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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Hawkmoon who wrote (185449)	4/21/2006 12:52:07 AM
From: Wharf Rat	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Yeah... and your point is? A That this is a lie... "Little wonder they had no clue about Al Qai'da or the threat of the Taliban.. eh? All of that setting the stage for 9/11.... and the loss of 3,000 lives." Clinton clearly warned Shrub about the dangers of AQ. b)as is this "But the groundwork for Al Qai'da took place during the '90s, for, as we have seen, they were spawned by Ray Gun and his CIA." In fact, Shrub not only chose to ignore the briefings on AQ, etc, he chose to deal with the Taliban thruout the summer of '01. "On a frigid, rainy January day in 2001, Unocal was given reason to rejoice. George W. Bush had just taken the oath of office, and was now President of the United States. The power of the American government was immediately brought to bear in the situation. Enter Afghan-American Zalmay Khalilzad, who in the early 1990s served Unocal as an advisor on the nascent pipeline project. In 1997, Khalilzad was present with Unocal representatives when they hosted a delegation of Taliban officials in Houston. Khalilzad was part of a full-court press by the Bush administration to see the pipeline deal through to completion. Their main objective was to bring the Taliban, who had become decidedly disinterested in then project, back on board. The American pitch to the Taliban, which was still hosting Osama bin Laden, became so intense that the Taliban hired an American public relations expert named Laila Helms to broker negotiations. High-level meetings between the Bush administration and the Taliban continued through August of 2001, with little gain. The Taliban simply was not interested in becoming part of the deal. Pakistani news agencies reported in the weeks before September 11th that America had threatened war against the Taliban if they did not agree to the pipeline deal. "Accept our carpet of gold," the Bush administration is reported to have said, "or be buried under a carpet of bombs." " workingforchange.com So, while there are several administrations which allowed these folks to become a force, there is only one that cozied up to them. It could be argued that Clinton didn't do enuf, or didn't do the right stuff, but, Clinton was aware of the threat, tried to make some response to it, and passed on word of that threat. But, in what may eventually be reckoned to be the first blunder of the most inept admin in our history, it was decided to ignore that threat. Bad management decision? Arrogance? In on the plot? Take yer pick; for whatever reason, they dropped the ball.