Officials deny bin Laden escaped Nov 2001 capture (08/02/02)

[DoYouEverWonder]

If anyone wants to talk about who didn't catch bin Laden, maybe they can explain why Bush let him escape from Tora Bora?

Officials deny bin Laden
escaped November capture

by J.S. Newton, Fayetteville Observer, 2 August 2002

A Special Forces soldier says that troops had Osama bin Laden pinpointed in Afghanistan in November, but leaders took too long to decide to go after him and he slipped away.

Military officials have discounted the story.

The soldier, who said he was on the ground at Tora Bora when bin Laden was located, agreed to talk about the incident on condition that his name not be used.

The Observer has been unable to find other soldiers who can corroborate his account, and official military spokesmen say they have no knowledge of it.

Reporters are rarely permitted to accompany special operations troops into battle, so verification of battlefield accounts can be difficult.

But the story is consistent with previous reports from other sources that bin Laden was seen in the Tora Bora cave complex. American and Afghan troops spent weeks attacking and searching the caves late last year in the hunt for bin Laden and al-Qaida terrorists.

"We had `the man' and lost him," said the Special Forces soldier. "We knew the exact cave he was in and had the coordinates. It was 30 minutes away from our position. But we couldn't get orders quickly enough."

http://www.ratical.org/ratville/JFK/JohnJudge/linkscopy/OdbLeNc.html

Before I came across this story on the Internet, a friend of mine from NC told me just about the same version that he heard directly from a Special Ops soldier stationed at Fort Bragg, that his son grew up with. The soldier was a lifelong family friend. I have no reason to doubt the crediblity of my source.

[Generic Other]

1. I will always believe we saw him leave the city on CNN

An extremely tall gaunt guy, heavily hooded walked out when they let the Taliban leave after the fighting. They SAID at the time it was KSM. When he was finally captured I was quite surprised that he was short and fat. I am positive they let Osama go back then and CNN inadvertantly filmed it.

edit: typos

[DoYouEverWonder]

2. Maybe living on the run is fattening

:sarcasm:

I'd love to see that bit of video.

[The_Casual_Observer]

3. UBL sure as hell escaped from someplace, they trying to re-write

Tora Bora too? "Oh, and by the way Tora Bora didn't happen either".