a radio station and had worked with NPR. She financed Arghand from Mercy Corps, which she ran - which was financed by USAID. She worked closely with the Green Berets during and after the invasion and embedded herself with Mercy corps.
The members of Arghand are all Karzai brothers and sitters in laws that were involved in Afghanistan back in 1998. This allowed Karzai to move into power nicely and his family was well paid through Chayes and the NGOs.
Chayes is from Cambridge and her father taught at the university. He was also a close advisor to Kennedy, who started Peace Corps, which Sarah Chayes served. This history got her the job at NPR and the rest is history.
As far as her being CIA, there was allot of money from AID going to Mercy Corps. She was with the Green Berets during and after the invasion, also started by Kennedy (PeaceCorps with guns, same training), and the director of the poppy program for the DEA was also the Director of Peace Corps. Chayes and the Peace Corps model seemed to work well for the invasion and pacification of Afghanistan- two phases: Green Berets and Peace. It is a model based on another war and so is the Poppy Program.
Chayes went for the whole Karzai family, an easy way to Hamid Karzai. Selecting this leader also involved Chalabi who was not approved by this group. Chayes provided money for the NGOs that Karzai and his family were involved with and deemed herself 'close' to the leadership.
A couple of months ago Chayes announced she was going to the US to sell her book, just before the 'insurgency' broke out. At the same time she denounced Karazai who just announced he is leaving. So, Chayes may have been good for financing, but used this to get close to karzai and his family and when she felt they were no longer needed denounced them and the government - went of to sell her book, advise governments and militaries regarding her five year work in Afghanistan.
Chayes is more a study on how to use a family and a country and how to leave them when done, which is why there always were CIA rumors. The invasion and pacification is a nice journey for Abrahm Chaye's daughter-Kennedy, Green Berets, Peace Corps, etc. I am sure Sarah Chayes appreciates the invasion, drug eradication, and pacification of Afghanistan in her history as a family and her service.