Osama bin Laden Given Free Rein in Pakistan

It is widely believed that Osama bin Laden was the mastermind and key architect of the worst terrorist attack on American soil. The seventh anniversary of 9/11 comes around in a month and a half. Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said on Saturday that there are no U.S. or other foreign military personnel on the hunt for Osama bin Laden in his nation, and none will be allowed in to search for the al-Qaeda leader.

An Associated Press account quotes Qureshi as saying, "Our government's policy is that our troops, paramilitary forces and our regular forces are deployed in sufficient numbers. They are capable of taking action there. And any foreign intrusion would be counterproductive. [Our] people will not accept it. Questions of sovereignty come in."

Nine days after the 9/11 attack, George W. Bush addressed a joint session of congress, "Whether we bring our enemies to justice, or bring justice to our enemies, justice will be done." He received rousing applause and near unanimous support of the American public by invoking the name of Osama bin Laden as the leader of al-Qaeda. Thus began the Bush's War on Terror...

One year later, the US was planning to invade Iraq, a country where al-Qaeda didn't exist, under the guise of Bush's war on terror. Since that time, Iraq has been thrown into disarray with sectarian violence, it has a sham of a puppet government, al-Qaeda has established itself in Iraq, the Taliban has gained strength in Afghanistan, and Osama bin Laden's operation is free to operate with impunity on the Afghani-Pakistani border. The one ally within Pakistan who may've assisted with the apprehension of bin Laden - Benazir Bhutto - was assassinated in December 2007.

US-Pakistani relations have been strained of late: US aircraft killed 11 Pakistani soldiers at a border post in June. US officials have said coalition aircraft dropped bombs during a clash with militants. Despite Pakistan's previous statements that it does not allow U.S. forces on its territory, villagers in the border region that is a haven for al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters have reported seeing U.S. drones fire missiles at suspected militant targets on several occasions in recent years.

Pakistan officials deny having any knowledge of bin Laden in their country (nudge, nudge, wink, wink!). He has seemingly vanished from the face of the Earth.

Read the entire AP article about Pakistan's refusal to allow US forces into the country here.

Read George W. Bush's address to the Joint Session of Congress on September 20, 2001 here.


plez sez: the us brought sadaam hussein to justice for killing thousands of his own people. but the us can't seem to bring osama bin laden to justice for killing thousands of americans. isn't something wrong with this picture?

while us forces have been making the iraqi oil fields safe for pillaging by american oil companies, we have completely dropped the ball on dealing with the terrorists who brought the death of over 3,000 americans and the destruction of both world trade center towers (well, some think the us government had more to do with the destruction of the world trade center towers than al-qaeda). as Barack Obama has stated so eloquently, we have taken our eye off the ball by invading iraq.

if our military was at full strength, it wouldn't matter that pakistan didn't want us forces to search their countryside for bin laden.

george w. bush's foreign policy is a dismal failure: he has done nothing to raise the united states' standing among the world economy, the war on terror is a failure, the war in iraq is an illegal invasion based on lies, and we are no safer than the day that bush took office.