The CIA and bin Laden

I haven't been on Two Plus Two in the last few days so I don't know if this has come up. If it has I appologize. If not, people might want to check out:


http://www.msnbc.com/news/190144.asp#BODY


The CIA has denied it, but given that we spent $8 billion on the afghan war and that bin Laden rose to prominece during it, it is somewhat ridiculous to say we had no connection. The BBC and other sources have been reporting on this recently, but few American media have been. Note that the above link is from 1998.


As another point. I think that we will be left with no single event that will bring closure here. Bombing Afghanistan, a country that has been at war for over 20 years and is already almost bombed back to the stone age seems silly to me. What we can bomb is the infrastructure of the country (what is left of it). This followed on 20+ years of warfare and 4 years of drought will only result in greater civilian suffering. While I think the Talliban is the most reprehnsible regime in the world today, there is no good replacement for it.


Paul Talbot

Almost any government would be a good replacement for it---even the U.S. government (note: I am not advocating bombing them back to the stone age, or taking over the country, but if NATO did occupy the country...well, lots of worse things could have befallen them than that). They might actually get some medical care and modern improvements, and the military/religious rule of the fanatical and stupid Taliban might no longer keep its citizens living in the stone age.


I doubt the majority of Afghans are happy with the Taliban, who forbid the education of women, but I could be wrong.

You aren't wrong, Mr. M. But dissent is apparently sufficient cause for trial in a religious court. The Taliban rule through naked terror.

It is sad that even if the Afghan people eventually overcome the crippling effects of recent years and war (s), that the rules of the Taliban will keep them living backwardly for many years beyond that. Imagine forbidding the education of women. Wow.

Ask the Soviets how much the Afghans enjoy occupation. Bombing them, and covert death squads are the only realistic responses.

"As another point. I think that we will be left with no single event that will bring closure here. Bombing Afghanistan, a country that has been at war for over 20 years and is already almost bombed back to the stone age seems silly to me."


If the people responsible for this heinous act are found and poven guilty then it is our duty to prosecute them. If it was a terrorist act then not only are the terrorists themselves guilty of this crime but those that aided and supported them are guilty. If the government of Afghanaistan is guilty of aiding and abeting these criminals then they must be prosecuted and dealt the appropriate punishment for their crime. If that can only be accomplished by bombimg then it doesn't seem not silly to me.


Vince

I'll cut to the chase and quote the important part of the text below. The rest, everyone should already know, by now.


....


Indeed, to this day, those involved in the decision to give the Afghan rebels [and bin Laden] access to a fortune in covert funding and top-level combat weaponry continue to defend that move in the context of the Cold War.


Sen. Orrin Hatch, a senior Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee making those decisions, told my colleague Robert Windrem that he would make the same call again today even knowing what bin Laden would do subsequently. "It was worth it,' he said.


....

the average Afgan may prefer the ouster of the Taliban. They do make life very hard and they are not a popular (meaning elected) government.