In September 2010 the CIA team surveiling Osama bin Laden's compound at Abbottabad-bin Laden's courier had led them there-had determined that a high value terrorist target was living inside who was most likely bin Ladin. But no, it wasn't good enough for our timid, overcautious, amateur president. He wanted absolute proof that bin Laden was there before ordering a raid or decimating the place. October, November, December, January, February, March go by and the CIA have no new information identifying the target. Fearing that Obama's indecision and dithering were putting the mission at risk a desperate CIA hatches an ingenious plan: they recruit Dr. Shakil Afridi to collect DNA samples from the children in the compound to determine if they were bin Laden's kids. He got the samples, they tested positive and now the 50 year old doctor has been convicted of treason by a Pakistani court and sentenced to 33 years because of Obama's cowardly stupid dithering.
Indeed, it would have been enough for any reasonable, responsible, decisive commander in chief to quickly seize the chance to capture or kill ASAP any high value terrorist enemy of the US once his whereabouts were known. What if the dweller in the compound was planning a mass murder attack on the US mainland? Or a deadly operation against US troops in Afghanistan? What difference would it have made if it weren't bin Laden? What if it were Al-Zawahiri in the building, bin Laden's number two man? or someone further down the chain like Hassan Izz-Al-Din or Abdul Abdullah? If John McCain were President (or Bush had continued in office) it is likely that the compound would have been raided or destroyed by late October or early November months before Obama found the nerve to act. I wonder, will Obama's Hollywood friends put this in his propaganda film?
----------------------------
UPDATE!
Just received this e-mail from Franz Bolling:
"According to "Manhunt: The Ten-Year Search for Bin Laden--from 9/11 to Abbottabad-by Peter Bergen", the Doctor was unsuccessful in obtaining any blood samples from Bin Laden's children. He did go to Abbottabad and set up a clinic and vaccinated children, but Bin Laden's children did not go to his clinic. Journalism fail."
"Journalism fail?" Could there be something more to it? Could it be that this is another blatant lie promoted by the administration to give Obama more credit than he deserves for OBL's death? The narative being that it wasn't the tracking of OBL's courier (whose identity was discovered under Bush) that was crucial to finding him but Dr. Afridi's (non-existent) DNA samples from bin Laden's kids? Is that what the pathological liar in chief is up to? The following is an except from Bergen's book:
"After Panetta was confident that the team had exhausted every possible approach, they narrowed it down to three or four avenues. One creative, if ethically questionable, tactic was to recruit Shakil Afridi, a Pakistani doctor from the tribal regions, to mount a bogus vaccination program in and around bin Laden’s neighborhood. The idea was to get access to the compound, take samples of the residents’ blood, and then match those with known samples of bin Laden family DNA that were in the Agency’s possession. In March, Dr. Afridi traveled to Abbottabad, telling locals that he had funds to start a free hepatitis B vaccination drive. So as not to arouse suspicion, Afridi recruited nurses and health workers to administer the vaccinations starting in a poor neighborhood on the outskirts of the city rather than in the more affluent Bilal Town. But Afridi’s team was never able to get DNA samples from the bin Laden children."
--------------------------
See
Also see
-----------------------------
Postscript:
Thoughts, Comments and Witticisms
OBAMAGANDA
With the economy sputtering to a halt and possibly going into reverse due to the contracting economies of Europe and China Obama needs all of the propaganda films his Hollywood pals can make to save his ill-starred presidency.
THE TITANIC
When David Axlerod said several months ago that to win reelection "Obama had a titanic struggle ahead" the key word was "TITANIC." For the Obama administration is a huge sinking ship frantically trying to plug up the holes with Newt's failed playbook against Mitt. How pathetic.
----------------------------------
OBAMA VIOLATES AGREEMENT WITH KARZAI?
Doesn't the US/Afghan Strategic Partnership Agreement ban all Afghanistan based US military operations into other countries including Pakistan?
-----------------------