Bin Laden
“On or around 16 December [2001], two days after writing his will, Bin Laden and an entourage of bodyguards walked unmolested out of Tora Bora and disappeared into Pakistan’s unregulated tribal area,” where he is still thought to be hiding, the report says.
The then US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld expressed concern at the time that a large US troop presence in the area could provoke a backlash and he said the evidence about Bin Laden’s location was not conclusive.
Open door
The report says the “failure to finish the job” laid the foundation for “today’s protracted Afghan insurgency and inflaming the internal strife now endangering Pakistan”.
It acknowledges that removing Bin Laden “would not have eliminated the worldwide extremist threat”.
But it adds that “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”.
The report rebuffs claims by Bush administration officials at the time that intelligence about Bin Laden’s location was inconclusive.
“The review of existing literature, unclassified government records and interviews with central participants underlying this report removes any lingering doubts and makes it clear that Osama Bin Laden was within our grasp at Tora Bora,” it says.
Well of course the Bush crew let him get away. Capturing Bin Laden was the last thing they wanted to have happen, killing him in combat fine except for possible repercussions from Saudi Arabia, capturing him so he could talk, no, no,no. He knows way too much that could be embarrassing, and not just about 9/11. Do you really think the Saudi royal family and the Bin Laden family (don’t forget Bush let them fly out of Florida at a time when everyone else was grounded) did not order the US government to let him escape, on pain of cutting oil supplies?
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