WMWG Part 9; 2001

2001...

·         June 30^th, 2001 ... CIA issued a report to the president, the “Senior Executive Intelligence Brief” and it included the article, “Bin Laden Threats Are Real”. But members of the Bush Administration – Rice, Rumsfeld, Cheney, and even Bush himself – continued to doubt the seriousness of Bin Laden.

·         Then, Bush received a confidential document, “President’s Daily Brief” and included a terrorism assessment headlined “Bin Laden determined to strike in the U.S.” This was the 36^th occasion in the preceding 8 months the CIA had alerted the White House of threats posed by al-Qaeda or Bin Laden.

·         Clarke kept harassing Rice to do something about Bin Laden, and kept challenging her through emails right up until 9-11 happened.

This is the epitome of why people don’t think women should be in politics, they don’t listen. I wonder how 2001 and ultimately our future would’ve been shaped if people like Richard Clarke still held an office; Or even going so far to say what would it have been like if Al Gore was president?

Also, this book heavily critiques the Bush Administration for ‘doing nothing’ when told of the terrorism and Bin Laden’s plans. Looking back it doesn’t look like they really did much, and it is so easy to force the blame on the one who is supposed to be our leader during this time.

·         September 11^th, 2001 ... Biggest attack on America, and this made us declare war on Afghanistan.

Here’s another thought.

WWII- People, mostly women, went to work and rallied around the war. Short wars can pull us out of a depression. We also had those news reels that would show what was going on with our boys overseas. I don’t know of one time that the government during this time had a big scandal because of lies and deceit.

Vietnam- The baby boomers from WWII were growing up and trying to find their own ideas, beliefs, etc. Then Johnson kept lying about what was really going on during the war, then Watergate happened with Nixon, and then Ford ended up pardoning Nixon. And all of this basically pissed everyone off and no one trusted the government. So people started protesting the ‘unwinnable’ Vietnam War.

Now Bush supposedly dismisses the terrorist threats until 9-11 happens; and when Pat Tillman gets killed the military or anyone else doesn’t have the decency to actually say what happened to our American Soldier. History repeats itself when people are too ignorant to remember it.

·         October 7^th, 2001 ... President said the military began strikes against al-Qaeda terrorist training camps and military installations of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. This first stint of the war was called “Operation Enduring Freedom”. The president gave a speech that was broadcasted over Pat Tillman’s NFL game.

·         The first strikes happened less than an hour before Bush gave this speech. 4 U.S. ships, 1 U.S. submarine, and a British submarine launched a barrage of cruise missiles toward Afghanistan.

·         October 19^th 2001 ... The first U.S. ground troops – Army Rangers – landed 80 miles south oh Kandahar.

·         At first, the Bush Administration didn’t want to involve many troops other than Special Operations Forces in the conflict – he relied more on airstrikes and ex-Mujahedeen militias. The militias received some 70 million dollars from the U.S. Most of these fighters had been affiliated with the Northern Alliance (Remember? The people fighting the Taliban for power.)

After the U.S. left Afghanistan in 1991, there was a lot of infighting between the groups of people, and whenever power switched to another alliance or the Taliban, many people would desert their militias and follow that power. So, how do we know the ‘ex’ Mujahedeen militias we just gave 70 million dollars to won’t start switching sides?

·         November 13^th 2001 ... The Northern Alliance, along with American bombers, took control of Kabul; forcing the Taliban to scatter. Bush started making secret plans to invade Iraq.

·         December 5^th, 2001 ... The first three members of the American military to die were victims of Fratricide because an inexperienced Air Force tactical air controller gave coordinates to the American troops instead of the Afghan troops.

Fratricide or ‘Friendly Fire’ is when, like during a firefight, someone is killed by their own troops.

The bomb that was dropped almost killed Hamid Karzai, the U.S. appointed leader of Afghanistan. The CIA had been in contact with him since the 80’s.

·         When U.S. landed in Afghanistan, Bin Laden fled to Tora Bora, a mountain with an extensive network of caves and tunnels. U.S. began bombing the caves trying to kill Bin Laden and his people, other officers and such of the Taliban.

·         Bin Laden seemed as if he would surrender and accept death, even making a radio broadcast to other Muslims saying he was sorry for losing this war in the name of Allah. So the U.S. stopped bombing and went into Tora Bora to find Bin Laden’s body, except it wasn’t there. While the U.S. thought the broadcast was a farewell address, it was really a broadcast to keep his troops fighting so he could make a deal with the Eastern Alliance to help him escape from the mountain. He paid them $6 million.

This is the first time the term “Eastern Alliance” has been used in the text. I’m guessing this is the alliance between the Taliban and Pakistan.

·         November 2001 ... (I’m guessing this was before the bombing of Tora Bora) Hank Crumpton, the man who ran the CIA’s operations in Afghanistan went to the Oval Office to warn the president that there weren’t enough troops in Afghanistan to seal off Tora Bora. A week earlier, 1200 Marines arrived in Kandahar. But when Crumpton tried moving some of the Marines to Tora Bora, no one would do it.

·         “Responsibility for blocking the avenues of escape from Tora Bora thus fell almost entirely to Afghan militia fighters from the Eastern Alliance – A motley assortment of mutually hostile former Mujahedeen commanders who were deeply suspicious of American ambitions in Afghanistan, but whose loyalty had nevertheless been expensively rented by the CIA. In retrospect, the decision to rely on these untrustworthy warlords for such an utterly crucial task probably doomed the mission from the outset.” (Krakauer Location 2471).

Bin Laden had close ties with these men going back as far as 15 years. So instead of killing him like they were paid to do, they helped him into Pakistan.

Exactly what I’ve been thinking.

·         Later, when Bin Laden had escaped, he made a speech gloating about it.