A History of the World Since 911 by Dominic Streatfeild

Author:Dominic Streatfeild [Streatfeild, Dominic]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Atlantic Books
Published: 2011-01-31T16:00:00+00:00

The programme had emerged a number of years earlier, the result of an offhand comment from President Bill Clinton. In the late 1990s, frustrated by the inability of the intelligence community to do anything about the threat of Bin Laden in Afghanistan, the President had voiced a suggestion to General Hugh Shelton, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

‘You know,’ Clinton thought aloud, ‘it would scare the shit out of al-Qaeda if suddenly a bunch of black ninjas rappelled out of helicopters into the middle of their camp.’

Shelton had agreed. But the problem, as both men knew, lay in getting to al-Qaeda. Few of Afghanistan’s neighbours were likely to allow the US to station a squad of‘black ninjas’ intent on assassinating someone in their country. In the aftermath of al-Qaeda operations against US embassies in Africa in 1998, the President had repeatedly pushed for suggestions regarding a workable plan. Cruise missiles had proved ineffective; SPECTRE gunships were too violent. What else was there?

Various schemes were hatched to enable the United States to monitor al-Qaeda with a view to eliminating its leaders, assembled under the codename Afghan Eyes. One plan was to mount a vast telescope on top of a mountain near Bin Laden’s training camps, but this was deemed impractical: in any event, the idea was superseded by technological advances, the most promising of which was the development of the Predator Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV). Piloted by remote control and capable of circling over a potential target for hours on end, the Predator enabled operators to monitor events on the ground in real-time.

In June 2000, a plan to launch Predators out of neighbouring Uzbekistan was approved. By July, testing was complete and on 7 September a Predator flew over Afghanistan for the first time, capturing images of a tall Arab in white robes surrounded by a security detail at Tarnak Farm, a known al-Qaeda training camp. A second sighting three weeks later led CIA analysts to conclude that the man was none other than Bin Laden himself. Those involved with the programme were hopeful: once the Predator was armed with missiles, it would offer a real opportunity to get rid of the al-Qaeda leader without risking the lives of US personnel.

Then the operation hit a bureaucratic wall. The CIA and the Department of Defense could not agree on who should foot the bill. Predators cost $3 million each. What would happen if one was shot down or crashed? Then there was the issue of who, exactly, should pull the trigger on the Predator if it happened to stumble on Bin Laden again. Was the Air Force allowed to take out a terrorist in cold blood during peacetime? The CIA wasn’t. The only person who did have the authority to make this kind of decision was the President, but by the time news reached his desk it would almost certainly be too late: either the Predator would have run out of fuel or its target would have left.

With the US

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.