5 July 2006
The Central Intelligence Agency has closed a unit that for a decade had the mission of hunting Osama bin Laden and his top lieutenants, intelligence officials confirmed Monday.C.I.A. Closes Unit Focused on Capture of bin Laden
The unit, known as Alec Station, was disbanded late last year and its analysts reassigned within the C.I.A. Counterterrorist Center, the officials said.
The decision is a milestone for the agency, which formed the unit before Osama bin Laden became a household name and bolstered its ranks after the Sept. 11 attacks, when President Bush pledged to bring Mr. bin Laden to justice "dead or alive."
The realignment reflects a view that Al Qaeda is no longer as hierarchical as it once was, intelligence officials said, and a growing concern about Qaeda-inspired groups that have begun carrying out attacks independent of Mr. bin Laden and his top deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri.
Agency officials said that tracking Mr. bin Laden and his deputies remained a high priority, and that the decision to disband the unit was not a sign that the effort had slackened. Instead, the officials said, it reflects a belief that the agency can better deal with high-level threats by focusing on regional trends rather than on specific organizations or individuals.
Mark Mazzetti, The New York Times, July 4, 2006
Says Mark Rivero of What Really Happened, "No use hunting for a dead guy, right?" A possibility the CIA experts would be well-advised to consider.
Or maybe it is just that they finally got in touch with their friends at the FBI and learned that there is no hard evidence connecting Mr Bin Laden to the 9/11 attacks. Who knows? The world of intelligence works in mysterious ways.
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