http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/12/06/no-good-osama-bin-laden-i_n_381647.html

WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Robert Gates says the United States has not had good intelligence on the whereabouts of terrorist Osama bin Laden in years.

Gates made the comment in an interview to be aired Sunday on ABC's "This Week."

Asked whether he could confirm recent reports that bin Laden had been seen recently in Afghanistan, Gates said "no." Media reports late this week mentioned accounts of unconfirmed bin Laden sightings in recent weeks.

Bin Laden, the leader of al-Qaida, is believed to be hiding on the Pakistan side of the border with Afghanistan.

Robert Gates, Secretary of Defense Find out more damning facts about six other key appointees in Obama's administration. Who are these people and where will they take our country? Are they working for the people or for the military industrial complex?

Check out the other videos covering the people in Obama's cabinet at http://www.mediaroots.org/watch.php

http://www.consortiumnews.com/Print/2008/112308a.html

Gates and the Urge to Surge

By Ray McGovern
November 23, 2008

It may become a biennial ritual. Every two years, if the commander-in-chief (or the commander-in-chief-elect) says he wants to throw more troops into an unwinnable war for no clear reason other than his political advantage, panderer-in-chief Robert Gates will shout “Outstanding!”

Never mind what the commanders in the field are saying — much less the troops who will die.

After meeting in Canada on Friday with counterparts from countries with troops in Afghanistan, Defense Secretary Gates emphasized to reporters there is a shared interest in “surging as many forces as we can” into Afghanistan before the elections there in late September 2009.

At the concluding news conference, Gates again drove home the point, “It’s important that we have a surge of forces.”

Basking in the alleged success of the Iraq “surge,” Gates knows a winning word when he hears one – whether the facts are with him or not.

Robert Gates: As Bad as Rumsfeld?

By Ray McGovern
November 19, 2008

"As Bad As Rumsfeld?" The title jars, doesn't it? The more so, since Defense Secretary Robert Gates found his predecessor, Donald Rumsfeld, such an easy act to follow.

But the jarring part reflects how malnourished most of us are on the thin gruel served up by the Fawning Corporate Media (FCM).

Over the past few months, Defense Secretary Gates has generated accolades from FCM pundits — like the Washington Post's David Ignatius — that read like letters of recommendation to graduate school.

This comes as no surprise to those of us – including his former colleagues at the CIA’s analytical division – familiar with Gates's dexterity in orchestrating his own advancement. What DOES come as a surprise is the recurring rumor that President-elect Obama may decide to put new wine in old wineskins by letting Gates stay.

What can Barack Obama be thinking?

http://www.truthout.org/112008J

THURSDAY 20 NOVEMBER 2008

Against the Militarized Academy
by: Henry A. Giroux, t r u t h o u t | Perspective

Defense Secretary Robert Gates has announced an effort to increase the militarization of higher education. (Photo: FilmMaker Magazine)

"It should be remembered here that Rummy spent the duration of the attacks on 9-11 in his office at the Pentagon: without even trying to communicate with his department"never mind the fact, that all of this blood that spilled after the first tower, was by law, his responsibility. Is this one of the reasons that Rice is reluctant to testify under oath? Because when this gets out that the Bushites violated their own twisted revisions of national defense procedures, and then dropped the ball completely: then there may well be a demand for heads to roll!"

"...in light of current events now unfolding from London to the Korean peninsula (the Pacific fleet is on a heightened alert status), coupled with the impending attacks upon Iran and possibly Syria: Someone "big needs to locate the Secretary of War and track his every move"before and during whatever is about to happen"because according to the documents above
it will be Robert M. Gates who shall be responsible for protecting America, not the President or the VP, nor will it be Chertoff and HOMELAND Security. As a matter of interest, either the president or the vice president is supposed to remain in the country at all times"especially during moments of high international tensions"so why are they both going to be abroad at the same time NOW?

The Chain of Command is Busted!
Jim Kirwan
2-23-7

http://www.rense.com/general75/busted.htm

The Vice-President is on an American aircraft carrier off Japan, and the Decider has a scheduled trip that will take him out-of-the-country. He,ll probably be aboard Air Force One, but that plane is only used to collect money"as an extension of his political machine"it is doubtful that he could ever even pretend to operate the world's most sophisticated flying-combat-operations-center that Air Force One was designed to be. So what's the problem?

Most of official Washington has long believed that Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld needed to be sacked. Unfortunately it took a major Republican loss at the polls to finally prompt George W. Bush to cut loose a key player from his inner circle.

The removal of Rumsfeld signals that Bush is listening to the voters and elected officials. However, the nomination of Robert Gates—a Bush family crony and former Director of Central Intelligence (DCI) under his father’s administration—to replace Rumsfeld will only create new problems for the president.

President Ronald Reagan had to withdraw Gates’ nomination for DCI in 1987 because of Gates’ involvement in the Iran-Contra scandal. By 1991, after the heat had died down on the whole affair, President George H.W. Bush re-nominated Gates for the post, and he was confirmed.

Some people have already shed some light on 74yr-old Rumsfeld's successor, Robert Gates (63 yrs). Who used to be the CIA director when George W. Bush's father was president. Who is a close friend to the Bush family since decades.

But did you know this? Robert Gates...

....was on the board of directors of VoteHere, a strange little company that was the biggest elections industry lobbyist for the Help America Vote Act (HAVA). VoteHere spent more money than ES&S, Diebold, and Sequoia combined to help ram HAVA through. And HAVA, of course, was a bill sponsored by by convicted Abramoff pal Bob Ney and K-street lobbyist buddy Steny Hoyer. HAVA put electronic voting on steroids."

(read more....)

Strange, how close all these threads run to each other...

It is official, Donald Rumsfeld is out and former CIA Director Robert Gates, if confirmed, will be in as the new Defense Secretary. As usual, the more you read, the worse it get...

In November of 1999, Mr. Gates openly expressed his satisfaction with the arming of the Afghan Mujahhadin during the 1980s, a covert policy that gave rise to 'al-Qaeda'.

At a Texas A&M University Dinner, Mr. Gates stated the following:

"Operationally, CIA had important successes in covert action. Perhaps the most consequential of all was Afghanistan where CIA, with its management, funneled billions of dollars in supplies and weapons to the Mujahhadin, and the resistance was thus able to fight the vaunted Soviet army to a standoff and eventually force a political decision to withdraw."

To his credit, Gates does acknowledge that the "training and weapons we provided after the conflicts ended sometimes were put to unwelcome purposes and even used in actions hostile to US interests," but nonetheless, he states, "All in all, CIA uniquely among the world's intelligence services, endeavored to conduct its operations according to presidential directive under the rule of law and in every way possible consistent with American values. ... In sum, CIA in my view was remarkably successful".