Who *really* let Bin Laden get away?

[BurtWorm]

:think:

From a John Burns article in the NYT, Sept. 30, 2002:


http://select.nytimes.com/search/restricted/article?res=F20610FC3E5C0C738FDDA00894DA404482

From the Tora Bora district, in the shadow of 14,500-foot peaks, it is a grueling six-hour walk up rock-strewn riverbeds and precipitous mountain trails to the international border, and on to remote tribal areas of northwestern Pakistan. The trek is swifter on horseback, often favored by Mr. bin Laden during the years when he was regularly at Tora Bora, according to villagers. Since the bombing in December, glimpses of him and an entourage of Arab militants, sometimes on horses, have been reported by tribespeople on both sides of the border, mostly from locations within a range, north and south, of about 100 miles.

Many of the tipoffs, American officials say, have been little more than hearsay; others have been prevarications by Qaeda sympathizers. Although raids have led to the arrests of scores of Arab militants, in Afghanistan and Pakistan, none have produced solid leads to Mr. bin Laden's whereabouts. Nor has the $25 million reward for the Qaeda leader proved of much avail. In a region of widespread poverty, the bounty has collided with ancient tribal traditions of secrecy, an abiding suspicion of outsiders and a profoundly conservative form of Islam that has favored the Qaeda fugitives and isolated their American pursuers.

The frustrations for American troops have not been helped by the suspicion that here at Tora Bora, where Mr. bin Laden was all but trapped, indecisiveness on the part of American commanders, or perhaps reluctance to risk casualties, may have helped him escape. If he fled to Pakistan, he did so over snow-choked mountain trails that were not blocked by American or other allied troops until after the bombing -- an oversight that some of the allies point to as having squandered the best opportunity of the war to snare America's most wanted man.

Within weeks, high-ranking British officers were saying privately that American commanders had vetoed a proposal to guard the high-altitude trails, arguing that the risks of a firefight, in deep snow, gusting winds and low-slung clouds, were too high. Similar accounts abound among Afghan commanders who provided the troops stationed on the Tora Bora foothills -- on the north side of the mountains, facing the Afghan city of Jalalabad. Those troops played a blocking role that left the Qaeda fugitives only one escape route, to the south, over the mountains to Pakistan.

[blm]

1. I've screamed about the importance of Tora Bora for years, but few Dems

would publically address Tora Bora as a failure of Bush's. And when Kerry started in on it in Jan 2002, no Democratic leaders would back him up.

Even while he was trying to make it a campaign issue, the name Dems stayed hidden while Clark and Cleland spoke out about it, and Bush had McCain, Dole, Tommy Franks, and Giuliani all lying for him.

[BurtWorm]

2. It's the obvious answer to any charge that *Clinton* was the one.

Who had bin Laden cornered when every American knew who he was and what he did and then let him slip through the snow-covered peaks to fucking freedom?

Hint for pinheaded wingers: It wasn't Clinton.

[blm]

5. Not just Bin Laden but most of Al Qaeda.

And I am quite sure it was deliberate. After all, Americans would move on and Bush would have a harder time convincing the public that war in Iraq was necessary in the war on terror.

[Warren DeMontague]

9. Kerry also brought it up at the debates, if I remember correctly.

But -like the permanent bases in Iraq, which he likewise brought up at the Debates- for some reason the M$M decided to let it drop.

[BurtWorm]

10. They're still not talking about it.

They're allowing the propaganda that the Dems had more to do with 9/11 get catapulted. No one is talking about the 2-ton elephant in the room.

[Ignacio Upton]

11. Compared to the rest of the Dems

Kerry did a better job of brining up Tora Bora, but I wish that he had been more aggressive in getting that line out there. I mean, with the $87 billion smear that the Bush campaign used, they didn't just bring it up, they POUNDED in into the public conscious. Kerry should have done the same thing with Tora Bora. He should also have brought up Bush's obstruction of the 9/11 Commission and how he flip flopped on creating it, as well as creating the DHS (especially as a way to turn the flip flopper attack against Bush.)

[BurtWorm]

12. It's a mystery why other Dems have not pounded at Tora Bora.

It's certainly time to stop being shy about pointing out how poorly Bush has handled his own little war on terror.

[Warren DeMontague]

13. I think Wes Clark has a decent track record on reminding people w/that too

I agree- it sums the whole shit up with regards to Bush making us less, not more, safe; that, and the "I just don't really think about him all that much" quote.

[blm]

15. Clark and Cleland are the two Dems I single out - but neither were name

Dems or even elected officials throughout that crucial time.

[blm]

14. Kerry pounded on Tora Bora since Jan2002 - with NO BACKUP from any elected

or name Democrat throughot that time. Corpmedia was USING other Dems support of Bush on Tora Bora to attack Kerry.

To put it all on Kerry is ABSURD. Did BUSH fight ANY of his battles? Absolutely not. Kerry was on his own till Cleland and Clark gave him some backup in 2003 and 2004.

You didn't see Clintons, Biden or Reid step up on Tora Bora to counter McCain, Dole, Franks or Giuliani.

[BurtWorm]

3. 'We must kill the enemy, but we must remain absolutely safe.'

More from the article:


One important fact, though, seems to have been that some of the Afghan commanders at Tora Bora had links with Mr. bin Laden going back to the late 1980's, then found themselves drafted into the hunt for him after Sept. 11. One of these men, Hajji Zaman, who fled Afghanistan for sanctuary in France last spring, was accused by rival Afghan commanders of organizing a brief American bombing halt a few days into the attack to allow him to negotiate Qaeda leaders' surrender, only to use the standstill -- with the inducement of a hefty Qaeda bribe -- to help the fugitives escape.

Another commander, Hajji Zaher, said in an interview in Jalalabad that he had pleaded with Special Forces officers to block the trails to Pakistan. ''The Americans would not listen, even when I told them that one word with me was worth more than $1 million of their high technology,'' said Mr. Zaher, 38. ''Their attitude was, 'We must kill the enemy, but we must remain absolutely safe.' This is crazy. If they had been willing to take casualties to capture Osama then, perhaps they'd have to take fewer casualties now.''

[wakeme2008]

4. If you read Jawbreaker you would know

General Franks and friends did not want to put in the troops while the CIA did have a team on the ground. Also the CIA (11th floor ppl per the book) pulled the author and leader out after the Military would not support them.

[texastoast]

6. Ray-gun??

http://www.slate.com/id/2102243/
Reagan—and those around him—can be blamed for ignoring the rise of Islamic militancy in Afghanistan.


http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAreagan.htm
In 1981 Reagan sent Donald Rumsfeld, his Middle East envoy, to Iraq. This resulted in Reagan selling Saddam Hussein "dual-use" items, including helicopters and chemicals. He also armed the Mojahedin in Afghanistan that eventually evolved into the Taliban.

http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?ItemID=5715
But there can be no more dangerous creature to have burbled out of the Reagan Frankenstein factory than his Cold War comrade, Osama bin Laden.

[BurtWorm]

7. kick

[orpupilofnature57]

8. You can only get away if your being chased.Shrub ,aiding and abetting

and not thinking about him(Binladen)much.