You can lead an ass to...

You know, I can understand why the Party of Ignorance doesn't always believe the Democrats when we bring up what the Bush Administration has done (or not done). They fear our "bias" and rhetoric, sure. But when we actually produce documents and witnesses from within the machinery, it absolutely amazes me that we are still not believed.

How, when confronted with irrefutable, hard, documented evidence, does this Administration continue to make it look like we are all conspiracy-theory, tin-foil hat wearing, chicken little, nut jobs?

Anyway, the above ranting is an introduction to one more piece of evidence that chronicles Bush's amazing power to deflect the truth.

Christiane Amanpour interviewed Gary Bernsten on CNN. Who is Gary? Some liberal, terrorist-loving, America hating commie?

No, Gary is good ol' CIA. In fact, Gary led the CIA's paramilitary unit chasing bin Laden after he fled from Kabul. And Gary has some interesting FACTS that are very interesting in light of the recent dust-up about who did what and when to capture Al Qaeda and Bin Laden.

According to Gary (the CIA Gary, not the Liberal commie one) it seems that
CIA officials asked Washington (aka BUSH) not once, but twice to send reinforcements when bin Laden was cornered in Afghanistan in 2001.
But you know how big govt bureaucracies can be, you know--slow to act.

Well, the good news is that Bush's big govt bureaucracy was not slow to act.
Bush's big govt bureaucracy acted fast. At DECLINING the CIA request to send reinforcements to capture Bin Laden in 2001. Bush's bureaucracy actually acted so fast, that the CIA didn’t catch it the first time and requested AGAIN that Bush send reinforcements to capture Bin Laden. But, as everyone knows, the Bush Administration, once it made a decision, does not backtrack. So the Bush Administration declined to send reinforcements to capture Bin Laden a second time.

By the time of the second request by the CIA for troops, the special ops force could hear Osama on radio asking his followers for forgiveness for leading them to their imminent capture. IT WAS THAT CLOSE.

AMANPOUR: ... the CIA was sure it knew where he was, thanks in large part to a radio taken off a dead al Qaeda fighter.
BERNTSEN: We listened to bin Laden for several days using that radio, listened to his communications among him and his men. We listened to him apologize to them for having led them into this trap and having led them into a location where they would be having airstrikes called on them just relentlessly." . . . .

BERNTSEN: In the first two or three days of December, I would write a message back to Washington, recommending the insertion of U.S. forces on the ground. I was looking for 600 to 800 Rangers, roughly a battalion. They never came.
BERGEN: By my calculation, there were more American journalists than American soldiers at the battle of Tora Bora, and that fact kind of speaks for itself.

Bernsten's urgent message followed a direct briefing on troop needs and a request, in-person to President Bush in November by Henry "Hank" Crumpton, who was then CIA officer in D.C. heading the Afghanistan effort.

Crumpton strongly urged Bush to send more troops. But Bush reportedly said Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf promised that his troops would seal all escapes into north Pakistan. Crumpton explained to Bush that Pakistani troops couldn't control that tribal region and satellite photos showed Pakistan's troops weren't there and wouldn't arrive in time.

"'We're going to lose our prey if we're not careful,' Crumpton reportedly warned the president." But this time Bush asked if the Afghani forces could do the job. 'Definitely not, Mr. President,' said Crumpton. 'Definitely not.'"