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.
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The report says Osama bin Laden was unquestionably within reach of U.S. troops in the mountains of Tora Bora, when American military leaders decided not to pursue him with massive force.
The report says the U.S. had the means to mount a rapid assault with several thousands troops at least. Instead, fewer than 100 U.S. commandos, working with Afghan militias and backed by air strikes tried to hunt down the al-Qaida leader.
It says its review “removes any lingering doubts and makes it clear that Osama bin Laden was within our grasp at Tora Bora.”
The report, ordered by Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry, says the actions in Tora Bora “opened the door for his escape to Pakistan” and allowed him to become a “potent symbolic figure” for extremists worldwide.
It says Bin Laden’s escape has laid the foundation for today’s reinvigorated Afghan insurgency and inflamed the internal strife now endangering Pakistan.
To read the full report click here PDF
The gov couldn’t care less.
If we knew 1 percent what really goes on underground in washington it would be pretty cool
I am an independent conservative and I agree that Bush let Osama get away. BUT, don’t forget that the LIBERAL ANTI-AMERICAN gangsters in the senate PROSECUTED American soldiers for firing on ENEMY terrorists! So, I don’t want to hear from John Kerry that he was right all along, because it is people like HIM that DESTROY America!!!
I believe jon kerry like a hole in the head….
Jhon you lost the presidency get over it
We are lucky we let him escape because if not he would have been sent to NY to stand trail,be acquitted because we did not read him his miranda rights according to these left wing nut cases that are running the country
We are lucky we let him escape because if not he would have been sent to NY to stand trail,be acquitted because we did not read him his miranda rights according to these left wing nut cases that are running the country
No doubt the honorable Senator is completely trustworthy on this….just as Gore-nisht is on the environment. Makes you kind-of wish Bush lost so that the knuckleheads would be gone already.
Don’t forget that Bush himself said publicly “I don’t know where Osama bin Laden is, and I don’t care”
Why blame bush for this? Do you think that he has to take responseabilty for rumsefeld mistakes? As i see it this is another smear campaign against the bush admins. Oriengzed by kerry and the ny times to hide the failure of the obama admins. But we will not buy that crap anymore.
Sure bush was the problem. Clinton let him get away too. The real problem is all americans don’t care. Unless its a problem in our backyard, its justsome exciting news. 8 years since 9-11 and its long forgotten. We are all busy with our own lives. If this were really a priority to all americans then not only would he have been caught already, but Mccain would be president.
The US always knew exactlu where he is and we can “get him” this very second too, if we really wanted to.
The us prefers to keep him running and in hiding in a confined area because doing so allows us to track him and have 100 percent survailance of him.
If we drop a 100 megaton bomb on his head and destroy him and all his closest aids then other newcommers take over and we loose all our presiouse tracking whichj has alowed us to be 100 percent sucessful to prevent any repetas of 9/11 on us soil.
If we capture osama we loose our abilitu to know what the future leadership is up to.
So now any failure that might take place is Bush’s fault! Great ! Now Obama can take credit for success but no blame for failure.
If a report involves john f kerry who by the way served in Vietnam only to come back to the USA to testily in front of congress with lies and deceit about his fellow soldiers, I totally refuse to believe it. He lost any ne’emonis when he did that. He is nothing more than a self centered heavy duty liberal who loathes the military. We are talking about a creep sh’b’creep who caused additional harm to his fellow soldiers who were POWs at the time.
He definitely has a box seat reserved for himself in g’henim!
This political “report” is nonsense. The troops weren’t available at the time, and there was no practical way to get them there. There was no reason not to rely on the local forces; the fact that they failed doesn’t change that. But ultimately it doesn’t matter: if bin Laden is still alive (and there’s no evidence for that) he only stays that way by staying completely out of contact with anyone; so what difference does it make whether he’s alive or dead?
he promised us no more troops and we melted. now he is sending more? and he promises this time he will catch osama and all the world terror will come to the end and we will all live happily ever after? i think its time to impeach this guy because obviously he doesnt remember promising us no more troops just as bush promised to keep us out of world conflicts (until of course 9/11 happened then we just had to go and invade the wrong country)
truth is halliburton hasnt made enough money off these wars yet and they havent built their pipeline through afghanistan yet because those afghanis just wont let us pillage their land. so obama needs to expand the war to find osama. this country is going down the tubes. we need to seriously impeach obama and bring back the constitution as the leader of our republic.
To #17 – Shua, you can’t expect people to know constitutional law when they’ve probably never read the Constitution, taken a civics class, or even learned American history. Someone who has learned everything he “knows” about politics from talk radio is not going to understand what “impeach” means. To him it’s just another type of cuss-word that happens to be printable – just a shriller way of saying, “I don’t like it!” without caring much what it really is.
Nevertheless, keep up the good work. If you and other knowledgeable people keep posting, maybe sooner or later some of it will sink in.
“The report, ordered by Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry…,”
Why am I not surprised? Rule of thumb:
Republicans seek to fix problems,
Democrats seek to affix blame.
There has never been an administration that has sought to undermine the deeds and accomplishments of the previous administration more than that of Barack Hussein Obama. The fact that Clinton ignored the Al Quaida’s 1993 WTC attack, The Kenya and Tanzania Embassy attacks, the USS Cole attack, and emboldened Al Quaida to continue their global terrorism against US interest will of course not be mentioned because. In discussing military action keep in mind that Bill Clinton was the first president to never serve in the military and Barack hussein Obama is the second. They are also the first two to admit smoking pot although Bill says he didn’t inhale, and Obama admitted using cocaine also, it’s OK because they have a higher calling, they’re Democrats. Of Robert Bork was unfit to be a supreme court justice because he smoked pot 30 years before, but hey, he was a Republican and not from the liberal socialist elite that are alowed to say: Do as I say but not as I do.”