THE REAL STAKES: RNC AD SHOWS DESPERATE GOP

Democrats across the nation have denounced the Republican National Committee's latest fear and smear attack ad, as a desperate ploy to once again try to scare voters and distract from Republican failures on everything from the economy to the war in Iraq, their inability to handle a natural disaster, to the war on terror.

Instead of offering voters any kind of positive vision for America, the RNC released a shameful ad invoking the image of despicable terrorists to scare the American people.

THESE ARE THE REAL STAKES:

Osama bin Laden On The Loose
Bush Let Bin Laden Escape At Tora Bora. "The Bush administration has concluded that Osama bin Laden was present during the battle for Tora Bora late last year and that failure to commit U.S. ground troops to hunt him was its gravest error in the war against al Qaeda, according to civilian and military officials with first-hand knowledge. ... Afteraction reviews, conducted privately inside and outside the military chain of command, describe the episode as a significant defeat for the United States." [Washington Post, 4/17/02]

Bush Pulled Out Special Operations Troops Hunting For Bin Laden To Prepare for Iraq War. In March 2002, “Bush decided to pull out most of the special operations troops and their CIA counterparts in the paramilitary division that were leading the hunt for bin Laden in Afghanistan to prepare for war in Iraq, said Flynt L. Leverett, then an expert on the Middle East at the National Security Council.” [Washington Post, 9/10/06]

Bush Administration Closed CIA Unit Focused On Capture of bin Laden. The Central Intelligence Agency closed a unit that for a decade had the mission of hunting Osama bin Laden and his top lieutenants. The unit, known as Alec Station, was disbanded in late 2005 and its analysts were reassigned. Michael Scheuer, a former senior CIA official who was the first head of the unit, said the move reflected a mistaken view within the agency that bin Laden was no longer the threat he once was. “This will clearly denigrate our operations against Al Qaeda,” he said. “These days at the agency, bin Laden and Al Qaeda appear to be treated merely as first among equals.” [New York Times, 7/4/06]