SOURCES: BUSH ANGER AT COMING NEW YORK TIMES STORY DETAILING HUNT FOR BIN LADEN... The newspaper is planning to expose a 'highly classified Pentagon order' authorizing Special Operations forces to hunt al-Qaida leader in mountains of Pakistan... DEVELOPING....So they're going to release details that will help bin Laden evade capture, eh? I was in high dudgeon, all "Bill Kristol should resign and no one who loves the country should subscribe to, grant interviews to, link to, purchase, read or in anyway have truck with the Formerly Gray Lady...." But I can't see how the story they actually ran this morning (I'm sorry, I can't bring myself to link to her) tells us more than has already been revealed over and over in the past few years, and certainly two weeks ago in the international press.
Sure, there is some gossip about who hates whom within the CIA and the opinion of Richard Armitage is solicited about our situation (well, he is the go-to guy for revealing CIA info that ought not be revealed, right? But what he knows about boots on the ground is another question.) Not sure what those details add to our store of knowledge, and the clear goal of the story is the ancient trope that none of the troubles in Waziristan would be happening if Bush hadn't been obsessed with gearing up for war in Iraq. Sigh. It would be nice if the Gray Lady had the class to be slightly less transparent about her agenda.
Nevertheless, what heartens me is that in a matter of great national import, The Gray Lady is of the opinion that what ought to be done can't be done. Therefore success must be imminent.
