| Topic: |
Politics > Politics-USA |
| User: |
"Harry Hope" |
| Date: |
23 Feb 2006 12:49:55 PM |
| Object: |
Sept. 11 Report Ties Bin Laden to UAE. |
From The Associated Press, 2/23/06:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060223/ap_on_go_ot/ports_bin_laden
Sept. 11 Report Ties Bin Laden to UAE
By ELIZABETH WHITE, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON -
The United States raised concerns with the United Arab Emirates seven
years ago about possible ties between officials in that country and
Osama bin Laden, according to a section of the Sept. 11 commission's
report that details a possible missed opportunity to kill the al-Qaida
leader.
Republicans and Democrats alike are raising concerns this week about
the Bush administration's decision to let a UAE-operated company take
over operations at six American ports, in part citing ties the Sept.
11 hijackers had to the Persian Gulf country.
President Bush has called the UAE a close partner on the war on terror
since Sept. 11, and his aides have listed numerous examples of the
country's help.
The Sept. 11 commission's report released last year also raised
concerns UAE officials were directly associating with bin Laden as
recently as 1999.
The report states U.S. intelligence believed that bin Laden was
visiting an area in the Afghan desert in February 1999 near a hunting
camp used by UAE officials, and that the U.S. military planned a
missile strike.
Intelligence from local tribal sources indicated "bin Laden regularly
went from his adjacent camp to the larger camp where he visited the
Emiratis," the report said.
"National technical intelligence confirmed the location and
description of the larger camp and showed the nearby presence of an
official aircraft of the United Arab Emirates. But the location of bin
Laden's quarters could not be pinned down so precisely," the report
said.
The missile attack was never launched, and bin Laden moved on, the
report said.
A month later, top White House counterterrorism official Richard
Clarke "called a UAE official to express his concerns about possible
associations between Emirati officials and bin Laden," the report
said.
CIA officials hope to continue staking out the Afghan camp in hopes
bin Laden would return and a possible strike could be launched.
But "imagery confirmed that less than a week after Clarke's phone
call, the camp was hurriedly dismantled and the site was deserted,"
the report said.
CIA officials were "irate" and "thought the dismantling of the camp
erased a possible site for targeting bin Laden, the report said.
At a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee Thursday, Sen.
Carl Levin, the ranking Democrat, asked Deputy Treasury Secretary
Robert Kimmitt if he was aware of the 9-11 commission's assertion that
the United Arab Emirates represents "a persistent counterterrorism
problem"for the United States.
Kimmitt replied that administration figures involved in the decision
to approve the deal "looked very carefully" at information from the
intelligence community.
"Any time a foreign-government controlled company comes in," Kimmitt
said, "the intelligence assessment is of both the country and the
company."
"Just raise your hand if anybody talked to the 9-11 commission," Levin
told the administration representatives at the witness table.
Nobody raised a hand.
____________________________________________________________
Nobody talked to the 9-11 commission? Why the hell not? Makes ya
wonder about these assholes sometimes, eh?
Harry
.
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