Michael Hayden's *WHOOPSIE*

Aired May 8, 2011 - 10:00 ET



ZAKARIA: So you took news of this courier in to President Bush many years ago, right?

HAYDEN: We did. I think it was about four years ago, in 2007. We - we had built up sufficient lead information on the name of the courier that we thought it was ready for presidential primetime. So we briefed it to the president, not as something eminent but as our most promising lead to track down Bin Laden because, frankly, Fareed, the trail had been quite cold for a - a long period of time.

ZAKARIA: And why had it been cold, General? Because you had these huge bounties out on his head, and one of the things that people used to always say to me in the region was, gosh, this guy must inspire fanatical devotion and loyalty. The Americans are willing to pay $25 million and nobody turns up to - to claim the reward.

HAYDEN: Yes. Well, a - a couple of thoughts on that.
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HAYDEN: It is. But it also came out of detainee interrogations..
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I can't go into detail, but, I can assure you, .... :eyes:

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1105/08/fzgps.01.html

I think we could have offered $1 billion and no one would have claimed it. BUT - offer a decent reward, complete protection, and U.S. citizenship for yourself and your extended family - I wonder how many takers we might have gotten. Who wants to take the $25 million and be marked for vengeance? You'd be dead within a week, and probably your family too.

Bush repeatedly failed -- due to incompetence, of course.

Thanks for the heads-up, Underpants!

STATE OF THE UNION WITH CANDY CROWLEY

CROWLEY: And let me say I'm in no way questioning the bravery of guys who would drop into another nation against a guy who is the biggest terrorist in the world, but as you know, there has been a big brouhaha, because originally it was reported that Osama bin Laden was armed that he shielded himself with one of his wives.

Now he didn't do that. He didn't have weaponry. What do we know about what happened in those final moments In that room that you can tell me?

DONILON: Yeah. Let me review the circumstances though. We are at war with al Qaeda. Osama bin Laden is the leader of the entity that we're -- a group that we're at war with. Our forces went basically to their commander's headquarters here in Abbottabad, Pakistan. They entered the compound and were fired upon. They had to breach several walls and doors to get to where Osama bin Laden was. At no point during the course of this operation did Osama bin Laden indicate that he was prepared to surrender.

This is an organization known obviously for suicide bombing, IEDs, booby-trapping buildings. And our forces, no signal from him that he was prepared to surrender, acted completely appropriately. And I don't think anybody is going to second guess their judgment.

CROWLEY: Right. Well, I mean, I must say I think certainly in this country you're right, but I'm sure you've seen the web site that in other countries, for those who might be sympathetic with what they believed bin Laden to be, that the fact that he was unarmed and which I'm going to assume that your non-answer is that he was unarmed in the sense that he wasn't holding a weapon, and obviously he could have had all kinds of things nearby in all of that.

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1105/08/sotu.01.html

Sure, Condi - finding UBL was a top priority - which is why the Bush White House closed the CIA UBL Issues Unit ("Alec Station"), when was that? Oh yes, in late 2005. Wasn't Bin Laden moved into the Abbottabad compound in mid-2005, or thereabouts? Interesting.


Not only moves the time-line back, kinda gives one cause to question the whole "we located UBL by watching his courier" cover-story, but the White House wasn't fully briefed until 2010, doesn't it?

Maybe, we had eyes-on UBL for a good long time during the Bush years, but for some reason, that fact never got acted upon.

Great catch - haven't seen these particular statements by Hayden and Rice repeated anywhere else.

I just happened to have the TV when this was on and literally stopped in my tracks when I heard this. "He didn't really just say that! He couldn't have" I think I muttered out loud. Backed up the DVR and yep he said it.

Zakaria lead with that (see the link) and though he didn't smirk he had to mean as a leading question. And Elmer Fudd walked right into the trap....oooooh that wascly wabbit!!! Foiweyadle again