President Bush famously announced after Sept. 11 that America would catch terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden “dead or alive.”
Five years later, it hasn’t happened, and this week the CIA announced it was disbanding a secret unit charged with finding the al-Qaida leader and his top deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, who are believed hiding on the border of Afghanistan and Pakistan.
This isn’t the right signal to send to America’s enemies. If there’s one terrorist America needs to catch or kill, it’s bin Laden. CIA officials claim the unit is no longer needed because bin Laden is on the run and no longer wields operational control over a far-flung terrorist movement. But he undeniably remains a potent symbol for that movement. And other experts think the CIA assessment is flat wrong: The first head of the bin Laden unit, Michael Scheuer, said a flurry of bin Laden audiotapes in recent months “means their command and control over al-Qaida is probably stronger than we thought it was.” Peter Bergen adds that the messages show that the terror leader feels “extremely unconcerned” about being caught. “The heat is not on,” he said.
Why in the world not?
Posted by Randy Scholfield
The sudden death of Kenneth Lay, the disgraced former head of Enron, denies a fitting closure to his many victims. The man convicted of presiding over one of this nation’s most costly corporate scandals — and whose greedy schemes left thousands of people without retirement funds — has escaped punishment for his crimes and will not spend the rest of his life behind bars, as appeared likely in his upcoming sentencing.
It’s still unclear whether the government will be able to seize assets and collect fines from Lay’s remaining estate. If not, where’s the justice for Lay’s victims?
Posted by Randy Scholfield
The best immigration policy recognizes both the need for better border security and the need for immigrant workers. But given that the House and Senate can’t seem to agree on that, President Bush may be wise to consider an “enforcement-first” approach. Bush, who favors comprehensive reform, reportedly is now open to focusing first on border security — which both sides agree is needed — and leaving a guest-worker program and path to citizenship for another debate. The risk of such an incremental approach is that House lawmakers may be even less willing to face reality on the need for immigrant workers if they have already achieved their main objective: more secure borders.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Former President Jimmy Carter wrote a piece advocating amendments to the Freedom of Information Act that he says would allow a freer flow of information and foster trust in the government. He noted that Freedom of Information Act requests, which are supposed to be answered in 20 days, are taking as long as 905 working days at the Department of Agriculture and 1,113 working days at the Environmental Protection Agency. That’s too long.
He argued that amendments to the act — “such as covering all branches of government; providing an oversight body to monitor compliance; including sanctions for failure to adhere to the law; and establishing an appeal mechanism that is easy to access, speedy and affordable” — are needed to counter our increasingly secretive leaders.
Posted by Melissa Cooley
Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., last week declared that July would be “Stem Cell Month” in the Senate — making it sound like some holiday sale rather than a divisive and defining cultural issue for American science and medicine. Brownback, the Senate’s most fervent critic of embryonic stem cell research and co-sponsor of the Fetus Farming Prohibition Act, could end the month disappointed, though. The proposals most likely to come up and pass involve expanding the federally funded research that President Bush approved five years ago. That’s what the House has voted to do; if the Senate follows suit, that could well lead to the first veto of Bush’s six years in office.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
If it’s hard to remember a time when so many people were pondering a presidential run, no wonder: 2008 will be the first time since 1928 without either a president running for re-election or a vice president seeking his party’s nomination, according to Associated Press. So each party has more than a dozen people seriously eyeing the job. That said, most still think John McCain and Hillary Clinton hold the power to keep the nominating process from being a true free-for-all. “Both of these candidates will be so strong in the polls and fundraising that the other candidates will have a difficult time getting oxygen,” said GOP strategist Scott Reed. “These folks will have to decide early. If one chooses not to run, it will then be the Wild West.”
Posted by Rhonda Holman
