Condoleezza Rice, George W. Bush’s former Secretary of State, speaking on CNN’s Fareed Zakaria GPS Sunday said, “It was a top priority. We wanted to get Osama Bin Laden every single day, and there was a unit, at the agency, that worked on nothing else.”
Rice claimed that the leads that resulted in the killing of bin Laden, “developed quite a long time ago.”
The “unit, at the agency, that worked on nothing else,” was disbanded by George W. Bush in 2005, the same year bin Laden moved into his $1 million home, the one U.S. Navy Seals killed him in last Sunday.
Via The New York Times, July 4, 2006 (ironically, Independence Day, five years ago.)
“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. The decision is a milestone for the agency, which formed the unit before Osama bin Laden became a household name and bolstered its ranks after the Sept. 11 attacks, when President Bush pledged to bring Mr. bin Laden to justice “dead or alive.”
http://i.cdn.turner.com/cnn/.element/apps/cvp/3.0/swf/cnn_416x234_embed.swf?context=embed_edition&videoId=world/2011/05/08/gps.condi.rice.cnn