Documentary: French soldiers had 2 chances to kill bin Laden

[daleo]

A French documentary claims French soldiers had two opportunities to shoot and kill Osama bin Laden, but they were not given the go-ahead by their American superiors.

According to media reports, the documentary says special French forces had the leader of al-Qaeda in their sights twice in Afghanistan, in 2003 and 2004.

The soldiers would have fired on him, the film says, but the order to kill simply never came from the U.S. commanders in charge.

http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2006/12/22/osama-france.html

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Note - this story specifically says U.S. commanders didn't give the go-ahead. I think previous stories were less clear on this point.

[Captain Hilts]

1. That's what you get when you 'out-source' important jobs....nt

[Taverner]

2. Or what happens when the administration in charge

Doesn't care about Bin Laden, as they have stated previously

[ljm2002]

8. "Doesn't care"...

...in the sense that the administration in charge doesn't care to kill (or capture) him. IOW they never did want to capture or kill the MF, given their cozy rich-cronies status with the bin Laden family.

[Benhurst]

3. No, that's what you get when the powers that be don't want something done.

[Fridays Child]

4. Who's the cheese-eating surrender monkey now?

Bush doesn't really want to win his war on terror. He just wants to terrorize people with it, which makes him the terrorist.

[cdnwannabe]

5. Bin Laden = the ultimate boogey man....

of course they didn't want to kill him.

[Parche]

6. french soldiers

All they need to hear was.............we we!!

[phusion]

7. Why are the Americans in charge of French soldiers?

I guess I don't understand this story...why would they need permission to kill BL?

[Kagemusha]

9. This is the documentary the French vehemently denied right?

Just checking.

[daleo]

10. From the CBC news story:

The newspaper Le Figaro said Thursday that the documentary is based on interviews of four soldiers by filmmakers Éric de Lavarène and Emmanuel Razavi, who call their documentary Ben Laden, les ratés d'une traque (Bin Laden, the Failures of a Manhunt ).

The documentary has created a stir among government officials. The French cable network LCI says the defence ministry is calling the film's claims "pure fabrication."

[laconicsax]

11. It would have been a media nightmare for BushCo

If the French (who at the time were being touted as our mortal enemies) got bin Laden.

[agincourt]

12. If Bin Laden is killed,

undenialble evidence linking Al-Qaeda to the conservative political machine over here will surface. Pakistan probably has it. The inside job will be exposed it Bin Laden is killed. This is why Dr Khan is wrist slapped. This is why there was no effective assault on the Tora Bora. This is why the Anthranx killers walk. This is why Pakistan, al-Qaeda's #1 supporter gets good loans and cheap F-16s. This is why they had a "blame Clinton" script immediately after 9/11. The conservapigs are in cahoots with the terrorists. There is no other explanation.

[pa28]

13. I'm sure ABC will be rushing to dramatize this.

:sarcasm:

[pinniped]

14. It was probably a body double or the #2 dude anyways.

.