Perino: No "Super Powers" To Help Find Bin Laden

WASHINGTON — The White House said Wednesday that the failure to capture Osama bin Laden in the seven years since the Sept. 11 attacks shows the limitations of military and intelligence power.

"This is not the movies. We don't have super powers," said White House press secretary Dana Perino. "But what we do have is very dedicated people who are working with our allies and trying to bring (al-Qaida leaders) to justice."

Bin Laden, leader of the al-Qaida network that orchestrated the deadliest terrorist attack in U.S. history, is believed to be in the lawless tribal belt of Pakistan and Afghanistan.

His status as an at-large enemy of the United States tends to come back into focus with every somber anniversary of the 2001 attacks. Beyond a matter of national security, bin Laden's elusiveness has elicited fire from President Bush's critics, who accuse Bush of being wrongly focused on Iraq.

"The Bush administration has failed to put the necessary resources and manpower into the hunt for America's No. 1 enemy," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Wednesday. "President Bush has rightly said that the war on terror is about more than just one man. Yet seven years after 9/11, the president has allowed that one man's vast al-Qaida network to regroup."

Perino said the intelligence community's hunt for bin Laden has been relentless, and that Bush has never let up.

She added that the government has had success in disrupting the terror network, including the capture of the confessed Sept. 11 mastermind, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. He is jailed at the U.S. Navy base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba as he awaits trial.

Bush and first lady Laura Bush will mark the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks on Thursday during a moment of silence on the South Lawn. It will happen at 8:46 a.m. _ the exact moment in 2001 when terrorists slammed the first of two jetliners into the World Trade Center in New York. The president also will attend a ceremony at the Pentagon for the dedication of a memorial for the people killed there.

"Tomorrow is obviously a very sober anniversary for Americans," Perino said. "The president thinks about 9/11 every single day when he wakes up and before he goes to bed. This is what he's concerned about. He's always been concerned about another attack on our country. Thankfully, we haven't had one."

Comments

[alfrede]

Hi,

If I remember correctly President Bush stated (years ago) that he doesn't think of Osama Bin Laden very much.

The US (under President Bush) knocked the Taliban out of power and then, at whose orders it is unclear, let Osama Bin Laden escape from the Tora Bora Mountains of Afganistan and go to Pakistan where he probably is still living.

President Bush diverted manpower and resources of a relatively small US military from the war against the Taliban in Afganistan and invaded the country of Iraq, a country which, we now know, had nothing to do with the Sep 11th attacks and did not have WMD. The relatively small US military is now occupying Iraq and by order of President Bush cannot leave in order provide the needed resources to fight the Taliban in Afganistan.

For the Administration to say the "we are not Supermen" is ludicrous and to put it bluntly baloney after what they have done.

Senator McCain should be forced to say what he would do as President about this situation.

He probably won't be if the Republican Party operatives can get away with it.

[magen]

As if they've even been trying to find him.

[ContraEgoiste]

"Perino: No "Super Powers" To Help Find Bin Laden"

It's amazing how they just blatantly lie and the MSM doesn't bother calling them on it.. They haven't even bothered looking for him since over 2 years ago!

So much for OBL being the terrible boogey man used to scare the gullible.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/04/washington/04intel.html

C.I.A. Closes Unit Focused on Capture of bin Laden

WASHINGTON, July 3 2006 — The Central Intelligence Agency has closed a unit that for a decade had the mission of hunting Osama bin Laden and his top lieutenants, intelligence officials confirmed Monday.

The unit, known as Alec Station, was disbanded late last year and its analysts reassigned within the C.I.A. Counterterrorist Center, the officials said.

[Ivar]

McCain said he can find Bin Laden....why not let him?

[JessWonderin]

gonna pack his walker and fly to Kabul as soon as we elect him and Ellie May Moosecakes . . . . then this country will be safe and our boys can come home victorious . . . .

[tjmurphy]

He will only use his knowledge of Bin Laden to capture him after he is elected. He can't
share that knowledge now. He would rather let Bin Laden go free then lose an election.

[schatsie]

Are you kidding me, if he can find him now, why hasn't he shared this information with his 95% friend Georgy boy.... Has he been holding out on George and Karl and Dick??? if so, there could be another Wellstone plane crash...

[NotWaldo]

How about the Higher Father ? He doesn't talk to you anymore Georgie ?

[BPCentrisAmerican]

"I don't think much about him anymore" George Bush 2004. Anyway OBL is a great campaign tactic to scare the cowards the daddy party appeals to. I wonder when McCain is going to break out a OBL tape, he will need it when the press stops salivating over Pit bull Palin.

[DEl19713]

What was Bush's quote " I dont know where Osama Bin Laden is and frankly I dont care?"

[BAM47]

as is evidenced by the fact that Bush is not only not looking for him, but doesn't care to find him. After all, Bin Laden has no oil and there is no war profiteeting dollars to be made looking for him. But George would like him to make a mistake and be captured or killed so he could brag before he left office and give McCain a bump.

[danoj]

Yup, and unfortunately the clinton wall was still up during torra borra so the cia request for more troops directly from the cia to the military was not honored and he slipped into pakistan.

[ErnestineBass]

Too many rrrrrrrrrrrrrs, dingyboy.

[linux]

If you get a flat tire on your way to work do you curse Clinton under your breath?

[tea in the harbor]

Their inability to catch this greasy little pig,(no lipstick!) has made the United States look like an incompetent gathering of bafoons, outside of the Beltway, we're really not like that!

[OfficialA]

Don't worry. Green Lantern McCain has a secret plan to find Osama. He knows where to find him now, but he's keeping it secret until January 21.

[ErnestineBass]

"We don't have super powers."

She's right.

What we have is the stoopid in power.

[Vyvjala]

"Perino says, "we don't have super powers,"..­..........­..........­..No $h*T! What you do have is a super fu(k'n stupid SOB as in GWB calling the shots for the last eight years.....­..........­..

[ex-pat]

Maybe even more than seeing Bush's exit will be the fact he is taking that whining Dana Perino with him...

[jorge4u]

I agree with you. Every time I see Dana, I mean, I feel like throwing up. She whines and complains.

[ErnestineBass]

Is she related to Elizabeth Hasselbeck?

Those two are like peeeeeeeeez in a pod.

[Tobiasism]

Yeah, no super powers, but when you had the time and manpower without the need of
super powers you didn't use them and now that SH!THEAD is still out there.
Now we have to go back into Afghanistan because you morons had to go into Iraq.

[ErnestineBass]

"If" O B L is still alive, you can bet the farm he ain't in Afghanistan anymore.

[TotallyAmazed]

It didn't require a lot of manpower or super human mental skills to know that, duh, they were looking for OBL in the wrong country. You listen to Perino and it's pretty evident why OBL hasn't been found - everyone in the administration is as ditzy as she is.

[CocteausTwin]

I thought we were a "super power". Few buy Bush's phony arguments.