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CIA balked at chance to kill bin Laden in ‘99, Polish ex-spy says Read more here: ht

Comments

  • #2
    JustinDee
    Closed Accounts Posts: 6,684 ✭✭✭JustinDee


    Steve Coll's 'Ghost Wars' is an in-depth look at Afghanistan, the CIA and Al-Q right up until Sept 10th 2001.
    Give it a whirl. Excellent read and would answer your questions.


  • #3
    seannash
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,672 ✭✭✭seannash


    Could you give us a bit of a synopsis of it.


  • #4
    JustinDee
    Closed Accounts Posts: 6,684 ✭✭✭JustinDee


    seannash wrote: »
    Could you give us a bit of a synopsis of it.

    It is far too in-depth for a simple synopsis. Following a prologue, it covers everything in three long sections from 1979 onwards (Soviet invasion) involving the bungled missed opportunities, the ISI and GID's involvement with CIA then with opponents, the importance of Kashmir and how it flavoured Pakistan's and India's involvement, Massoud and the Northern Alliance, UBL's career with the CIA and ISI, Nasrallah, Najibullah, fluffed extraditions, deals and double-deals then ends with Sept 11th attacks and a prologue.
    I cannot think of a better journalist covering this period and theatre and all involved, with the consequences fully laid out.


  • #5
    studiorat
    Closed Accounts Posts: 6,408 ✭✭✭studiorat


    A Polish arms dealer say's it's true so it must be. :rolleyes:

    As one of the comments in the piece says, what stopped him from seeking the reward that was out for Bin Laden himself?

    Why didn't Massoud "take him out" if he knew where he was? He was the one supplying the information in the first place and had the most to gain from it at the time.

    Massoud, according to the polish arms dealer knew of the 911 attacks beforehand. However he didn't know about his own assassination plot, so you'd really have to question exactly how accurate the original intel was.

    Furthermore, at the time the US didn't know the extent of the training camps the Taliban were hosting funded from Pakistan and Saudi.

    Since India and Pakistan were supporting opposite sides of the Afgan conflict, the US "taking out" Bin Laden at the time would have been seen as them taking part in the then ongoing Kargil war. Since both India and Pakistan are much more important allies to the US they probably guessed it better to wait.


  • #6
    Torakx
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,831 ✭✭✭Torakx


    My first thoughts when reading the article was, why an intelligence officer involved in that area did not know the CIA were in cahoots with Bin Ladin?
    I suppose maybe that relationship may not have formed then or maybe that book mentioned has some insights or theories.
    On second thoughts i give the intelliience community too much credit.
    We have hindsight now.


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  • #7
    Brown Bomber
    Site Banned Posts: 8,331 ✭✭✭Brown Bomber


    Torakx wrote: »
    My first thoughts when reading the article was, why an intelligence officer involved in that area did not know the CIA were in cahoots with Bin Ladin?
    I suppose maybe that relationship may not have formed then or maybe that book mentioned has some insights or theories.
    On second thoughts i give the intelliience community too much credit.
    We have hindsight now.
    The Polish spy would've been outside the loop of any cooperations between Al Qaeda and the CIA/ISI. He was close to their enemy.


  • #8
    Brown Bomber
    Site Banned Posts: 8,331 ✭✭✭Brown Bomber


    studiorat wrote: »
    A Polish arms dealer say's it's true so it must be. :rolleyes:

    As one of the comments in the piece says, what stopped him from seeking the reward that was out for Bin Laden himself?
    He isn't James Bond, that's what.
    studiorat wrote: »
    Why didn't Massoud "take him out" if he knew where he was? He was the one supplying the information in the first place and had the most to gain from it at the time.
    Isn't that that the point of the story? Massoud, or agents of Massoud offered to kill him, but wanted guarantess that the bounty would be paid.
    studiorat wrote: »
    Massoud, according to the polish arms dealer knew of the 911 attacks beforehand. However he didn't know about his own assassination plot, so you'd really have to question exactly how accurate the original intel was.
    No, you wouldn't as having an extensive intelligence network doesn't give you infinite knowledge of all things.
    studiorat wrote: »
    Furthermore, at the time the US didn't know the extent of the training camps the Taliban were hosting funded from Pakistan and Saudi.
    How do you know this?

    [/QUOTE]Since India and Pakistan were supporting opposite sides of the Afgan conflict, the US "taking out" Bin Laden at the time would have been seen as them taking part in the then ongoing Kargil war. Since both India and Pakistan are much more important allies to the US they probably guessed it better to wait.[/QUOTE]
    They probably would have guessed???

    The US did take sides in the Kargil war, Indias. So I have no idea about what point you are trying to make but you haven't presented a coherent argument as to why the US wouldn't assasinate Bin Laden when he was offered on a plate to them.


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