The Protection of bin Laden throughout the Bush Years

The author, a man who sees clearly, makes some excellent points here.  I have often wondered about Bush's lack of interest in really pursuing bin Laden, starting with allowing all the bin Laden relatives who lived in the U.S. to leave after 9/11, without being interrogated, and even providing them with planes to take them back to the middle East.  This article should be read by those who still support Bush/Cheney and who are even trying to give credit to that nefarious duo for the killing of bin Laden.  Their hatred of Obama is such that they cannot even bring themselves to give him a word of praise for his competence in accomplishing what Bush/Cheney were unwilling/unable to do.  The article points out it was to Bush's advantage to have bin Laden on the loose as the bogey man Bush and Cheney could point to for fear purposes in controlling those Americans who could be easily duped.

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/robert-parry/36051/the-curious-bush-bin-laden-symbiosis

The Curious Bush/Bin Laden Symbiosis
By Robert Parry

EXCERPT: While criticism has fallen on Pakistani authorities for being either complicit or incompetent, almost no attention has focused on the curious symbiotic relationship that has existed since 9/11 between Osama bin Laden and George W. Bush – and even longer between the bin Laden family and the Bush family.

At nearly every turn, President George W. Bush acted – presumably with incompetence, not complicity – in ways that enabled bin Laden to remain free, and the terrorist leader repaid the favor by surfacing at key political moments to scare the American people back into Bush’s arms.

Although Bush talked tough about getting bin Laden “dead or alive,” he consistently failed to follow through.

Just six months after 9/11 and three months after bin Laden evaded capture at Tora Bora, Bush personally began downplaying the importance of capturing al-Qaeda's leader. “I don’t know where he is,” Bush told a news conference. “I really just don’t spend that much time on him, to be honest with you.”

Using Osama

Yet, with bin Laden at large, Bush enjoyed an advantage. He could use the specter of bin Laden as an all-purpose bogeyman to scare the American people. A living bin Laden allowed Bush to create a plausible scenario for additional al-Qaeda attacks inside the United States and thus the justification for Bush to assert unprecedented powers as Commander in Chief.

Bush also cited the continued threat from bin Laden to stampede the American people and Congress into allowing the invasion of Iraq.

To read rest of the article, go to: http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/robert-parry/36051/the-curious-bush-bin-laden-symbiosis