The Security Preznit

The Central Intelligence Agency did not target Al Qaeda chief Osama bin laden once as he had the royal family of the United Arab Emirates with him in Afghanistan, the agency's director, George Tenet, told the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks on the United States on Thursday.

Had the CIA targeted bin Laden, half the royal family would have been wiped out as well, he said...

Richard Clarke didn't like them either, but Dear Leader never paid him any mind anyway. Which is basically why 9-11 happened.

Full .pdf from the .gov 9-11 commission site with both Tenet and Clarke here.

The sheiks of the United Arab Emirates have been playing both sides for awhile now.

Apparently Dear Leader's minions didn't think them worth investigating and so ignored the statutes mandating one. Dear Leader is pulling the Sgt. Schultz defense on this one: he knew nothing about it. Of course he didn't, plausible deniability is a good smokescreen.

Thanks to digby , Atrios, and Think Progress for the links.

There's been substantial speculation that Osama bin Laden is dead and the Company is faking his latest messages. Dead? The evidence suggests he's sitting in a palace in Riyadh or Dubai living richly off his fortune, getting wealthier every day of a Long War on Terra. It's a struggle that he'll win as long as we play by his and Dear Leader's rules.

Responding to chicago dyke below: I have a hard time believing he's dead, but a very easy acceptance of the assertion that his communiques are being doctored to fit the Cheneyburton Company propaganda mainline.

And finally one more addendum to this post: Lambert's thinking that the easy ride the Emirs are getting is a reciprocal deal where we outsource torture to them too. Nice bunch of guys, eh?