Senate Report: Bush Missed Chance To Catch Bin Laden

A new Senate Foreign Relations Committee report says that Osama bin Laden was within the grasp of U.S troops in December 2001, but bin Laden was allowed to escape into the Afghan mountains. The Daily News reports, "The report asserts that the failure to get the terrorist leader when he was at his most vulnerable in December 2001 - three months after the 9/11 attacks - led to today's reinvigorated insurgency in Afghanistan."

The report says, "The failure to finish the job represents a lost opportunity that forever altered the course of the conflict in Afghanistan and the future of international terrorism." According to the NY Times, "The committee report, prepared at the request of Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts, the committee’s Democratic chairman, concludes unequivocally that in mid-December 2001, Mr. bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri, were at the cave complex, where Mr. bin Laden had operated previously during the fight against Soviet forces. The new report suggests that a larger troop commitment to Afghanistan might have resulted in the demise not only of Mr. bin Laden and his deputy but also of Mullah Muhammad Omar, the leader of the Afghan Taliban. Mullah Omar, who also fled to Pakistan in 2001, has overseen the resurgence of the Taliban."

You can read the report here (PDF). And the report is being released as President Obama is about to announce his plans for Afghanistan. Kerry has long said the Bush administration missed the chance to get bin Laden (the Times calls it "unfinished political on the part of Mr. Kerry. Before and during his unsuccessful 2004 presidential campaign, he hammered on the failure to catch Mr. bin Laden").

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Jen Chung in News on November 29, 2009 10:35 AM

Comments [rss]

Amanda Harletsch

Bush has been the worse puppet of the NeoCons, and worse president ever, yet every body on the republican boat defend his guts even against the most basic facts.

But since republicans have opted for making a reality of their own where dinosaurs and bible people existed together, babies is the main ingredient of Democratic food, and blacks and Mexicans are the responsible for the state of the economy, our next stop is Armageddon. Idiocy is truly a problem for such a big economy.

Just watch them in all their glory:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKKKgua7wQk

jpeditor

Yeah, those boring Americans in fly-over country.

Yeah, we need more high-brow Øbama style culture!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhHw1glzv3Q

mcgooch

Wow, amnesia extraordinaire! It was Clinton who missed the ooportunity to qwell and quash OBL - he knew, he saw and he bailed! Perhaps the 'life altering title and crown' should sit on the right head! This article should be retitled "The Dems are pushing fair trial of terrorists that should have been captured by Clinton during his 8 useless years in office with a lame foreign administration and policy."

5borough

I have trouble remembering if GWB is supposed be an inept idiot, or an evil genius. Which is it again?

PS: Has BHO freed us of Halliburton yet?

NannyState

Bin Laden has been very good for business. In fact, his last Halliburton dividend check arrived with a personal note postmarked "Preston Hollow Sta. Dallas".

jpeditor

I hear that you get free goat sex from AQ for every post you do ridiculing Bush, Cheney, Haliburton, etc...

How BAHHHHHD can it be? Better than nothing, right.

NannyState

I came before the goat did. Does that make me Bush? Or Cheney?

jpeditor

Makes you obama! Ha-Ha!

inoyourider

Not surprising- we all know what a complete embarrassment W was.

longacre

If Clinton hadn't dilly dallied about pulling the trigger in favor of playing golf on a number of occasions, we wouldn't be talking about this today.

thefacts

Please provide a news link to back up your absurd statement or you will appear as dimwitted and inept as Bushie.

longacre

Sorry, no link, but check out the book "Dereliction of Duty" by the US Air Force Lt. Col. Robert Patterson who carried "the football" for Clinton. The guy is completely unpolitical, almost apologetic that he's ratting out the commander in chief, but he simply details all the times Clinton acted like an ass.

* Planes in the air, Clinton refuses to take a call from Sandy Berger while playing golf to give FIRE orders for an airstrike. The planes eventually run low on fuel and have to abort the mission. This actually happened twice: Once in Iraq and once while tracking bin Laden.

* Bill lost his set of nuke codes one time. Ooopsie!

* Bill groped a female USAF officer on Air Force One.

thefacts

Clinton sent in a missle to obliterate him in Afganistan around 1999, but, luck for him, bin Laden left the powwow of jihadists an hour earlier.

Bush let bin Laden escape entirely. The entire Free World knows Bush is an incompetent fool, or won't you admit that?

Wza

The man had no idea what he was doing with the Texas Rangers, and this is a surprise?

nyorker9

How about the entire stories buddies?

One time,and one time only,did the BUSH administartion have a chance to capture Bin Laden.Yes,in Tora Bora.AFTER SEPT 11 !

William Jefferson Clinton had the opportunity to capture hin a minimum of THREE times.BEFORE SEPT 11 ! Some reports state up to a dozen tmes.One time SUDAN was going to hand him over on a silver platter.Thats a fact.Clinton claimed he wasnt wanted by the US.Well thats a lie,because after the very 1st WTC attack in 1993,Obama was wanted for at least questioning about his part in the attack.Another fact.FBI counter terrorist head John ONeill continually warned CLINTON about Bin Laden...Clinton did nothing.

So you see,SEPT 11 2001 NEVER would have even happened if not for the inaction of one Bill Clinton..You can look it all up.I did.

S.D.

Wow, All the BS you just spouted has been debunked on Numerous occasions.

Let me guess: You're a "Freeper", Right?

Homer2323

“We had no doubt over his identity. Bin Laden can clearly be seen standing out from the rest of the group next to the buildings,” said Michael Scheuer, a former CIA officer who headed Alec Station, the agency’s unit which tracked Bin Laden during the 1990s.

He added: “Nobody at the top of the CIA wanted to take the decision to arm the Predator. It meant that even if we could find him (Bin Laden) we were not allowed to kill him.”

S.D.

O, and also: Great Arm Chair quarterbacking.

Must Be Clinton's Fault!

Uh huh, rrrriiiiihhhght....

(Slowly Steps away from the crazy man)

longacre

Blaming Clinton does not mean you're apologizing for Bush. It means they both fucked up.

Sudan had bin Laden in custody in 1996 and offered him to us. Clinton said no, making him no better than the Saudis who also refused to take him.

Smitty025

That's probably not true. According to Ambassador Timothy Carney, the former U.S. envoy to Sudan, "At no time did any Sudanese, Ali Osman Taha, or anyone else, ever say to me that they could give the U.S. Osama bin Laden. Taha and I talked about sending him back to Saudi in a mid-January chat."[1] The 9/11 Commission also reports that "Sudan's miniter of defense, Fatih Erwa, has claimed that Suden offered to hand bin Laden over to the United States. The commission has found no credible evidence that this was so. Ambassador Carney had instructions only to push the Sudanese to expel bin Laden. Ambaassador Carney had no legal basis to ask for more from the Sudanese since, at the time, there was no indictment outstanding."[2]

Both of those quotes are taken from The Osama bin Laden I Know by Peter Bergen.

jpeditor

It is true, and you can hear Clinton himself admit so in an audio file at liveleak.

without the quote marks, and substituting standard html for dot, search google for:

"Bill clinton On Osama bin laden site:liveleak DOT com"

Smitty025

That video does not contradict what I said. The Sudanese did want to start dealing with America, and they did so by giving in to the US pressure to expel him from the country. Where does Clinton say they wanted to give him to the US? The closest Clinton comes is say that they "released" bin Laden, and that Clinton never tried to have him brought to the US because there was no basis for holding him.

jpeditor

" that Clinton never tried to have him brought to the US because there was no basis for holding him."

And that is EXACTLY what is wrong with treating terrorists like criminals instead of as terrorists - there is NO BASIS IN THE CONSTITUTION for giving American-style legal rights to jihadi scum who commit war on the United States or our allies.

I am not defending Bush (though I prefer REAL military criticism of the Tora Bora fiasco, rather than from the N. Vietnamese's favorite U.S. traitor, J. F'n Kerry), I am SPITTING on Clinton and on his defenders and on his admin, particularly Jamie Gorelick who suddenly was ON THE 9/11 COMMISSION WHEN SHE SHOULD HAVE BEEN IN FRONT OF IT IN HANDCUFFS for "toughening" the chinese wall that prevented the FBI and CIA from sharing the intel they had on AQ and OBL.

And now we have this clintonista loser Eric Holder in Øbama's admin; Holder, who started his D.C. career by working the pardons for the FALN, then Mark Rich, and now has guaranteed a forum for KSM in CRIMINAL courts, and thats if Holder hasn't already sabotaged the case by pre-declaring the verdict.

Should Bush have NUKED tora bora? Who knows. Afaik, he was told the human costs were high and success not likely. But we wouldn't be in this mess if WJC had spent more time talking with the CIA than he did sticking cigars in monica's "pants" and "using" the oval office sink.

S.D.

Uh huh, riiiggggghhhhttt...

Michael Scheuer want's to sell more books, Right?

I'm shocked that you didn't bring up that propaganda piece, "The Path to 9/11" since you're paraphrasing from it.

John

You try & tell the police when you are ready to talk to them , & see how far you get. 4GETABOUTIT.

Homer2323

At least they didnt have him on live video 3 times...but was too busy with 'that woman'

S.D.

Um, Which myth would that be again?

Mordicai

Don't worry, history will vindicate him. Wait, I mean vilify.

Splicer

A criminal level of incompetence or a criminal conspiracy -- your choice.

moonbeam

That pretty much sums it up.

Spirit of 76

Some conspiracy theorists would say that it was intentional. They say bin Laden is the boogeyman Dubya wanted us to stay worried about. If bin Laden had been caught in 2001, the voters wouldn't have been scared enough to re-elect Dubya in '04. Sure, there would have been a momentary wave of euphoria, but Dubya wouldn't have wanted to risk "what have you done for us lately" syndrome three years down the line. After all, the public forgot in less than two years George HW Bush's success in the Persian Gulf War.