Remember the Sunday Tim Russert held up the photo of Bin Laden's Mountain Fortress?

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.edwardjayepstein.com/nether_fictoid3.htm




The story probably reached its high point on NBC's Meet The Press on December 2nd when Tim Russert, the host of the program, provided Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld with the artist's rendering of bin Laden's fortress. The interview proceeded:


Russert: The Times of London did a graphic, which I want to put on the screen for you and our viewers. This is it. This is a fortress. This is a very much a complex, multi-tiered, bedrooms and offices on the top, as you can see, secret exits on the side and on the bottom, cut deep to avoid thermal detection so when our planes fly to try to determine if any human beings are in there, it's built so deeply down and embedded in the mountain and the rock it's hard to detect. And over here, valleys guarded, as you can see, by some Taliban soldiers. A ventilation system to allow people to breathe and to carry on. An arms and ammunition depot. And you can see here the exits leading into it and the entrances large enough to drive trucks and cars and even tanks. And it's own hydroelectric power to help keep lights on, even computer systems and telephone systems. It's a very sophisticated operation.

Rumsfeld: Oh, you bet. This is serious business. And there's not one of those. There are many of those. And they have been used very effectively. And I might add, Afghanistan is not the only country that has gone underground. Any number of countries have gone underground. The tunneling equipment that exists today is very powerful. It's dual use. It's available across the globe. And people have recognized the advantages of using underground protection for themselves.

A few weeks after the "Meet the Press" interview, US special forces and their Afghan allies occupied Tora Bora. They painstakingly searched Gree Khil mountain and the surrounding area. They found no underground fortress, no hydro-electric power plant, no 2000-room hotel, no ant farm, no iron doors, no ventilating shafts. The troglodyte Lair of Bin Laden turned out to be mythic.

[Prefer]

1. Saddams "Ghost Ships"

Floating biological weapons of Mass Destruction labs.

More lies...

[devilgrrl]

2. Here's Osama's fortress in Riyadh

It's got minarets and all.

:sarcasm:

[bikesein]

3. Quite an impressive lair

B.S. incorporated.

[redqueen]

4. So many lies... so many "journalists" pretending not to notice them. (nt)

[Supersedeas]

28. accomplices to the propoganda machine

[Lex]

5. He was always delighted to push that crap.

That's why Cheney's camp thought MTP was Cheney's "best forum."

I guess that went for Rummy too.

[newmajority]

6. First clue that the "supercave" story was bullshit: No Elevators!

The man's on dialysis, for fucks sake. You think he's gonna walk up all those stairs??

Seriously... what James Bond movie did they rip that whole thing off from?

[asdjrocky]

9. I love it when people look at things simply

And then explain it to the rest of us. Outstanding! I would have never thought of the elevators. Nicely done.

[mmonk]

7. Bil Laden's caves were setup by the ISI and CIA.

[datasuspect]

8. bin laden is building a death star in tora bora

[arcadian]

10. That is a joke right?

Did he just pick up a script from the latest James Bond picture?

[Gold Metal Flake]

11. Blah blah respect blah blah gravedancing blah blah ashamed of yourselves...

RIP, corporate whore.

[leeroysphitz]

15. LOL

[KG]

20. Blah blah integrity blah blah jounalist blah blah politcal genius blah blah ....

amen brother...

[Gold Metal Flake]

27. KG?

:hi:

[spinbaby]

12. Saddam supposedly had secret lairs, too

Iraq was supposedly honeycombed with 'em. Turned out to be as real as the WMDs.

[Efilroft Sul]

13. But, but, but...

SADDAM HAD A SPIDER-HOLE!

Hey, there, ol' neighbor of mine.:hi:

[spinbaby]

17. Hey

Glad to see you're still lurking around here.

:hi:

[Strelnikov_]

14. "We have a mountain fortress gap!!"

"Damn, I wish we had one of those mountain fortresses"

[Tesla]

16. That's a "Look over here"

Cause we don't want you to "Look over there"

[me b zola]

26. Masters of mis-direction and slight of hand. (n/t)

[tblue37]

19. Well, in a sense we do.

I can pretty much guarantee that the most powerful people in government have fortified secret hidey-holes to retreat to in the event that their sabre-rattling and bullying foreign policies end up provoking a nuclear attack or some terrorist attack that puts them personally at risk.

[RufusTFirefly]

18. Whoops! Wrong slide!

That's a picture of Cheney's underground lair.

[librechik]

21. He secretly tunnelled all the way to Syria

Why aren't they search there???

:sarcasm:

[HCE SuiGeneris]

22. Propaganda manufactured for the masses, delivered carte blanch by the media.

Gee, thanks guys.

[robinlynne]

23. And don't forget there were three roads out of tora-bora. The US blocked two of them.

And two eyewitnesses (one CIA, one military) described a cravan of 2000 vehicles leaving along the third road into Pakistan.

[laststeamtrain]

24. There you go again. Dissing my TV Pal Tim. Shame. n/t

[MinM]

25. SourceWatch: Edward Jay Epstein

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Edward_Jay_Epstein">Edward Jay Epstein is a 'reliable' Cold War/"War on Terror" propagandist. :eyes:

[DCKit]

29. Thank you for that. Though I remember the statements clearly...

the visual aides are priceless. Still wondering whose crack vial Powell borrowed for his U.N. speechifying.

If only we had such facilities for NORAD! We'd be invincible!

Anyone who's seen the complex at the Greenbriar in WV or Cheyenne Mountain would have to admit that A.Q. is light years ahead of us in tunneling technology. I wonder what they did to mitigate the threat of Radon gas.

Damn you Ghost of bin Laden!!!

[Starry Messenger]

30. Who the heck came up with that??

It looks like Donkey Kong.

MPK