Report details bin Laden's escape into Pakistan on Rumsfeld's / Franks's watch

[jefferson_dem]

Senate Report Explores 2001 Escape by bin Laden From Afghan Mountains

WASHINGTON — As President Obama vows to “finish the job” in Afghanistan by sending more troops, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee has completed a detailed look back at a crucial failure early in the battle against Al Qaeda: the escape of Osama bin Laden from American forces in the Afghan mountains of Tora Bora in December 2001.The new report suggests that a larger troop commitment to Afghanistan may have resulted in the demise not only of Mr. bin Laden and his deputy but also of Mullah Muhammad Omar, the leader of the Afghan Taliban. Mullah Omar, who also fled to Pakistan in 2001 and has overseen the resurgence of the Taliban.

<SNIP>

Like several previous accounts, the committee’s report blames Gen. Tommy R. Franks, then the top American commander, and Donald H. Rumsfeld, then the defense secretary, for not putting a large number of American troops there lest they fuel resentment among Afghans. General Franks, who declined to comment for the committee’s report, has at times questioned whether Mr. bin Laden was even at Tora Bora in late 2001.

The report represents unfinished political business on the part of Mr. Kerry. Before and during his unsuccessful 2004 presidential campaign, he hammered on the failure to catch Mr. bin Laden.

The Foreign Relations Committee’s report draws on previous accounts, including books by two C.I.A. officers, Gary Berntsen and Gary Schroen, and by a commander in the Army’s elite Delta Force who goes by the pen name Dalton Fury. The analysis in their books of the flawed tactics at Tora Bora is generally echoed in the official Special Operations Command history.

The 2007 history said that it “has been determined with reasonable certainty” that Mr. bin Laden was at Tora Bora in December 2001, but that the fewer than 100 American troops committed to the area were not enough to block his escape.

<SNIP>

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/29/world/asia/29torabora.html?_r=1

[WCGreen]

1. they were all ready ginning up to invade Iraq and substituting Saddam

for bin Laden...

[EFerrari]

2. Ahmed Rashid has been telling us exactly what is going down for years.

If you are really interested, watch this vid and search his other appearances at the CSPAN archives. He's a journalist out of Pakistan, fyi.

http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/206063-1

[blm]

3. Yes, Kerry was hammering on Bush about ToraBora, but, he had no backup from the TV name Dems who

committed themselves to supporting whatever narrative Bush and Franks were pushing.

[karynnj]

4. Not to mention Franks LIED in 2004 saying that Kerry was wrong or lying

What was interesting was that the day that the NYT/WP reported the strategy of using Afghan warlords, allied with the Taliban just weeks before, to surround Tora Bora, Kerry was being "covered" as a potential candidate by a magazine - so the reporter was in his car when he was driven to the Senate. Kerry was already up in arms that this was a mistake - calling his staffer and others on this. The magazine's account was published before the primaries - long before it was known that Kerry called it right, so it was not a case of later saying he said that.

At that time, Kerry was criticized for speaking out, with many top Democrats saying it was "inappropriate".

[blm]

5. One of the Dem 'strategists' criticizing Kerry's attacks on Bush's leadership was Axelrod.

Axelrod thought at the time that Dems running in 2002 needed to stress domestic issues and stay quiet on national security issues. No surprise he was setting up to run Edwards' primary campaign and Edwards was a key senate sponsor of IWR.