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frets5150
07-04-2006, 01:46 PM
CIA Closes Unit Focused on Capture of bin Laden

By MARK MAZZETTI, The New York Times

WASHINGTON (July 4) - 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.

The decision is a milestone for the agency, which formed the unit before Osama bin Laden became a household name and bolstered its ranks after the Sept. 11 attacks, when President Bush pledged to bring Mr. bin Laden to justice "dead or alive."

The realignment reflects a view that Al Qaeda is no longer as hierarchical as it once was, intelligence officials said, and a growing concern about Qaeda-inspired groups that have begun carrying out attacks independent of Mr. bin Laden and his top deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri.

Agency officials said that tracking Mr. bin Laden and his deputies remained a high priority, and that the decision to disband the unit was not a sign that the effort had slackened. Instead, the officials said, it reflects a belief that the agency can better deal with high-level threats by focusing on regional trends rather than on specific organizations or individuals.

"The efforts to find Osama bin Laden are as strong as ever," said Jennifer Millerwise Dyck, a C.I.A. spokeswoman. "This is an agile agency, and the decision was made to ensure greater reach and focus."

The decision to close the unit was first reported Monday by National Public Radio.

Michael Scheuer, a former senior C.I.A. official who was the first head of the unit, said the move reflected a view within the agency that Mr. bin Laden was no longer the threat he once was.

Mr. Scheuer said that view was mistaken.
"This will clearly denigrate our operations against Al Qaeda," he said. "These days at the agency, bin Laden and Al Qaeda appear to be treated merely as first among equals."

In recent years, the war in Iraq has stretched the resources of the intelligence agencies and the Pentagon, generating new priorities for American officials. For instance, much of the military's counterterrorism units, like the Army's Delta Force, had been redirected from the hunt for Mr. bin Laden to the search for Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was killed last month in Iraq.

An intelligence official who was granted anonymity to discuss classified information said the closing of the bin Laden unit reflected a greater grasp of the organization. "Our understanding of Al Qaeda has greatly evolved from where it was in the late 1990's," the official said, but added, "There are still people who wake up every day with the job of trying to find bin Laden."

Established in 1996, when Mr. bin Laden's calls for global jihad were a source of increasing concern for officials in Washington, Alec Station operated in a similar fashion to that of other agency stations around the globe.

The two dozen staff members who worked at the station, which was named after Mr. Scheuer's son and was housed in leased offices near agency headquarters in northern Virginia, issued regular cables to the agency about Mr. bin Laden's growing abilities and his desire to strike American targets throughout the world.

In his book "Ghost Wars," which chronicles the agency's efforts to hunt Mr. bin Laden in the years before the Sept. 11 attacks, Steve Coll wrote that some inside the agency likened Alec Station to a cult that became obsessed with Al Qaeda.

"The bin Laden unit's analysts were so intense about their work that they made some of their C.I.A. colleagues uncomfortable," Mr. Coll wrote. Members of Alec Station "called themselves 'the Manson Family' because they had acquired a reputation for crazed alarmism about the rising Al Qaeda threat."

Intelligence officials said Alec Station was disbanded after Robert Grenier, who until February was in charge of the Counterterrorist Center, decided the agency needed to reorganize to better address constant changes in terrorist organizations.


July 4, 2006



Wow theres a shock.You mean we finally gave up on someone who had nothing to do with Sept 11
:rolleyes:

BigBadBrian
07-04-2006, 01:50 PM
Originally posted by frets5150


Wow theres a shock.You mean we finally gave up on someone who had nothiong with Sept 11
:rolleyes:

We have a winner!!!

Above is the The Frontline's Most Ridiculous Statement Of The Week.

:gulp:

DEMON CUNT
07-04-2006, 02:00 PM
http://www.michaelmoore.com/_images/splash/caseclosedobl.jpg

Our government does not care about this guy anymore. Feel safe?

frets5150
07-04-2006, 02:42 PM
Originally posted by BigBadBrian
We have a winner!!!

Above is the The Frontline's Most Ridiculous Statement Of The Week.

:gulp:

Go out and light your firecrackers will you please.Mr Patriotic I mean Mr Idiotic

blueturk
07-04-2006, 03:33 PM
Originally posted by DEMON CUNT
http://www.michaelmoore.com/_images/splash/caseclosedobl.jpg

Our government does not care about this guy anymore. Feel safe?

Did Dubya ever really care about him in the first place?

DEMON CUNT
07-04-2006, 03:39 PM
Originally posted by blueturk
Did Dubya ever really care about him in the first place?

Yes, when the Bin Laden family were investors in his oil company, he cared plenty.

frets5150
07-04-2006, 03:40 PM
Originally posted by blueturk
Did Dubya ever really care about him in the first place?

The guy was/is a Figure head nothing more.

FORD
07-04-2006, 04:26 PM
Originally posted by frets5150
The guy was/is a Figure head nothing more.

The figurehead of a ridiculously exaggerated organization, to be more specific. And a known employee of the Bush Criminal Empire with an unknown resignation date.

Jerry H
07-04-2006, 04:44 PM
Originally posted by FORD
The figurehead of a ridiculously exaggerated organization, to be more specific. And a known employee of the Bush Criminal Empire with an unknown resignation date.


You should be shot for treason.....

:mad:

frets5150
07-04-2006, 04:52 PM
Originally posted by Jerry H
You should be shot for treason.....

:mad:

Thats the way of thinking like the BCE :rolleyes:

jcook11
07-04-2006, 04:59 PM
BULLSHIT! A hunt for OBL who would have thunk it? That maggot is living on borrowed time ask Saddam or Al Zarquawi or Uday or Pussay.Everybody said we wouldn't get them either. Just a matter of time. :gun:

frets5150
07-04-2006, 05:08 PM
thunk ?


:rolleyes:

frets5150
07-04-2006, 05:11 PM
Originally posted by frets5150
thunk ?


:rolleyes:


Actually That is the only part of your post that made any sense


:rolleyes:

jcook11
07-04-2006, 05:17 PM
Originally posted by frets5150
thunk ?


:rolleyes:

Yeah, new American English version

FORD
07-05-2006, 01:04 AM
Originally posted by Jerry H
You should be shot for treason.....

:mad:

Shut the fuck up and get out of my country, you panda blowing, wooden shoe wearing, hash bar legalizing, dyke fingering RETARD!

Nickdfresh
07-09-2006, 03:46 PM
Hey, the motherfucker only killed nearly 3000 American citizens as well as those foreign born 9/11 victims.

But I guess it doesn't matter anymore, eh Neo Cons?

blueturk
07-09-2006, 03:59 PM
Originally posted by Nickdfresh
Hey, the motherfucker only killed nearly 3000 American citizens as well as those foreign born 9/11 victims.

But I guess it doesn't matter anymore, eh Neo Cons?

It never mattered to Dubya, so why would it matter to the flock?

Jerry H
07-09-2006, 04:00 PM
Originally posted by FORD
Shut the fuck up and get out of my country, you panda blowing, wooden shoe wearing, hash bar legalizing, dyke fingering RETARD!

HAHAHAHAHAHAA!!!!!

:D

Ellyllions
07-09-2006, 04:01 PM
The New York Times gets a "done good" award from Ellyllions!

Thank you for posting that article. Finally they print something that will help us get Bin Laden....


...come out come out wherever you are...

blueturk
07-09-2006, 04:02 PM
Originally posted by Nickdfresh
Hey, the motherfucker only killed nearly 3000 American citizens as well as those foreign born 9/11 victims.

But I guess it doesn't matter anymore, eh Neo Cons?

It never mattered to Dubya, so why would it matter to the flock?

"...Secondly, he is not escaping us. This is a guy, who, three months ago, was in control of a county [sic]. Now he's maybe in control of a cave. He's on the run. Listen, a while ago I said to the American people, our objective is more than bin Laden. But one of the things for certain is we're going to get him running and keep him running, and bring him to justice. And that's what's happening. He's on the run, if he's running at all. So we don't know whether he's in cave with the door shut, or a cave with the door open -- we just don't know...."
- Bush, in remarks in a Press Availablity with the Press Travel Pool,
The Prairie Chapel Ranch, Crawford TX, 12/28/01, as reported on
official White House site