Somebody is fibbing

The administration's least favorite newspaper reported on July 3 as follows:

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.

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.

King George the Incompetent was asked about this at a press conference that he held in Chicago.

Q: You said some time ago that you wanted Osama bin Laden dead or alive. You later regretted the formulation, but maybe not the thought.

BUSH: I regretted the formulation because my wife got on me for talking that way.

Q: We suspected as much, sir. But the question I have is: It appears that the CIA has disbanded the unit that was hunting him down. Is it no longer important to track him down?

BUSH: It's just an incorrect story.

I mean, we got a lot of assets looking for Osama bin Laden. So whatever you want to read in the story, it's just not true, period.

It just so happens that Michael Scheuer was on Washington Journal this morning. He was a senior analyst at the CIA, until he retired in 2004. He left the agency because he felt that it had been scapegoated in the 9-11 Commission report. He described himself as a conservative Republican who voted for George W. Bush twice. Mr. Scheuer is now a CBS News Terrorism Analyst.

He was the head of the CIA unit that was charged with responsibility for Osama bin Laden from when he founded it in late December 1995, until mid-June 1999.

Brian Lamb: Is there any truth to the fact that it’s been disbanded?

Michael Scheuer: As I understand it, the agency has confirmed that. Yes, sir. After 10 years of what I think, at least, is the most successful United States counter-terrorism unit that has ever been formed.

It seems to me that someone is lying.

“… and tell ’em Big Mitch sent ya!”