Bin Laden didn't think U.S. would react militarily after 9/11

[heartsurgeon]

Packistan appears to be hosting Bin Laden now

I don't know if that is the right wording, but i basically agree, the whole Pakistan situatin confuses me...i don't understand that part of the world very well...what does the pak goverment control? who really controls the nukes over there?

 

[NeoV]

agreed - perhaps tolerating is a better word than hosting


imagine living in a country where there are parts of the country that don't fall under the same rules or police enforcement - Columbia certainly has areas that are like that, and apparently Pakistan and Afghanistan (still) - have to toss in many African countries as well

 

[DeeKnow]

Pakistan govt has pretty near zero control of the NWFP (north west frontier provinces) ... it's still very much the wild wild west out there

Mushy ostensibly controls the nukes, but his own survival is rather hard to predict...
Bush is probably hoping to increase his chances of srvival by handing out that recent jackpot

that would be the only rational reason I can think of

 

[chrisms]

He was wrong now, wasn't he.

 

[GrGr]

Heartsurgeon's representation of what the article claims is conjecture.

Nowhere in the article does it say that Bin Laden did not think the U.S. would react militarily after 9/11. On the contrary imo, and this might also be construed as conjecture, he calculated with that exact reaction. And that is why he disregarded the advice from his advisors.

"Mr bin Laden, who had repeatedly pressed to bring forward the date of the attacks, disregarded fears among his advisers and the Taliban leaders in Afghanistan that the US would respond with a military attack. Mr bin Laden "thought that an attack against the United States would reap al-Qaeda a recruiting and fundraising bonanza"".

"From this mountain upon which we're sitting we brought down the Soviet Union. And I pray to God that he allows us to turn America into a shadow of itself." Osama bin Laden to Robert Fisk in an interview in 1997.

 

[J Heartless Slick]

Originally posted by: heartsurgeon
i thyink when the entire report gets posted somewhere...maybe it's out, i haven't read it yet..

there's gpoing to be lots of stuff that's unsaviory...

i thought this finding was intrigiung...

Mr bin Laden, who had repeatedly pressed to bring forward the date of the attacks, disregarded fears among his advisers and the Taliban leaders in Afghanistan that the US would respond with a military attack

gee...i wonder if Clinton's treating the USS Cole bombing as a "FBI/Law Enforcement" issue gave him that belief...makes you wonder how Kerry's assertion that terrorism should be primarily dealt with as a Law Enforcement issue rather than military, would play into future Bin Laden plans...

food for thought..

dare i say that pre-emption and a aggressive millitary posture willl prove to be a discouragement for other countries to host Bin Laden. To argue otherwise is to side with Bin Laden's reasoning....

Before the 9/11/01 attacks, didn't Bush cut spending on Clinton's anti-terrorism iniatives and said that an antiballistic missile system should be the highest priority?