Posted on 11/18/2014 9:57:26 AM PST by PapaNew
In 2001, a small U.S. special operations force had won extraordinary victories in Afghanistan and closed in on Bin Laden before high-level blunders allowed him to escape into Pakistan.
Exactly twelve years ago, during the cold Winter days between December 10-16, in the jagged mountains of Tora Bora that separate Afghanistan from Pakistan, Osama bin Laden walked unencumbered into Pakistan and disappeared for nine and a half years.
Just before, however, bin Laden had made an egregious error. After spending a couple seconds too long on his radio, the CIA pinpointed bin Laden’s location to within ten meters. One hour later, forty of America’s most elite special operations forces raced to kill the most infamous man alive.
It was the only day for nearly a decade in which the United States knew exactly where Osama bin Laden was. And, it was the last time that the majority of al Qaeda’s leadership would ever be in the same place.
It was no secret that the core of al Qaeda retreated to Tora Bora in the previous weeks. And, it was no surprise to the American operatives on the ground that bin Laden would escape.
For weeks, Gary Berntsen, the top CIA officer in Afghanistan, pleaded for eight hundred Army Rangers to seal the six-by-six square mile sierra of Tora Bora. General James Mattis, who commanded twelve hundred Marines at Camp Rhino near Kandahar, asked to reposition his forces to seal the border at Tora Bora. And, more than one thousand troops from the Tenth Mountain Division lay ready at Bagram Air Base near Kabul and Kharshi Khanabad in Uzbekistan.
Instead, the military opted to send forty additional Army special operators to Tora Bora.
(Excerpt) Read more at thedailybeast.com ...
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1382011/Bin-Ladens-great-escape-How-worlds-wanted-man-fools-elite-troops-whod-trapped-mountain-lair.html
Bush had a good initial swing at the ball after 9-11 by mounted a devastating attack.
But then he took his eye off the ball and his potential homer turned into an out. Lots of collateral damage, but Bin Laden and all of Al Quaeda who were within reach, were allowed to escape.
One might say that the Homeland Security crowd needed a living Bin Laden to emerge out of Afghanistan. If he died there....none of the massive apparatus would exist today.
Good point.
Another example of government using their own failure as an excuse for more government.
The whole story could have been told in a paragraph. Instead I read the whole thing.
Bin Laden escaped because Bush didn’t block off the border. I guess that is the complete story.
And a dead Bin Laden in 2001 may have cooled the jets a bit ahead of the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Maybe.
btt
*
Seemed to be a recurring theme with him.
“Kill Bin Laden” by Dalton Fury presents a very clear picture of how a series of bad government decisions led to Bin Laden escaping to Pakistan. Dalton Fury was a Delta Force commander who led a team of Delta, British SBS and American Army Special Forces to capture and/or kill Bin Laden, but decisions from government actors hindered their plan.
That is a good one.
It is funny because it is true.
That must have been back when liberals were demanding we not rush to war.
Great link...thanks... reading it now
Bingo
A dead Bin Laden in December 2001 effectively ends the war on terror as far as the American public would have been concerned.
Justice would have been served. AQ defeated, its leader dead and the Taliban vanquished
There is 0 chance the American public supports the invasion of Iraq, 0 chance the American public tolerates the trillions spent to enrich the government and contractor apparatus and instead W is on the hook for the poor economy over the next 3 years.
No way in hell would the “powers at be” allow Bin Laden to be killed/captured 3 years before an election and before anyone got rich off this war
So, were the stories I was reading shortly after we lost bin laden false? I read in three or four places that we lost him because we cornered him, then turned the operation over to the Northern Alliance 1) because we trusted them, 2) they knew the terrain, and 3) it would let him be eliminated without our fingerprints being on it (based on fears that his death would anger the muslim world).
The stories’ upshot was that the Northern Alliance, being muslim themselves, were unwilling to carry it out, but just went through the motions.
Am I the only one who read these stories?
Story is BS
I have read those stories too.
The one thing I would add is he may have also paid them off. They basically work for whoever is paying them the most.
With OBL dead every turd in a turban would have been trying to carry out a terrorist attack to take OBL’s and al Qaeda’s place as the big dog on the block in the muslim terrorist world.
With OBL alive, no other group dared to try and go around him with their own attacks.
One group that did try to go around OBL with his own attack was Zarqawui(SP?) bunch, now ISIS, in 2005.
With tips from al Qaeda, Zarqawei was turned into hamburger by the Air Force.
With OBL alive we only had to worry about one group and OBL always wanted big grand attacks which take time to carry out.
More time it takes for the attack, more time you have to stop an attack. Which Bush and our allies did for the most part.
Since OBL was popped, we are seeing a move to smaller attacks and talk of lone wolf attacks which are much harder if not impossible to stop.
“After spending a couple seconds too long on his radio...”
And then Senator (D) “Leaky” Leahy earned his nickname by announcing in public that we were locating these guys by tracking their satellite phones ...
President Bush did not support the creation of DHS, and fought against it. His hand was forced by the Congress at that time.
There are several good videos of him complaining that the DHS would actually decrease the ability of the US to respond to those types of incidents.
That is BS and you know it! Why is this a hit piece on GWB? Clinton had a better chance years before. Way too cynical to think or blame this on economics and “contractor apparatus.”
No “Bingo” here now or then.
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