quote:

Originally posted by Boogerhead:
Didn't prosecuting terrorism as a criminal act sort of create conditions conductive to 9/11? The Feebie's and Spooks were tripping all over each other, hiding things in order to get credit for the "bust" while the other department did the same?

No. The CIA and FBI didn't compete to catch terrorists and prosecute them. Because the CIA didn't play in that game. The problem (as if there was only one- ha!) was that it was nearly impossible to prosecute anyone for terrorism-related offenses successfully. Since FBI agents are motivated (when they're motivated) by a desire to successfully prosecute people, this broken system guaranteed that counterterrorism would remain the unloved stepchild of the FBI.

Nearly all the other problems stemmed from that systemic breakdown.

FBI's the wrong animal for the job. It was before, and it still is. It's too much of a disconnect from the work they're trained for.

quote:

Originally posted by Boogerhead:
Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11 and we all knew it. Unfortunatly, we also knew that the Busch Reich was going to go into Iraq, mainly because the ElderBusch looked like a damn moron to the world after utterly failing in every reguard during the initial Desert Storm^tm and the younger had a war woody.

I don't think he "failed," not directly anyway. Desert Storm got Iraq outta Kuwait, which was the goal. They then beat Saddam back to Baghdad. Then we said fuck it, let's go home - if you Iraqi's want your freedom, you know where Saddam lives. Go make a citizen's arrest or something. If he resists, hit him with a stick. Jesus, we don't care. We're heading home, where we can buy beer.

Given the speed of the original Desert Storm, I'm guessing it would've taken about a month to topple the rest of the Iraqi army - they might have had a smaller scale insurgency war, as we're seeing now, as bin Laden had yet to expand The Base worldwide. Remember, this was before the Aden bombings, the USS Cole, the embassy bombings in Tanzania and Kenya...

Osama was pissed that his home country and Kuwait hadn't called on his Jihadis to gloriously help rid Kuwait of the infidel, secular Iraqis, and intead called on Willing, Coalition of The, Mk. 1, to basically kick them out in the time it takes for a margarita pizza to go from the your mouth to your arse. The easiest chance for glorious martyrdom was denied by his very home he sort to defend, and instead farmed out to more infidels.

The vague statements that Iraq was harbouring insurgents held up for even less time than the BS about WMDs. Saddam was many things, but one thing he wasn't a was a fundie Islamic, nor was his regime. Remember Baghdad Bob? Christian. Saddam ran a cult of personality - such a strong personality like bin Laden's would've been more a threat than a good ally. Would've been interesting, though, if Saddam did what Castro did to Che...

All in all, I don't know what the fuck we're doing there. Coalition of The Willing's a fucking joke (six of the members have no fucking military, for chrissakes - well, five. Costa Rica's left.) I find it funny we criticise the crap outta France for not rolling up, nor most of the EU, when clearly it's they're one of the smartest (and they're helping out in Afghanistan.)

It's a debacle, a grand one, up there with Gallipoli, The Somme Advance, the Japanese atomic bombings, Vietnam...

We'll be feeling this one for a while, folks.

as i think guantanamo related threads are locked, i'll put this here

no such thing as a child soldier in guantanamo

Well placed, M!sty.

I know this:

On a day to day level, I fear my government far more than I fear terrorists.

Why's that?

"There's a huge terrorist threat."

"What is it?"

"I can't tell you that. But it's bad. Luckily we stopped the last one."

"Oh, good. So, you stopped the last threat? What was it?"

"I can't tell you that. But we're surround by suspicious individuals, doing suspicious things."

"What kind of suspicious individuals? What do they look like. How do we know what suspicious behavior is so we can report it to you?"

"I can't tell you that. If I told you, they would know we were onto them, then we couldn't catch them."

"Well, at least you've put all the ones you've caught in the hoosegow, right?"

"We've caught a lot."

"And they're locked up...?"

"Well, no..."

"Why not?"

"I can't tell you that."

quote:

Originally posted by doggo:
"There's a huge terrorist threat."

Mallninjas have moved up in the world.

Blackwater Mallninja Association.....there's a durned band name.