I apologize again as I think I was a little harsh yesterday. To me, this is simply slinging mud to see if anything sticks. There is no evidence whatsoever that this accusation is true. As I said with DrS, in the end, it’s just me having faith in the CIA/Defense that they best knew what to do with the information and others not having that faith.
[quote]Chushin wrote:
I have to say, GL, it seems like you are “reaching” here…
There is always the possibility that there was some good reason to go public ASAP, I guess, but I’ll be damned if I can think of one.
Can you?[/quote]
You asked, so I guess this isn’t as obvious to everyone as it seems to me. Perhaps I should be writing books; it is as easy for me to think of reasons why to go public as it is for you all to “keep it quiet”.
Off the top of my head:
-Strengthen the position of “the good guys” in Pakistan’s government (and/or other arab/muslim governments.)
-Prevent additional/greater anti-american uprisings in Pakistan
-attempt to purposefully activate a watched sleeper cell.
-Allow spies to watch what members of the ISI/Pakistanis do.
-“scare up” some activity from a watched group in Yemen/Somalia/etc.
-Allow political cover for another covert activity that was occurring at that time (perhaps a more controversial one)
-Begin a covert activity when no one would be watching and/or it wouldn’t make the news.
-Attempt to use information gained in that raid (or a different raid) about what would happen in the event of OLB’s death before it become obsolete.
I could go on. But to me, this is silly speculation. Has anyone asked the CIA director? He’d be the one who would best know if an opportunity was lost. BTW, why was it “ASAP?” I recall the announcement being delayed at the time, although I don’t recall even knowing why. Regardless, what time frame could have limited these accusations? To me, this argument is simply political silliness.
This was my point from the beginning, although I probably didn’t state it well. For me, the most common sense interpretation is that the CIA and DOD heads knew what would be lost and/or gained.
Anyway, even if you disagree, everyone is pretty happy “we” got OBL, right? Pop up this thread if evidence for this accusation comes out.