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"A secret military operation in early 2005 to capture. . . [bin Laden and Al-Zawahiri] was called off. . . [by] Donald H. Rumsfeld. . . [who] decided that the operation. . . put too many American lives at risk. . . [and] could cause a rift with Pakistan."
-- The New York Times
"Al Qaida's core leadership -- a reference to bin Laden and his top aide, Ayman al Zawahri -- is increasingly directing global terrorist operations from a haven in Pakistan's lawless tribal areas bordering Afghanistan, officials from the CIA, Defense Intelligence Agency and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said in presenting the unclassified report."
-- McClatchy Newspapers
"On Tuesday, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff told the editorial board of The Chicago Tribune that he had a 'gut feeling about a new period of increased risk.'
"'We could easily be attacked,' Chertoff added. 'The intent to attack us remains as strong as it was on Sept. 10, 2001.'"
-- The Chicago Tribune
The one accomplishment the Bush administration could always point to is that since 9/11 we've enjoyed six years free of terror on American soil. Speaking of freedom, though, bin Laden's enjoying his too. But, far from sitting on his bloody laurels, he's likely kibbitzing plans for that next big attack on our shores.
God -- and Allah -- forbid that should come to pass. If it does, however, the administration will have hit the trifecta of terror: 1. It failed to track down bin Laden. 2. It turned Iraq into the world's biggest terrorist factory this side of Palestine. 3 And if there's any truth to this latest National Intelligence Estimate and the rumblings in Mephistopheles lookalike Michael Chertoff's strangled gut, it will have allowed a new attack.
Bush & Co. will then be unable to point to not only no singular accomplishment, but no single accomplishment.
