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

[nirek]

bin Laden is a friend of the bbush family. Why would bush want to catch him?

VOTE OBAMA

[ThermoChemist]

[1]
"The most important thing is for us to find Osama bin Laden. It is our number one priority and we will not rest until we find him!" -- GWB, September 13, 2001

"I don't know where bin Laden is. I have no idea and I really don't care. It's not that important. It's not our priority." -- GWB, March 13, 2002

Wow. It only took Bush about 6 months to lose interest in finding Bin Laden. We must truly admire HIS steadfast RESOLVE...!!!! [sarc]

[2]
To show how serious he was about NOT finding Bin Laden, the CIA unit assigned to find Bin Laden was disbanded.

CIA Reportedly Disbands Bin Laden Unit [July 2006]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/04/AR2006070400375.html

C.I.A. Closes Unit Focused on Capture of bin Laden [July 2006]
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/04/washington/04intel.html
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13699308/

[3]
But wait, it's election year, time to bring up Bin Laden AGAIN:

Get Osama Bin Laden before I leave office, orders George W Bush [June 2008]
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article4138791.ece

Let's see now, hmm, it's the week of the 9/11 Anniversary, time to bring up Bin Laden ONCE AGAIN:

Bush's Bin Laden Craving [Sept. 2008]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/linkset/2005/04/11/LI2005041100879.html

[jorge4u]

And don't forget. One of his famous tapes will surface tomorrow.

[ErnestineBass]

It's either that or Chinny wearing a dishtowel and sunglasses...

[macohmz]

He'll never get Bin Laden because he doesn't want to. He never did. He knows the criminals behind 911. Namely himself and Perma-Sneer and all the others in the various government agencies they have personal relationships with. The truth behind 911 is the only fitting memorial.

[LeawoodKansas]

I've long ago stopped hoping we had super powers and now would just be happy to have someone in the administration with a brain. ... GED ... something.

[Ethics101]

I have no super powers. I do have a brain.
The Republicans are without a doubt, pure evil.
Paliln in and on the covers of everything, yet says nothing
but her original (choke) words that she spoke at the convention.
What is she afraid of???? She knows.

I am a 52 y. o. white lady that will be voting OBAMA '08 - from Indiana

[americandiaspora]

io thought you had the Allmighty's will

[WmC]

Why not call George Tenet back to work? After all, he was awarded the Medal of Freedom for his effectiveness as a spymaster.

[ErnestineBass]

Read James Risen's "State of War".

George Tenet couldn't find a fookin slice of pie at a church bake sale.

[SteveStephens]

how about 500 million to find Bin Laden. 25 Mil. is chump change. Another example of idiotic policy guiding our government. You'd find him in a week.

[Yermammy]

Yeah, if you dig him up. (wake up)

[ErnestineBass]

Yep.

[white mende man]

Ah! but John McCain has super powers, McCain don't need no stinkin' caves he is heading straight for the gates of hell.

[Okieborn]

My God can we at least have the truth for once from the Republicans !!!!
NOT THIS TIME Puleeeeze !!!!!!!
VOTE DEMOCRATIC !!!!!

[jeffp26]

Give Ms. Palin a helicopter and pilot, let her charge a per diem, and she'll hunt bin laden down like a dog (er, at least like a wolf).

And, the best part, she does have a connection directly with God.

[feo]

She'd only phone it in from home and still charge the per diem (for herself, hubbie, kids, pets and religious advisors).

[BlackJAC]

And then wail that we were being sexist and non-deferential when we call her out on it.

[Jeff1958]

Super powers? No, not even close. Bush is a sorry excuse for a leader. After 9 - 11, his prescription was to go shopping. WTF. And then he manufactured a reason to invade Iraq, irrelevant to the "global war on terror." And years later, we haven't succeeded in Iraq nor in finding bin Laden. He's undoubtably the worst President in my life.

[postman606]

So you have to have super powers to find a caveman?

[ErnestineBass]

Yep. A 6'5" caveman dragging a dialysis machine and portable generator around with him.

[schatsie]

Sounds like a big magnet would pick him up....Oh where oh where is Austin Powers when you need him....

[Choicematters]

Well, why don't they just ask McCain where Bin Laden is at? He claims he know where he's at and how to get him!!

While you're at it, why don't you just lock him up in Guatanomo Bay, until he shares it with us?

He should be ashamed to show his face at Ground Zero tomorrow, knowing he's been telling us that he knows all of this info that no one else in the government has.

Yea, a real agent of change, that one. If he could prove that, I still wouldn't vote for him. I'd just kick his butt for having the info and never having the US do anything about it.

[ksjprod]

Bush got one part right when he talked about those posters in the old west that read, "wanted dead or alive".

Indeed, Bin Laden is still wanted"

[OfficialA]

There's undoubtedly such a poster somewhere with W's name on it. His says "Not Wanted".

[ErnestineBass]

LOL

[Swerinjer]

FAIL.

Typical repug laziness. They dont run anything they just sit and let it fall apart. Anarchists should vote repugnican.

[unhipcat]

"I was panicked a bit because I really don't know about . . . the bin Laden unit," said Perino, who at 35 was born about a three decades before bin Laden masterminded the plan to fly airliners into the Twin Towers and the Pentagon. "It had to do with bin Laden, I'm pretty sure."