Comments on: Documentary: French troops had Bin Laden in their sights — twice — in ’03

By: Secular Blasphemy

Secular Blasphemy — Thu, 21 Dec 2006 04:38:56 +0000

The coming Taliban spring offensive…

…

By: Phil Smith

Phil Smith — Wed, 20 Dec 2006 16:03:30 +0000

You know, if you waterboard the French soldier, it would probably be the closest he’s been to a bath in years.

By: seejanemom

seejanemom — Wed, 20 Dec 2006 14:17:30 +0000

OK…so when did the French get “sights”?

By: B Moe

B Moe — Wed, 20 Dec 2006 13:30:36 +0000

Rueters just released a photo of the anonymous French sniper.

By: right2bright

right2bright — Wed, 20 Dec 2006 13:12:03 +0000

Huh! What qualifies as a French “elite” troop? Cooking or sewing merit badges?

Benthoven on December 19, 2006 at 5:38 PM

Damn, that is funny!

By: Tony737

Tony737 — Wed, 20 Dec 2006 10:40:33 +0000

Damn, almost forgot: Suggested reading for HotAirHeads interested in the Afghan campaign – “Jawbreaker”. Excellent work by the top CIA guy in country. Green Berets, Air Force Combat Controllers, Northern Alliance fighters. Outstanding work.

By: Tony737

Tony737 — Wed, 20 Dec 2006 10:34:18 +0000

Thanks for your service, Wellfed. But tell the truth now, your REAL mission was to make sure that the French didn’t surrender!

This whole story is B.S. Nobody’s gonna miss the chance to drill that guy if they had it. Imagine the bragging rights! Yeah, now imagine B.S. stories – “I once had a fish thiiiiiis big on my line, ah but alas, he got away.” Uh huh, sure pal, ya want your fish wrapped in paper or plastic?

By: Wellfed

Wellfed — Wed, 20 Dec 2006 03:35:48 +0000

Wellfed, we’d love to hear more, but if ya tell us, ya gotta kill us, therefore maybe we should just drop it :-) It’s frustrating knowing somebody who’s been to Afghanistan but they can’t tell us anything, I’d love to hear about it, but don’t be like the NY Times and tell stories ya shouldn’t.

I doubt this story, unless Mushy gave the Frenchies permission to enter the country. But, maybe he did, thinkin’ they’ll just surrender anyway.

Tony737, I was there for 3 French SF deployment cycles which ran aprox. 3 months each. One of my missions besides my other operational missions was to ensure they had unimpeded commmunications with Higher and I can tell you it would of took us about 1 minute or less to get clearance if it was ever needed. The french SF work with mostly HF commo which is not as reliable as our SATCOM radios and they would relay most of their info through us to their Commanders in the rear.

By: cmay

cmay — Wed, 20 Dec 2006 02:54:56 +0000

Story sounds like typical MSM crapola; anonymous source and very vague details. I wonder if they got Dan Rather’s handwriting expert to verify the story or the AP’s Jamil.

Anyway, from a military perspective, all NATO troops (including the French) would have standing rules of engagement that would allow them to take out high value targets (like, say, OBL) without having to wait for specific orders.

An intelligent Reuters reporter (I think that phrase is an oxymoron) would ask SecDef Gates or Tony Snow the “hypothetical”: If a grunt had Bin Laden in his sights, is he clear to engage or does he need higher authorization? It would be a good press club question and would lend more credence to the story (or blow it out of the water).

The fact that Reuters didn’t bother setting up Gates or Snow is an indication that they know its crapola.

By: 91Veteran

91Veteran — Wed, 20 Dec 2006 02:34:45 +0000

Sooooo…..the frogs are saying they had Binnie? Could it be they might be suggesting they are pulling their “elite” troops out because the US just isn’t as aggressive as them?

…and US Special Operations forces were where? Delta, the Rangers , Seals and others haven’t found him but these guys did?

This sounds to me like what happened after the first Gulf War. A sailor was on leave in his hometown, and giving an interview to a local paper. One of his claims was to have been a Seal/sniper, with Saddam in his sights, but he couldn’t get the order to take him out.

The Pentagon wasn’t amused.

I agree. This would have been news long ago if true.

By: Tony737

Tony737 — Wed, 20 Dec 2006 02:00:02 +0000

I doubt this story, unless Mushy gave the Frenchies permission to enter the country. But, maybe he did, thinkin’ they’ll just surrender anyway.

By: A Soldier's Perspective

A Soldier's Perspective — Wed, 20 Dec 2006 01:48:38 +0000

Bin Laden is French Sniper’s Scope?…

Allah at Hot Air is skeptical of the French soldier’s claims as he should be. I highly doubt it would take hours for word to pass that OBL was in someone’s scope.
“In 2003 and 2004 we had bin Laden in our sights. The sniper said ‘I have…

By: Wellfed

Wellfed — Wed, 20 Dec 2006 01:25:22 +0000

I can tell you this with 100% accuracy that this story is completely false! How? I was there! At no time did they sight, target or remotely see OBL. I can’t get into details of any operations, but my detachment was directly working with this french element during the entire time they were in country

By: Zorro

Zorro — Wed, 20 Dec 2006 01:13:25 +0000

Correction: change site to sight!

By: Zorro

Zorro — Wed, 20 Dec 2006 01:10:13 +0000

There are long standing orders pertaining to high value targets, kill on site.

French sniper, oxymoron?

By: flipflop

flipflop — Wed, 20 Dec 2006 00:05:51 +0000

I don’t know if this is true, but I could see it happening.

I don’t know, but it sounds to me like just another case of the French taking an opportunity to sling sh*t at the US.

By: Bill's Bites

Bill's Bites — Tue, 19 Dec 2006 23:34:42 +0000

Afghanistan Nabs Pakistani Intelligence Agent with AQ Ties…

Afghanistan Nabs Pakistani Intelligence Agent with AQ TiesGreg Tinti (H/T: Allahpundit) It seems that Afghan authorities have caught a pretty big fish here. Not only did ISI operative Sayed Akbar have documents with him that allegedly prove he was invo…

By: reaganaut

reaganaut — Tue, 19 Dec 2006 23:21:36 +0000

I don’t know if this is true, but I could see it happening.

I have seen it happen first hand. This was under Clinton, but still, calling “command” can be an exercise in frustration. That being said, he should have just taken the shot, if it were true. I always operated under the old saying, “It’s easier to ask for forgiveness than persmission.”

Also, after that Taliban funeral debacle, who knows…

By: Wade

Wade — Tue, 19 Dec 2006 22:57:26 +0000

Huh! What qualifies as a French “elite” troop? Cooking or sewing merit badges?

They know how to say “I surrender” in 6 languages.

By: Kristopher

Kristopher — Tue, 19 Dec 2006 22:55:14 +0000

Drag his ass to gitmo. Prosecute him as a soldier guilty of war crimes.

Use emminent domain to take over Ground Zero for a half hour.

Hang him there.

Cut him down, and send the corpse to a hog farm.

By: steveegg

steveegg — Tue, 19 Dec 2006 22:43:11 +0000

Huh! What qualifies as a French “elite” troop? Cooking or sewing merit badges?

Benthoven on December 19, 2006 at 5:38 PM

Sewing, of course, with the requirement being making a surrender flag out of tree bark.

By: Benthoven

Benthoven — Tue, 19 Dec 2006 22:38:02 +0000

Huh! What qualifies as a French “elite” troop? Cooking or sewing merit badges?

By: Dash

Dash — Tue, 19 Dec 2006 22:15:00 +0000

Yeah I’m with you all, “I got Bin Laden” should be what you call to tell someone after you shoot him or capture him or need backup to do the aforementioned actions.

By: taznar

taznar — Tue, 19 Dec 2006 22:14:43 +0000

Not ignorance, a reading disability (skimmed too fast).

To answer my own question, “France has roughly 200 elite troops operating under U.S. command near Afghanistan’s border with Pakistan.”

I didn’t realize they were directly under U.S. command.

By: taznar

taznar — Tue, 19 Dec 2006 22:10:21 +0000

Showing my ignorance here…

Why does a French soldier need an OK from the US? Is there no one in the French chain of command who could authorize the use of deadly force?

I just find the picture of a French soldier with his finger on the trigger waiting for permission from the US to fire, a little weird in many regards.