Did We Let Osama Bin Laden Escape on Purpose?

There is an irresistibly intriguing rumor making the rounds on Capitol Hill today. It is that the Pentagon and the CIA could have nailed Osama bin Laden in Tora Bora last week, but let him escape instead.

Let's draw up a list of prospective countries to where OBL might run, places anarchic or insanely hubristic enough to provide him on-the-lam shelter. There are five.

Somalia. What better justification, what better opportunity, could there be to pay back the Somali savages who killed 18 U.S. peacekeeping soldiers and dragged several of their bodies through the streets of Mogadishu in 1993, than if OBL escaped to Somalia? There have got to be vast legions of folks in the U.S. military who are right now praying, "If he got away, please let him get away to Somalia."

Iraq. GW is working overtime to create a rationale for going after Saddam and getting our European allies behind it. If Saddam were fool enough to take OBL in, no more rationale is needed. The BLU-82 Daisy Cutters and GBU-28 Bunker Busters start dropping tomorrow.

Iran. While it seems unlikely the mullahs would help and hide OBL, his presence and the massive U.S. military strike against it would immediately precipitate a national uprising. Iran is a desiccated tinderbox, ready at any moment to burst into flames of revolutionary revenge against the mullahs. OBL's fleeing to Iran would be the catalyst for conversion of Iran from theocratic tyranny to secular pro-West democracy.

Saudi Arabia. OBL's ultimate fantasy is to become the Ayatollah Khomeini of Saudi Arabia. He has strong support by the ultra-puritanical Wahabis, the Islamic sect that financially sponsored the Taliban and are now dedicated to purging Mohammed's sacred homeland of the corrupt Saudi royal family. The Wahabis providing sanctuary to Osama, and trying to instigate a civil war thereby, would give the Saudi royals, backed by U.S. firepower, the excuse they need to wipe them out for good.

Pakistan. As anyone who has traveled through the Pushtun area of Pakistan bordering Afghanistan knows, the Pak government exercises diaphanously nominal control over it. If a Pushtun tribe with more hubris than brains gives OBL sanctuary, it is the pretext for the Pakistani military still dominated by Punjabis who despise the Pushtuns with U.S. firepower to establish sovereignty over their entire country and end the endemic anarchy.

There is simply no way for Osama bin Laden to vanish in obscurity. These five countries seem to be the only conceivable places to where he might attempt escaping. There are quite beneficial consequences for the U.S. should he do so to any of the five. Thus the rumor. It may be nothing more. The possibility of a Twofer Payback has, nonetheless, a magnetic appeal. (c) 2001 Dr. Jack Wheeler and the Freedom Research Foundation All Rights Reserved © NewsMax. com

Well my man Rummy has made it clear that while catching OBL is important, it isnt the only thing we need to do to end terrorism. This article makes sense to me. The name Bin Laden is fresh in all of our minds and if he escapes and then reappears in Somolia we will have good justification for bombing them. There is only one flaw in this plan. What if the next country comes right out forward and says that they are willing to help find, and turn in OBL, but they do not know where he is. Lie or not we would have no grounds for attacking them if they agreed to help us find him. Then he would be free and we would be $hit out of luck on catching him. We also would have to find another reason to bomb Somolia.

I say we secretly forget about OBL. He needs to come out of hiding sooner or later and when he does we will be watching close and nab him. In the meantime we can move on to bigger punks like saddam.

Right now there isn't much breaking news regarding the Tora Bora area, but there does seem to be a lot of activity. One site I like to check is PTD.net, and it does mention the journalists are being kept far away from the surveilance area.

If we're into some wild speculation, how about this one. We've actually detected something within one of these mountains, since surely the Al Qaeda would have something more than stone-age caves: I'm thinking a deep fortified bunker. We're bringing some heavy duty drilling equipment that will penetrate at least 650 feet, the depth needed to contain an underground nuclear detonation. Due to the expected worldwide condemnation, we're trying to keep this part of the operation as hush hush as possible. I am not sure where you'd have to be located to be able to detect that something major was exploded underground.

Here's the story I'm referencing

Bin Laden fighters abandon Aladdin's cave of terrorism Thursday, 20-Dec-2001 8:06AM Story from AFP / Pierre Lhuillery Copyright 2001 by Agence France-Presse (via ClariNet) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TORA BORA, AFGHANISTAN, 20-DEC-2001: A mujahideen tank maneuvers as the battlegrounds in Tora Bora mountain are covered with snow December 20, 2001. Guns fell silent as top anti-Taliban mujahideen leaders declared victory over Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda forces. [Photo by Romeo Gacad, copyright 2001 by AFP and ClariNet]

TORA BORA, Afghanistan, Dec 20 (AFP) - US military planes returned Thursday to the skies over Osama bin Laden's former hideout in eastern Afghanistan as military investigators went through the Aladdin's cave of terrorism below.

Ammunition, guns, surface-to-air missiles and other weapons have been found in the caves hurriedly abandoned by the followers of the suspected planner of the September 11 attacks in New York and Washington.

For the third day in a row a B-52 bomber flew in circles over the Tora Bora mountain where the al-Qaeda leader had a network of caves and tunnels now being emptied by US Special Forces and Afghan militia.

At least one fighter-bomber and other observation planes were seen flying over the region on the lookout for the hundreds of fighters who fled two weeks of intense bombing raids.

Most of the mainly Arab and Chechen fighters were believed to have headed for the Pakistan border after the al-Qaeda bases became a target.

Local mujahedin fighters, working with US Special Forces, are going through the tunnels, which have been sealed off since the victory over al-Qaeda.

Commanders said about 200 bodies have been found. But donkeys have also been seen coming back down the slopes carrying equipment and documents found in the bin Laden lair.

Access to one of the hundreds of caves was through a one metre (three feet) wide drainage channel. Inside were thousands of white metal boxes packed with munitions.

The entrance was dug through rock and earth, leading to a cavern about four metres (12 feet) wide and two metres (six feet) high.

Stacked from floor to ceiling along the walls were thousands of metal boxes inscribed with Chinese characters containing munitions, including tonnes of 12.7 millimetre ammunition, mortars and missiles.

Another cave further along the slope -- between eight and 10 metres (26 and 33 feet) wide -- contained a similar array of arsenal.

Other openings are visible in the mountain side. Some of the underground shelters would have required major work to construct.

Even after two weeks of intense bombing raids by B-52s dropping bombs of up to 15,000 pounds, the weapons dumps remained intact.

But a training camp 100 metres (yards) away was completely destroyed by the bombs. A tank in the centre of the camp was left a mass of twisted metal.

Some unconfirmed witness accounts said that further up the mountains, there were giant caves which had their own electricity supply and air conditioning.

It will take days, maybe weeks, to find out the real story of the secret of the caves.

The mujahedin and US forces, seeking information on the whereabouts of bin Laden and his weapons capability, are doing their best to keep foreign journalists away from the hideouts.

But vehicles belonging to the US Special Forces and one commando were seen on a slope near the abandoned camp.

plh/tw/ben/am.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.