OBL's escape well noted at the time

** In an October 27, 2004 article, The Christian Science Monitor discusses the Kerry allegations that Osama Bin Laden was allowed to escape from Afghanistan because of US negligence. Though the administration calls Kerry an "armchair general," the article cites several news reports at the time that would seem to back Kerry's allegations. Included in the accounts is the Monitor's own. Here's an excerpt:

The Christian Science Monitor was one of the first news sources to report bin Laden's escape from Tora Bora. In a December 11, 2001 article the Monitor reported that there were "growing signs ... that bin Laden ... and other Al Qaeda leaders may have fled the besieged mountain base at Tora Bora."

A December 7, 2001 Monitor piece reported this:

By all accounts, about two-thirds of the original 1,500 to 2,000 of Arabs, Afghans, and Chechens may have fled. ... In addition to the original number of Al Qaeda fighters, hundreds of Al Qaeda family members have escaped the siege of Tora Bora in the past three weeks. Most of those leaving have tapped into an "underground railway" of sympathetic Afghan families at the base of Tora Bora, whose men had long been on bin Laden's payroll.
Though Mr. Rumsfeld has said that the two dozen or so US Special Forces are helping to block exit routes, that number of US military personnel can only be considered a token of the real figure needed to cut off all the mountain passes surrounding the mountain enclave.

A March 4, 2002 Monitor article reconstructed "how bin Laden got away" from Tora Bora.
As the US intensified its airstrikes on Tora Bora, US and Afghan helicopters started to arrive with supplies for the Afghans. Also - as was its pattern elsewhere in Afghanistan - the US began enlisting local warlords. Two - Hazret Ali and Haji Zaman Ghamsharik - would become notorious in the battle for Tora Bora. ...
The rift between the two men would seriously hinder US efforts to capture Al Qaeda's leadership. Although backed by the United States, the Jalalabad warlords would have to determine by themselves - while sometimes arguing fiercely - how best to go after Tora Bora's defenders.

... somewhere between Nov. 28 to Nov. 30 - according to detailed interviews with Arabs and Afghans in eastern Afghanistan afterward - the world's most-wanted man escaped the world's most-powerful military machine, walking - with four of his loyalists - in the direction of Pakistan.

What the polls said in 2000

From Daily Kos

CNN Monday, November 6, 2000 Via Lexis Nexis:

BLITZER: And now, let's take a look at the latest poll numbers. The new CNN/"USA Today" Gallup Tracking Poll results are being released at this hour. It shows George W. Bush with 48 percent, Al Gore 43 percent, Ralph Nader with 4 percent, Pat Buchanan with 1 percent. And those numbers are similar to other tracking polls. Take a look: ABC's poll has Bush at 49 percent, Gore at 45 percent; The Washington Post, Bush at 48 percent, Gore at 46 percent; the NBC-Wall Street Journal tracking poll, Bush at 47 percent, Gore 44 percent. And both the CBS and MSNBC-Reuters-Zogby tracking polls have Bush at 46, Gore at 44 percent.That was the day before Gore won the popular vote.

Explosives disappeared after war - Video

10/29/2004 4:00:00 PM GMT

ABC News on Thursday showed video that confirms that the 330 tons of explosives that went missing in Iraq, didn’t vanish until after the invasion, when the U.S. took control of the depot where those explosives were stored.

Explosives disappeared after war- Video -

Why Thomas Schaller will vote for Bush

** Not really!

Yes... I've changed my mind. I believe in President George W. Bush. Actually, I've always believed him!

I believe the president invaded Iraq to secure liberty and democracy for the Iraqi people. I believe he had compelling evidence that Iraq was a significant threat to America and the world, and presented that evidence in a complete and balanced manner. Like 42 percent of Americans - and 62 percent of Republicans - I believe Saddam Hussein was involved in the September 11 attacks.

I believe we have enough troops on the ground in Iraq to ensure stability. I believe the rising American fatality rates, the rising casualty rates, and the rising American share of those coalition fatalities and casualties testify to the undeniable progress we're making there. I believe it is inappropriate and traitorous, however, for the media to broadcast pictures of American flag-draped caskets returning from Iraq.

I believed then-candidate Bush when he said during the 2000 campaign that America should not nation-build, and believe him now when he says our nation was divinely chosen for this task. I believe, as the president claims, that "free societies are peaceful societies," but that the political and civil rights in oppressive, undemocratic countries like Saudi Arabia and Pakistan are exempt from this standard. I believe Iraqis view Americans as liberators, and that once this swift, cheap war concludes the world will be more stable, our allies more cooperative, and our enemies fewer and less threatening.

I believe the best response against an Islamic fundamentalist network operating from a South Asian cave which used boxcutters to attack us is to invade a secular Arab dictator living in 11 palaces in a Middle Eastern country whose (supposed) weapon of choice was nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. I further believe that the best way to accomplish that mission was to land on an aircraft carrier in military garb and stand in front of a banner declaring it so.

I believe the president when he says he would have moved "heaven and earth" had he any "inkling" that terrorists were planning to attack America with hijacked airplanes. I believe the security briefing the president read five weeks before the attacks - which was entitled "Bin Laden Determined to Strike Inside United States," and specifically mentioned hijacked airplanes and New York City as a target - was an inkling-free, "historical" document. I believe we should re-double our investments in a missile defense system, which could have prevented the 9/11 attacks and will prevent future attacks like it from occurring.

I believe the president was right to oppose the formation of the 9/11 Commission, to change his mind but then oppose fully funding it, to change his mind but then oppose granting its request for an extension, to change his mind but refuse to testify for more than an hour, to change his mind but then testify alongside Vice President Dick Cheney so long as transcripts and note-taking were prohibited. I believe the investigation into the Abu Ghraib prison scandal shows it was the fault of a handful of misguided underlings who simply misunderstood a memo signed by the Secretary of Defense which authorized the use of dogs to interrogate prisoners.

Domestically, I believe income tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans are the solution to budget surpluses or deficits, high or low inflation, stable or unstable interest rates, expanding or shrinking trade deficits, widening or narrowing wealth gaps, increasing or decreasing poverty rates, rising or falling unemployment, prosperity or recession, wartime or peace. I believe record-setting budget deficits, record-setting trade deficits, and a burgeoning national debt are examples of the president's fiscally-conservative economic leadership.

I believe that a president who insists that hard-working Americans deserve tax breaks should continue to stand fast against cutting payroll taxes - the direct tax on hard work. Clearly, I do not believe that payroll taxes coupled with income taxes on work constitute "double taxation," but the dividend tax on assets does. I believe those who complain that one third of American children live in poverty, or that the wealthiest nation on the planet should feel sheepish about having 45 million uninsured citizens, deserve California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's ridicule as "economic girlie men."

I believe the best way to improve local-run schools is to spend billions of dollars on a massive, federal testing program to tell us our schools are failing. I do not believe, however, that requiring local school districts to meet new, federal standards without resources is an example of an "unfunded mandate." I believe the president's education initiative will leave no child behind, much as his "clear skies" and "healthy forests" initiatives will make skies clearer and forests healthier.

Finally, I believe a white man of privilege who was accepted to Yale University despite a middling performance in prep school; was accepted to Harvard Business School despite a middling performance at Yale; was admitted to the Texas Air National Guard despite no flight background and an entrance exam score in the bottom quartile; was given funds by Osama bin Laden's father to start a failed oil company; and was chosen to serve as Texas governor and 43rd President of the United States despite a lifelong record of mediocrity, is a man with the moral authority to criticize affirmative action as a policy that gives opportunities to the undeserving.

Make no mistake: I believe that President Bush, just as he promised he would, has restored honor and integrity to the White House and united us as Americans.

A simple test

**

By Doug Giebel

If you support the "war" in Iraq:
(a) excepting yourself, choose five people from your immediate family and/or from among your best friends whom you would be willing to "sacrifice" (i.e., kill) in order to depose Saddam Hussein;
(b) tell them personally of your decision.

danger from Al Qaeda is 'dramatically overstated.'

** From The Christian Science Monitor (may require subscription for full article).


Politics of 'fear over vision' explored on British television

New documentary series says danger from Al Qaeda is 'dramatically overstated.'

by Tom Regan | csmonitor.com

The Guardian reported Sunday that documentarian Adam Curtis (who has been called by media critics "the most acclaimed maker of serious television programs in Britain") attacked British television, including the BBC, for its "obsession" with Islamic terrorism. Mr. Curtis says that British TV has done nothing to "dispel myths surrounding Al Qaeda and is too willing to take the government line on the 'high' level of the threat."

...the danger from Al Qaeda has been dramatically overstated. There are certainly terrorists in the world, Curtis says, but not a huge terrorist organization "run by a small man with a beard in a cave." For instance, Curtis says, the group didn't even have a name until early 2001 when the US government decided to prosecute the small group and needed to give it a name in order to use anti-Mafia style laws against it.

Someone asked for my prediction on the election

** There is a quiet tide of disaffection in the country - but the character of the campaign has made many people reticent about making their discontent known (a sure sign of an impending repressive regime - see link below) - so I think if they can be encouraged to get to the polls they will vote for change.

Another friend had this to say: "i'm trying to see what will happen if bush get's reelected. i think the true colors of the republican party will be out there in stark relief. after all powell will leave and maybe others that have been marginalized. state dept. will go up in flames. and there's no money to do anything.
...might be forced to change by the truth. after all they have been implementing kerry policies throughout the campaign.

Watch out for "Rovism" - from truthout.org