A report out today includes a “highly placed source” as saying that part of the reason George W. Bush is not appearing with President Barack Obama at ground zero is that he feels he is not getting part of the credit in the killing.
The source stated “Obama gave no credit whatsoever to the intelligence infrastructure the Bush administration set up that is being hailed from the left and right as setting in motion the operation that got Bin Laden. It rubbed Bush the wrong way.”
Of course, it was Bush (like Clinton) who ignored warnings of the possible attacks and then it was Bush Administration that let Bin Laden slip out of Tora Bora. Bin Laden was nailed years after the departure of Bush and based on recent intelligence hits on the surveillance net. As noted earlier, I am not sure why there is not more discussion of the alleged failure of this and the prior administration to locate Bin Laden in such a conspicuous setting after alleged leads from Pakistan and India. It appears that much of our intelligence estimates on his location may have been wildly wrong.
Clearly, many of the people outside of the Administration (joining some Obama officials) citing torture as part of the success in this story are Bush officials — trying desperately not only to claim part of the success but to legitimate an act defined as a war crime.
This is all part of the spasm of celebration over the killing. I must confess a bit of unease in the scenes of people dancing in the streets and presidents fighting over credit for the killing. I have the same unease when people assemble outside of prisons with frying pans and signs to celebrate the execution of a murderer. Some scenes this month looked uncomfortably like images we saw in the Middle East after the 9-11 attacks. I am also glad that Bin Laden is dead. I will not deny it. However, all of these celebrations only elevate the importance of the man.
As I stated earlier, I have always found it bizarre that we give presidents personal credit for such operations. Whether it is Bush parading around on the aircraft carrier in his flight suit or Obama at ground zero, presidents claim credit for successes by others. Obviously, this order would have been given by Bush and Clinton once Bin Laden fell into our surveillance net. Ironically, presidents are very successful in basking in such glory of others, but do not feel the full brunt of their mistakes like Tora Bora or, more importantly, ignoring the warnings about an attack using aircraft. Those are simply dismissed as missed opportunities or confused circumstances.
What is equally fascinating is that we continue to define victory by Bin Laden’s death while insisting that nothing will change in light of it, as discussed in this week’s column.
Source: NY Daily News
John Yoo: Obama Afraid To Capture Bin Laden (VIDEO)
TPMDC
By Evan McMorris-Santoro | May 6, 2011
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/05/john-yoo-killing-bin-laden-was-a-bad-idea-video.php?ref=fpb
Excerpt:
John Yoo says President Obama is too afraid of the politics of Guantanamo Bay to capture and interrogate terrorists.
The former George W. Bush administration lawyer, Yoo wrote the infamous torture memos used to justify the “enhanced interrogation techniques” that were a central legacy of Bush’s Global War On Terror. He now says that the killing of Osama bin Laden will go down in history as one of President Obama’s biggest national security fails.
Yoo told CNN on Thursday night that the special forces team sent to kill bin Laden should have instead taken him alive and kept him as a source of future intelligence. Failing to do that, Yoo says, cost the U.S. a valuable asset. That was a mistake, Yoo says.
BIL:
Classic you scratch my back I’ll scratch yours.
“The director positions were created in December when USTC purchased Xe. The private company became famous as Blackwater, which provided guards and services to the U.S. government in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere”
FYI.
Brent Bozell: Bush Gets All The Credit, None Of The Blame
May 06, 2011 10:11 am ET by Simon Maloy
Brent Bozell’s on a mission: to give the Bush administration’s legacy a facelift.
Every Friday the Media Research Center president appears on Fox & Friends to whine about how awful and terrible the biased liberal media are, and his complaints almost invariably revolve around how unfairly the media treated former president Bush. This morning, Bozell attacked the press for not giving Bush enough credit for the death of Osama bin Laden, even giving the 43rd president a “hip hip hooray!”
http://mediamatters.org/blog/201105060012
Why not me
Bin Laden T-shirt seller, 23, makes $120k in two days
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1384274/Osama-Bin-Laden-t-shirt-seller-Maurice-Harary-23-makes-120k-2-days.html#ixzz1LaTO9jh4
Damn that IslamofacistKenyanantiAmerican usurper in the WH for killing bin Laden! He should have waited until a white, Christian Teapublican was in office to do the job instead!
Where is the congressional declaration of war that justifies murdering people in the Middle East? In this case Pakistan. Not even the Iraq Use of Force Resolution is a declaration of war. That was 9 years ago.
There are no declarations of war.
So I assume the killing of Osama bin Laden was illegal according to our own laws and our president as much a criminal as leftists claim George Bush is. And no, a congressional law does not invalidate the constitutional requirement that congress make an official declaration of war when using the US military to assault foreign lands. So there is no legal justification.
Follow the money. Obama needs justification for his newest jobs program: his fascist, totalitarian, police state/surveillance state.
You know that old canard (which is false by-the-way) about war being good for our economy? Well, for Obama to create that result (or supposed result) he has to slaughter tens of thousands or hundred of thousands of Americans in war (and build all the toys required to do it). Building those toys is where all the money comes in to the picture. But since Democrats have done that for so long (most of the last century) they cannot get away with it anymore. It would be too obvious for Obama to launch another Vietman or WW2. Bush attempted to beat him to it. Obviously, not knowing who the next prez would be, of course.
Obama knows he cannot get away with another world war or Vietnam like his predecessors did. So he need another “war-like” way to “create jobs” and boost the economy.
Terrorism provoked by the US government fits the bill.
It goes like this. Continue to provoke foreigners to attack our soil by remaining in the Middle East and instead of going to war with them in traditional fashion by sending hundreds of thousands of soldiers off their deaths. Create hysteria among the citizenry (without creating panic). Keep provoking the unnecessary threat that justifies building an infrastructure to rival the Department of Defense but make the target of this behemoth YOU. And your kids. Your grand kids. Your neighbor. But not the foreign enemy.
What is the vehicle for this “war” economy minus the hundreds of thousands of FDR’s, Wilson’s, and LBJ’s war dead?
The Department of Homeland security.
Yes. The same one that sexually molests innocent little American girls at airports in the name of protecting them. This is what our deranged leaders are doing to us.
Buddha,
re:
“Ethics and Ashcroft.”
“Now there’s a contradiction in terms for you.”
Ain’t that the truth… Another real prince, no pun intended.
anon nurse,
Ethics and Ashcroft.
Now there’s a contradiction in terms for you.
Buddha,
As I understand it, Xe is still looking for a permanent CEO. Ashcroft was hired as their “ethics chief.”
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/05/blackwaters-new-ethics-chief-john-ashcroft/
Excerpt:
The consortium in charge of restructuring the world’s most infamous private-security firm just added a new chief in charge of keeping the company on the straight and narrow. Yes, John Ashcroft, the former U.S. attorney general, is now an “independent director” of Xe Services, formerly known as Blackwater.
Ashcroft will head Xe’s new “subcommittee on governance,” its backers announced early Wednesday in a statement. The subcommittee is designed to “maximize governance, compliance and accountability” and “promote the highest degrees of ethics and professionalism within the private-security industry.”
Just hit me. Was Ms. Burlingame making reference to Obama a former attorney or herself?
Raff I’m no George Bush fan. I have posted this on this blog before. See if you can figure it out.
http://www.voltairenet.org/article160636.html
It’s not about Hannity you can try and make it that if you want but to me it’s what Debra Burlingame, a former attorney who lost her brother on 9-11 said and her interaction with the president of the United States. Remember she might be one of those teabagging homophobic people, probably a birther too so, I thought you might be interested 🙂 Anybody know which area of law she practiced?
OS,
Slainte!
raff, I agree. I think we should drink a toast to ourselves, since we had as much or more to do with offing the monster as Shrub McFlightsuit.
Sláinte mhaith!
Nice link Stamford.
Bdaman,
If Bush is entitled to some glory for the killing of OBL, then I decided that I should too. Hell, I had as much to do with as Bush, so why shouldn’t I get some publicity for doing nothing??
anon nurse,
“All right. You’ve covered your ass, now.” —George W. Bush on August 6, 2001. As reported in Ron Suskind’s new book, the president was responding to a CIA agent who had been sent out to Crawford, Texas to personally deliver the now-infamous presidential daily brief titled: “Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S.”
I’d like to cover McFlightsuit’s ass … in an orange jumpsuit with shackles …
And how could we forget this:
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/national-affairs/bushs-pre-9-11-mindset-20060620
By Tim Dickinson
Bush’s Pre-9/11 Mindset
“All right. You’ve covered your ass, now.” —George W. Bush on August 6, 2001. As reported in Ron Suskind’s new book, the president was responding to a CIA agent who had been sent out to Crawford, Texas to personally deliver the now-infamous presidential daily brief titled: “Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S.”
And Byron De La Beckwith assassinated Medgar Evers. Your point is?
As for retired firefighter Bob Beckwith, he is probably embarrassed by some who share his name. Every family seems to have a horse thief or ne’er do well.
http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2011/05/03/retired-nyc-firefighter-speaks-out-on-death-of-bin-laden/
enoibob,
OT, but since you mentioned Ashcroft . . .
He’s got a new job.
As a director at Xe (formerly Blackwater).
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/04/john-ashcroft-blackwater_n_857371.html
To Beckwith @ TheObamaFile.com
Bdaman, I also understand the Library of Congress has an archive of the back issues of Hustler Magazine. Your point is?