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US Forces Missed Chance to Get bin Laden: Report
WASHINGTON - The U.S. military could have captured or killed Osama bin Laden in 2001 if it had launched a concerted attack on his hideout in Afghanistan, according to a report prepared for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
A video grab from an undated footage from the Internet shows Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden making statements from an unknown location. The U.S. military could have captured or killed Osama bin Laden in 2001 if it had launched a concerted attack on his hideout in Afghanistan - report. (REUTERS/REUTERS TV) The report, written by staff working for the Democratic majority on the committee, said the al Qaeda leader's escape was a lost opportunity that altered the course of the war and paved the way for insurgencies in Afghanistan and in Pakistan.
"Removing the al Qaeda leader from the battlefield eight years ago would not have eliminated the worldwide extremist threat," the report said.
"But the decisions that opened the door for his escape to Pakistan allowed bin Laden to emerge as a potent symbolic figure who continues to attract a steady flow of money and inspire fanatics worldwide."
U.S. soldiers and Afghan militia forces launched a large-scale assault on the Tora Bora mountains in 2001 in pursuit of bin Laden, believed to be hiding in the region with supporters after the Taliban government was removed from power.
U.S. military leaders allowed Afghan militiamen to spearhead the assault and bin Laden managed to escape.
The report said U.S. commanders rejected requests for more troops to launch a rapid assault in the area, relying instead on air strikes and the Afghan militias to lead the attack and Pakistan's Frontier Corps to seal off escape routes.
"The vast array of American military power, from sniper teams to the most mobile divisions of the Marine Corps and the Army, was kept on the sidelines," it said.
The report was especially critical of military leaders under former President George W. Bush, including former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and his top military commander, retired General Tommy Franks.
Democratic Senator John Kerry, the chairman of the committee, has argued the Bush administration missed a chance to get bin Laden and his top lieutenants in Tora Bora just months after the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States.
Kerry lost the 2004 presidential election to Bush.
The report was issued just days before President Barack Obama was expected to announce the United States would send about 30,000 more troops to secure population centers and train Afghan security forces.
There are about 68,000 U.S. troops and 42,000 allied soldiers in Afghanistan.
(Writing by Paul Simao, Editing by Andrew Dobbie)
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45 Comments so far
Show AllNow Bush Twol be trying; very trying for his dupes.
What?
q
Prior to Dubya's 2004 campaign Michael Moore's 9/11 film implied the same conclusion this article draws. Dubya got a second term and the US got eternal war.
"I don't know where bin Laden is. I have no idea and really don't care. It's not that important. It's not our priority." - G.W. Bush, 3/13/02
"I am truly not that concerned about him." - G.W. Bush, responding to a question about bin Laden's whereabouts, 3/13/02 (The New American, 4/8/02)
Was not UBL part of the Bush Crime Family?
Their genetic make up was drained from the same cesspool of greed.
I don't know about UBL, but the Bin Laden family was very "tight" with the Bushes and there are good articles about this on the Web, surely some at www.globalresearch.ca, but also some other websites. I don't recall any that I read saying that UBL was "tight" with the Bushes, but he was definitely a CIA operative or equivalent (or close to equivalent) in Afghanistan in the 1980s; and there are also plenty of good articles about this bit of history.
If I'm recalling correctly, Bush, Jr, also said that as far as he was concerned, or him and his administration, Usama or Osama Bin Laden, or Ladin, could just be left free, likely explicitly using this terminology. But I don't recall what articles that I read said this and definitely won't try to do a Web search to try to find any; it would be too time-consuming to perform this search.
And what you quoted essentially has the same meaning, anyway.
The report was issued just days before President Barack Obama was expected to announce the United States would send about 30,000 more troops to secure population centers and train Afghan security forces.
----------
What a coincidence!
Bin Laden may have been just as effectively inspirational as a martyr. Do you feel like that fact has been deliberately left out? This is drum up.
"Bin Laden may have been just as effectively inspirational as a martyr. Do you feel like that fact has been deliberately left out?"
Saying that Bin Laden "may" have been inspirational does not establish a fact.
q
If one looks at the overall picture --- two items become evident --- His capture or death would have ended the "justification" for American presence in Afghanistan --- Hence ending the "justification" for profitable "support contracts", His capture or death would have also nullified the arguments for the upcoming "Patriot Act", the vehicle used to destroy the rights of all US Citizens. He was not needed captured "Dead or Alive". He was needed "Out There" an ongoing "threat".
Bingo!
q
While the US electorate may not have learned anything from the Viet Nam occupation, the military industrial media complex (MIMC)learned that when a war or occupation ends, their revenue slows down or stops. An eternal Ir-Af-Pak occupation assures eternal revenue for the MIMC.
Absolutely correct. This is so blindingly obvious I am continuously amazed at the denseness of otherwise intelligent people. There must be a Gullibility virus going around.
He is most likely dead of natural causes but both sides, assuming there really are two sides, benefit by keeping him alive.
You neglected to mention the OIL PIPELINE plans. These would've also needed to be terminated; unless the U.S. had entered into an agreement with whoever would've been in power in the Afghan government once the U.S. and NATO forces withdrew. The Taliban had rejected the pipeline "deal" a couple of times and Bush Jr, as U.S. Pres., warned them that they had been accept the "deal" offered and thereby receive "carpets of gold", or else they're receive "carpets of bombs"; and the Taliban stayed with their rejection, which I can only guess would be because they saw that they were being ripped off, low-balled, if they had accepted the "deal".
That pipeline has been in U.S. "foreign policy" making, or efforts, since around 1996. I think it's Major Doug Rokke, known worldwide for his work regarding the use of DU for war armaments, who stated in a presentation to a 9-11 Truth conference, audience anyway, that the Taliban had initially rejected the pipeline "deal" around 1998, if not a little before; and I think the second rejection, for the U.S. continued to try to get the Taliban to accept the or a "deal" for this pipeline, came in 2001, unless it was a little before that year. The video is or at least was at Youtube, where the page uses the title of "9/11 ... Hello".
The other corporate contracts with the U.S. government for "work" in Afghanistan are additional, though still represent a sh*t-load of money for the "winning" corporations. And I guess that mining corporations may be involved, for Afghanistan is considerably rich in mineral resources, and the U.S. always wars for RACKET for U.S. corporations to profit, so there'd surely be "room" made for mining cies of the U.S. and its allied countries in this war.
And maybe there's heroin traffic profits that some people in the U.S. government would seriously "benefit" from. The CIA, though not only this agency of the government of the USA, has been exposed for trafficking heroin as well as cocaine, and some high-ranking U.S. military people would surely want some of this profit too, I guess anyway. However, while there's potential for a lot of tax-exempt profits through this scheme for such people, the corporate contracts for reconstruction and for servicing the U.S. military forces and possibly forces of its allies in this war, and then the corporations that exploit natural resources directly and as service cies likely represents considerably more money. And there are the priviate "security" and "intelligence" cies too.
Since the US only wars for RACKET, the "leadership" surely want to put an end to the war; even if treating the Afghans fairly would still represent serious business deals with that country. Playing fairly isn't the way the US plays ball; unfortunately. Doing business only in fair and legal terms would cut out a lot of war-profiteering cies and their chiefs evidently wouldn't be happy about this; and they have "clout" with the political body of the USA.
Yes, the TAP; "Pipelineistan" is the strategic spot to circumvent those bad ol Ruskies and Chinese. Not that it matters but the TAP is for natural gas.
Pipelineistan is for OIL, or else both. The natural gas certainly is an additional part of the overall racket nature of this war, but the initial pipeline plan, which continues, has always been about the Caspian Sea region's rich oil reserves and getting the oil transfered to be shippable, oceanically. Having the pipeline go down to and through Iran was politically out of the question, since the U.S. State Dept has had Iran on the terrorist list, so the other alternative, instead of removing Iran from this list, has been the pipeline through Afghanistan, to Pakistan, which has oceanic coastline. And I don't know when this extension became an added feature, but there're reports that there'll be an extension from or of the pipeline from Pakistan to India.
See Pepe Escobar, who coined "Pipelineistan". He clearly refers to pipelining oil, and he's not the only respectable reporter to report on this.
And if TAP is what I am thinking to recall that it is, then it's the pipeline potentially to be constructed between Iran, Pakistan and India, or maybe not India; although, I'm pretty sure that it's a part of the TAP plan, hypothetical plan anyway. This might involve both oil and natural gas, but TAP is well described in articles at www.globalresearch.ca and surely some other websites, for anyone wanting to read up on this specific topic.
There's another pipeline for natural gas to go to China, constructed by China, but I think this one is from Kyrgystan.
Turkmenistan is in this, but am not sure if it's only with regards to the oil, or both, and the last that I read, it didn't seem clear what position the country's leadership is taking, for, on the one hand, it was (I believe to recall) to be part of a strategic alliance headed by Russia and/or China, while including other Central Asian countries and possibly Iran; while, on the other hand, there's been relational "talk" between the country's leadership and the U.S. I don't know what the present situation is, but guess that there are probably some more recent articles at www.globalresearch.ca on this specific matter.
Not only are oil and natural gas reserves involved, multiple pipelines also are. However, I'm pretty sure that the Pipelineistan term of Pepe Escobar refers to the pipeline through Afghanistan to pipe the oil to Pakistan.
Double Bingo!
Donkey Hote nails it.
UBL is a Real Enemy! Shivers of
Fear paralyze Topeka as we
Speak.
They seek him here, they seek him there.
They seek the boogeyman everywhere.
According to former FBI translator Sibel Edmonds Bin Laden and Al Qaeda were working with elements of our government all the way up to Sept. 11.
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=7332
Yes, she's said that alright, and she probably also did in her full deposition under oath in Ohio on August 8th, a considerably long deposition for which there's the following article, which provides the complete deposition in or with five video clips. It's perhaps not related to the war on Iraq and the false Iraqi WMD claims of the Bush-Cheney administration, at all, but what she says is relevant in other terms and is very, very important in many respects. Everyone should make sure to know plenty about what she's been saying for several years and now we have the full video copy of her deposition under oath after around seven years of having been unconstitutionally and, therefore, criminally gagged by the Bush-Cheney administration.
"SIBEL EDMONDS' DEPOSITION: VIDEO AND TRANSCRIPT RELEASED
Long-gagged FBI whistleblower's full under-oath testimony from Ohio election case, details Congressional blackmail, bribery, espionage, infiltration, more..."
by Brad Friedman, Aug 25, 2009
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=7374
I'd like to post a link for a related Brad Blog article, or two, but the website loads very poorly with my Firefox 3.5.5 browser, or else it's simply the website server that's slow at the moment. It always seems to "pack" a heavy load for some reason, but I haven't had this much trouble loading its pages before. Maybe it's just the website's server that is the slow-down (whatever) for me, and if it is, then other people probably have the same problem with the website.
People can find the links for the two articles by going to the blog homepage, scrolling or paging down while looking at the right-hand-side of the page and then click on the little button next to "Recent noteworthy articles..." just underneath the heading of "SPECIAL COVERAGE: SIBEL EDMONDS DISCLOSURES". The two articles I wish to immediately point out are entitled as follows.
"FORMER FBI EXEC CALLS FOR 'SPECIAL COUNSEL' PROBE
Corroborates several key allegations"
"9/29 17-Year CIA Intel Officer: Edmonds 'Very Credible'"
There are several other related articles linked in that section of the homepage that should be of general interest. This woman is not the sole very notable U.S. "whistleblower", or as former NYPD detective, police officer anyway, Frank Serpico prefers to call these people, which includes himself, "lamplighter(s)". He doesn't appreciate the other term due to it also having a derogatory meaning. Anyway, Sibel Edmonds isn't the only very notable lamplighter, and she has started a national "whistleblowers" assocation with other lamplighters, but she's nevertheless an important one; very. They're all very important for what they expose, but I've read very little from or about the others; except Frank Serpico, former CIA station chief John Stockwell, former CIA agent Phil Agee, and other former CIA people, all of who have exposed highly important information the public really needs to know about.
We must never overlook what these people have to say. Never. A responsible voter is not only intelligent and caring, universally caring, but is also well-informed; [essentially] so. Sound common sense is very helpful when we're not adequately informed on particular topics of import, but it's nevertheless very helpful to be well informed.
Preachy, eh? Oh well, it's just a little.
Other comments below summed it up.
I have seen no evidence that bin Laden/Al-Zawahiri masterminded the so-called 9/11 attacks.
I have seen no evidence that "Al-Quaeda" is one group, or that it even exists as the media continues to portray. Any Arab or Islamic group that is opposed to imperialism is fixed with the label.
I have seen no evidence that bin Laden is still alive. Benazir Bhutto said in an interview shortly before her murder, that OBL was dead.
After watching Adam Curtis' BBC documentary "The Power of Nightmares" back in 2005, and reading the mission statement of the Project for the New American Century, it became all too clear that Al-Quaeda and the 9/11 attacks were merely part of the "New Politics of Fear"
And now the Obama regime is going right along with the lies, myths and propaganda of the Bush Jr. regime.
Al Qaeda is literally 'the base', which refers to a 'database' kept by the U.S. Military and Intelligence agencies on the names of Mujihadin which were imported to Afghanistan and trained in terrorism and insurgency specifically to fight the Soviets. It is a list of U.S. intel assets, funded through BCCI's laundering of drug money, amongst other sources. This whole thing smells of Iran/Contra. It smells of the 'Enterprise' a'la Oliver North and the Bush I administration (yes, including his vice presidency under Reagan). Senator Daniel K. Inouye, chairman of the Senate Select Committee, described the Enterprise as a "shadowy government with its own Air Force, its own Navy, its own fund-raising mechanism and the ability to pursue its own ideas of the national interest, free from all checks and balances, and free from the law itself."
This is the picture I see.
Kerry did not lose the election.
The Ohio machines were manipulated by an anti abortion IT Guru of Rove.
His name Michael L. Connell in the past year or so was Paul Wellstoned out of reach of the court investigation.
Yes, our electoral and voting system is a sham; yet no one talks about it, just sweep that under the rug and let's talk about Sarah Palin.
The USA is the only democrcacy not to have standardized voting rules. Each state, county and even city have different rules and it is all too easy to rig elections. Then add the formal structural barriers to democratic line of accountability like winner-takes-all, disproportionate representation, the electoral college. big-money corporate directed elections and we can see that we live in a phony democracy. What Chomksy calls a "sham democracy"
Like I am fond of saying: democracy in the USA is the world's most expensive PR stunt.
Don't forget the Presidential Commission on Debates, controlled by Democrats and Republicans.
It is virtually impossible for any candidate, not allowed to participate in the final debates, to win the election. For this is when most Americans start to pay attention.
Yes, didn't the debates used to be controlled by the non-partisan League of Women Voters?
Besides, the corporate networks also conrol what is shown.
I misspoke, the machines were not manipulated ( I believe Diebold did that) by Connell the tally from the districts to the state were intercepted by Connell and then forwared to the state with altered tallies.
there was a documentary on show time or hbo this month
detailing the connection between bin laden the bush
crime family and the heroin trade. its in poor taste to kill your business partner and the bushes need someone to look
after all the business in afghanistan.our government was responsible for the crack scourage with ollie north
that psycho fuck and ronnie rayguns leading the way.
the reality of this country is almost too much to bear
and nothing is as it seems. as always reality is much
stranger then fiction! both of them should have been
beheaded for war crimes and crimes against america!
"missed the chance" my arse.
the Taliban offered to turn him over - but junior didn't want that.
Merely another confirmation of Dubya, Cheney, & Co. as the worst sort of fascists, incompetent ones.
True, now that the Obama admin. continues with the myths, lies and is boosting troop and contractors in Afghanistan, does that make them neo-fascists and war criminals as well?
"Mission Unaccomplished" on OBL was probably Bush's "payback" to the Oil Cartels for having helped propel him into the presidency.
"The report, written by staff working for the Democratic majority on the committee..."
OMG, the Democrats have dared to question a Bush policy. What's next, a vote of no confidence in the ex-pResident?
of course Bush let him go...bin Laden is an employee of the Carlise Group.
bin Laden will pop up in the next country the US wants to invade...or organize another terrorist attack on the USA if the people stop fearing enough to be suitably plyable
Quoting from the article, "U.S. soldiers and Afghan militia forces launched a large-scale assault on the Tora Bora mountains in 2001 in pursuit of bin Laden, believed to be hiding in the region with supporters after the Taliban government was removed from power. ...".
A large-scale assault, apparently so; but one really meant to succeed? Apparently not.
There's a part of the documentary film, "9/11: Press for Truth", which specifically tells viewers some very important information about this U.S. military and Afghan army assault on Tora Bora and what the film tells us is that the U.S., under the directions of a high U.S. office, likely enough Donald Rumsfeld, Sec. Def. at the time, deliberately let Osama Bin Ladin and the others he was with escape; and part, if not all, of this information in the film is based on what the CIA field commander, Gary Bernsten, who was there has exposed about this assault.
It's not that the U.S. troops and Afghan army troops who were present planned to let Osama Bin Ladin and the others escape, so the deliberation wouldn't have been on their part. But orders from "on high" made sure that the escape would happen, if what the film credibly tells viewers is true; and it is very credible.
The full video, in a single clip, is available at Google videos. Doing a Web search using the title of the film in quotes and preceded with the word "video" immediately provides a link to a Google video copy that is 1:24:21 in length and I think the part regarding the Tora Bora escape is somewhere around 40 minutes into the film.
At one point in the film, I think at around 53:00, it shows Bush being asked if the U.S. is going after Osama Bin Ladin and the first thing he replies with is that the U.S. of course is going after Saddam Hussein, having said this well before the war on Iraq and Congress's authorisation (conditional) for recourse to war on Iraq. Bush then corrects himself, then replacing "Saddam Hussein" with "Osama Bin Ladin". Bush Jr corrected "misstatements" of his multiple times during the two terms in office as C-in-C, but when he did this, it's what he first replied or stated that stands out; the corrections being indicative of an attempt to cover up the truth, I believe.
Anyway, there's much that's important in the film and the part on the Tora Bora escape. There's also another important escape in which the U.S., in agreement with the government of Pakistan, made sure to let many "terrorists", among the leaders of them anyway, escape from Afghanistan to Pakistan. In that case, the escape was with an airlift.
I believe we can also think back on Pat. Tillman when disucssing these "odd" escapes of Al Qaida and Taliban leaders from Afghanistan, too. This history is possibly included in "9/11: Press for Truth", but I don't recall if it is.
People will accept a state of war if they believe God is not with them, but not if they do not believe the devil is against them.
Either that's nonsense, or you can explain. Or perhaps you can explain and it'll still turn out to be nonsense. (?)
Sy Hersh did a lot of work on this as it was happening, and he got people from the DoD and other agencies on the record saying that Osama and his people were airlifted out through an air corridor created with full knowledge and approval of the U.S. military. It reminded me of Bush allowing the whole Bin Laden family to be airlifted out of the U.S. directly following 9/11, while all other civilian aircraft were grounded. There hasn't been any follow up after that which I'm aware of. Suffice to say that Osama is a useful boogieman (Al CIADA), and our government hasn't wanted to catch him. Even Bush was on record saying that he didn't care about catching Osama Bin Laden. Benazir Bhutto said Osama Bin Laden was already dead, although later it was argued that she mis-spoke and meant someone else. Now she's dead and will never have another word to say about it. Daniel Pearl is dead when he followed Al CIADA's money to Pakistan. Looks like it's dangerous to follow Al CIADA around, especially when CIA approved intelligence personel are on record for having funded them (ISI Chief - Mahmood Ahmad). Tora Bora... Smells like rotting fish.
Too bad most Americans have not read, "The New Pearl Harbor Revisited" by David Ray Griffin......He included a chapter on that very same topic. Why would the DOD not want to capture Osama Bin Laden? Number 1 The FBI had no evidence that Bin Laden had anything to do with 9/11 and in Osama's first interviews, he denied having anything to do with the attacks. The infamous Bin Laden tape that was used to link him was a fraud and most CIA knew that......Imagine, had DOD wanted to capture Bin Laden, then there could not have been "The Never Ending War ON TERROR"...
Not only did DOD destroy Pat Tillmon's writings about his experiences, but DOD destroyed all the Able Danger Documents that proved Mohammed Atta was operating in Brooklyn long before 9/11 and that is the same area that CIA operatives came from for the "93" World Trade Center bombing.
Until there is an "Independent Investigation of the attacks of 9/11, the truth will never be told for all the witnesses seem to be disappearing through: car accidents, plane accidents, mysterious heart attacks, and suicides without suicide notes.
No videos of tortures used to create confessions needed to link Osama Bin Laden. No videos of the Pentagon attack. The FBI admitted that there were only two cell phone calls made from all those planes, yet no investigation as to who made those calls and how the voices were created.
Just read Griffin's book and catch up on all the lies that were used to coverup the worst crime of our century.
This is 2009. how much longer will we be getting more stories about Osama? it's very annoying. Who cares? and why?
What is wrong is that no u.s military should ever have entered Afghanistan. Whatever they did or didn't do about Osama does not matter. All that matters is the unknown thousands of Afghan women and children they killed, and all the innocent men and boys they have locked up in the gulag.
Smells like AIPAC's psych-ops wing instructed the slaves in the Congruss to throw up a red herring to deflect rage from the Demok troop surge announcement. AIPAC has a huge stake in the Afghanistan occupation.
It's hard to hit a guy who's CIA handlers keep telling him where NOT to be...