February 10, 2004

Maybe the US should ask the Kurds to capture Bin Laden, like they did Hussein?   Counterspin Central recently wondered if the Bush White House already knows where Bin Laden is and is simply waiting for the election to find him. I've said this before, and at the risk of sounding like a paranoid crazy, I'd have to agree with Counterspin Central and repeat my own sense of impending doom for the presidential election. As I said before, I am willing to bet the US has Bin Laden stored somewhere in Pakistan, and no doubt they'll "find" him sometime in September. The connection between the Bush family and the Bin Laden family is by now well documented, and it is this connection that makes the so-called manhunt for Osama seem like such an implausible adventure. Wouldn't it be interesting if Osama were served up for the Bush White House by the Saudi elite as a sort of compensation for damaging Saudi-US oil relations? I guess what I'm saying -- and this is pure speculation -- is, you would expect it to be harder to find someone you don't know than someone you know very well, and in this case it is not as though the country of the victims (US) and the country of the terrorists (Saudi Arabia) are on bad terms. There's so much money and power at stake in the relationship between Saudi Arabia and the United States, one would assume they both have an incredible amount of incentive to find Osama bin Laden. The most telling example of this relationship and its importance globally (remember Saudi Arabia has the largest oil reserve in the world) is the fact that America invaded Afghanistan after 15 Saudis (out of 19 terrorists) flew some planes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Instead of invading Saudi Arabia (which is unthinkable, given the oil they supply the US, and the fact that the US installed the current regime), Osama bin Laden's birthplace, the US invaded Afghanistan, which was meaningless as far as 9/11 was concerned, but presented an easy target for the American military and a strategic target for the oil executives in the Bush administration. Which means, at least in the world of baseless speculation, that I wouldn't be surprised to see Osama bin Laden in captivity before the fall election.   7:50:35 PM    comment []

More News on George Bush's "Military Service," Courtesy of Calpundit   More news emerging on George Bush's military "service." According to Calpundit, Bush served in something called the Air Reserve Forces: ARF is the reserves, and among other things it's where members of the guard are sent for disciplinary reasons. As we all know, Bush failed to show up for his annual physical in July 1972, he was suspended in August, and the suspension was recorded on September 29. He was apparently transferred to ARF at that time and began accumulating ARF points in October. ARF is a "paper unit" based in Denver that requires no drills and no attendance. For active guard members it is disciplinary because ARF members can theoretically be called up for active duty in the regular military, although this obviously never happened to George Bush. To make a long story short, Bush apparently blew off drills beginning in May 1972, failed to show up for his physical, and was then grounded and transferred to ARF as a disciplinary measure. He didn't return to his original Texas Guard unit and cram in 36 days of active duty in 1973 — as Time magazine and others continue to assert based on a mistaken interpretation of Bush's 1973-74 ARF record — but rather accumulated only ARF points during that period. In fact, it's unclear even what the points on the ARF record are for, but what is clear is that Bush's official records from Texas show no actual duty after May 1972, as his Form 712 Master Personnel Record from the Texas Air National Guard clearly indicates... 7:20:31 PM    comment []

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