So They Nabbed The Driver, But Where is OBL?
With less than six months remaining before leaving the White House, the Bush administration, desperate to show it had made inroads into Osama Bin Laden's terrorist network has decided to take a gamble by trying Salim Hamdan.
Hamdan, however, was nothing more than a chauffeur, paid to drive Osama Bin Laden.
A military jury has sentenced OBL's former driver to five and a half years in prison for supporting terrorism. Hamdan will be eligible for release in less than six months, if the US government does not decide to hold him indefinitely as an "enemy combatant." Prosecutors had earlier called for Hamdan to serve at least 30 years in jail for providing support to al-Qaeda.
At the time of his arrest Osama Bin Laden's driver was clearly a highly-prized intelligence asset who possessed invaluable information about the movements and perhaps the whereabouts of Bin Laden and other senior al-Qaeda members. He made a serious offer to collaborate in helping to track down his former boss but instead he was held for almost six years in order to become the opening act for what has become an embarrassment for the military prosecutors. One more example of many inexplicable actions we've been witnessing as a result of the Guantanamo Bay prison.
Take for instance the case of Al Jazeera's cameraman, Sami Al Hajj. Another " enemy combatant" who just a few months ago was abruptly released to his native country of Sudan after having been imprisoned for six years without being charged or given a trial. No explanations or apologies were given.
We also recently witnessed a 16-year-old Canadian prisoner weeping in an interrogation video, the first public look at such interviews taking place at the U.S. prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. His lawyers accused the United States' military of mistreatment of a minor.
In another bizarre action, we learned during Hamdan's trial that Hamdan's boss, Abdullah Tabarak, the man in charge of Bin Laden's security detail, including bodyguards and drivers, was released from Guantanamo and sent home to Morocco in 2004. However, Hamdan the driver was not. Go figure.
Meanwhile, seven years after the September 11th attacks on America, Bin Laden remains as elusive as ever. According to Pakistani media, there have been reports of Bin Laden at various points in Pakistan's border region, some of them placing him in North Waziristan where the "Pakistani Taliban" is the de facto government. Perhaps these are just reports, or maybe President Bush has forgotten his promise to find and apprehend Bin Laden "dead or alive"...or perhaps he thinks a driver for Bin Laden would suffice.
Jamal Dajani produces the Mosaic Intelligence Report on Link TV
Follow Jamal Dajani on Twitter: www.twitter.com/jamaldajani
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As to where OBL is, I would guess probably (and hopefully) dead or at least incapacitated in a remote village or mountanside cave. Notice how we haven't been struck here by Al Queda or other Islamist terrorists. They all seem to be concentrating their effort in Iraq against our military. They're finding that much more difficult than flying hijacked planes into commercial office buildings and killing defenseless civilians going to work. Hopefully, young Muslims will get a clue and decide to not strap explosives to their bodies and kill themselves and others for some ridiculous promise of virgins in paradise. BTW, do the female suicide bombers get the same deal?
I suspect OBL has been dead since Tora Bora.
So, whoever drives people like Bush, Cheney, any US official in Iraq, they're all war criminals?
That BACK SEAT! Doggone it! We forgot to look in the BACK Seat!
So close - missed it by THAT much!
It's obvious what the trial of OBL's driver means. It means that we, the US military] were close enough to get OBL and here's the drivers to prove it. A pathetically bad metaphor and insulting to the American public that the Bush gangs consider us to be as ignorant and stupid as they think all of us are while it's only 29% or so. This 29% dominates the MEDIA's whether it the pretend news that is passed off by the INFOMERCIAL ANNOUNCERS of propaganda and/or includes the televangelists.
I cannot get this image out of my head of bin laden crouched down in the back seat while the car was being stopped and whispering to his driver to tell the officer that he only had two beers and did not know his license had expired. This absurd trial of bin laden's hapless driver is just an example of how oblivious the bushies are to their own absurdity. I am certain they are bewildered at the verdict.
I suppose this means that if you are poor and need a job, you'd better be careful who you work for. If you are hired to be the chauffeur, cook or maid by the wrong person, you can go to jail when your former boss' enemies can't nab. Justice sucks.
If you impeach Bush...can you also impeach his driver?
We caught Osama's chauffeur and couldn't convict him of more than having Osama's luggage in a kangaroo court set up specifically to do an end run around justice.
Somebody please shut this circus down!
Now why on earth would Bush want to capture Osama been Forgotten? People might start to relax and "think" again - along with Congress - and with Bush in office, we can't have that.
So he has to stay out there to keep the FEAR instilled in people.
And who knows what could happen if "been Forgotten" were captured? Why Congress might grow a pair and actually Impeach both of the Dictators in the Executive Branch.
But I doubt it.
I couldn't agree with you more lapdogs!
Just the mere fantasy of Bush being impeached brings a smile to my face :)
The other daydream that brings a smile to my face is the dream that one day the majority of the American public will actually "THINK" and more importantly "THINK FOR THEMSELVES!" Can you picture it...a public that actually seeks information - true and accurate information - to inform themselves and to empower themselves with knowledge and to think for themselves
AAAHHHHH..
If they wanted to catch bin Laden they would have a long time ago...but they need him for a final victory lap just before people go to the booth to vote. Bin Laden will be caught in November!
The Osama task force has been quietly shut down by Bush. Bush could care less if he's caught.
Why should anyone care if he's caught? Killing him will make him a martyr and motivate more "terrorist
The last thing BushCo wants is to capture bin Laden.
He might actually answer questions during interrogation, and that'd provide too many embarrassing links between our "allies" in Saudi Arabia & Pakistan's ISI and the 9/11 attack.
They'll kill him if they can, but never capture him. But, I expect he'll endeavor to remain elusive for the foreseeable future.
I was thinking kind of the same thing - although I think they will somehow discover that he's dead and that he probably died right after 9/11....re
Those videos they've shown throughout the years - very suspect as well. I have an uncanny ability to remember faces....a
anyhoo, just my $.02
Osama Bin Laden is in Syria living in the lap of luxury, a fact well known by the CIA and our glorious leader! Osama won't be touched because they need the ultimate enemy at large to justify their war and keep the hatred pot bubbling nicely!
Why in Syria? Why not in Pakistan with his buddy Musharef?
He's a diabetic. Syria has universal health care.
PLEASE! If the US REALLY wanted to find OBL they would have. Between the US and the Israeli Mossad...I
The US likes keeping OBL "out there" so they have someone to blame and so they have an excuse for their so-called "war on terror."
They need a bogeyman to keep people afraid.
Who is afraid? I hope not you and certainly not I.
Why do I keep reading that if we wanted to catch him we would have...REA
Baloney. We certainly could have used the intel available to prevent the 9/11 attacks, but that wouldn't have provided the PNAC with their much needed "Pearl Harbor."
OBL at large offers a perfect excuse for a perpetual "war on terror." Hopefully a new administration will kill that plan, but have no doubt that it is currently SOP.
So, you give us a freakin' break, and show that you haven't had your head buried in the sand for last seven years.
This is is yet another farce by the Bush Administration in the never ending series of stupid mistakes. It is also suspect that they started the trials by having bin Laden's driver first. Was this intended to make us feel safe or is it a reminder that bin Laden is still a threat? ... therefore we need to elect McCain...h
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