Bin Laden linked to Tora Bora
Lack of ground troops to hunt him called worst error of al-Qaida war
By Barton Gellman and Thomas E. Ricks / Washington Post
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WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration has concluded that Osama bin Laden was present during the battle for Tora Bora late last year and that failure to commit U.S. ground troops to hunt him was its gravest error in the war against al-Qaida, according to civilian and military officials with first-hand knowledge.
Intelligence officials have assembled what they believe to be decisive evidence, from contemporary and subsequent interrogations and intercepted communications, that bin Laden began the battle of Tora Bora inside the cave complex along Afghanistan's mountainous eastern border. Though there remains a remote chance that he died there, the intelligence community is persuaded that bin Laden slipped away in the first 10 days of December.
A common view among those interviewed outside the U.S. Central Command is that Army Gen. Tommy Franks, the war's operational commander, misjudged the interests of putative Afghan allies and let pass the best chance to capture or kill al-Qaida's leader. Without professing second thoughts about Tora Bora, Franks has changed his approach in later battles, using Americans on the ground as first-line combat units.
In the fight for Tora Bora, corrupt local militias did not live up to promises to seal off the mountain redoubt, and some colluded in the escape of fleeing al-Qaida fighters.
The Bush administration has never acknowledged that bin Laden slipped through the cordon ostensibly placed around Tora Bora as U.S. aircraft began bombing on Nov. 30. Until now it was not known publicly whether the al-Qaida leader was present on the battlefield.
But captured al-Qaida fighters, interviewed separately, gave consistent accounts describing an address by bin Laden around Dec. 3 to mujaheddin, or holy warriors.
Rear Adm. Craig Quigley, chief spokesman for Franks, acknowledged the dominant view outside Tampa but said the general is unpersuaded.
"We have never seen anything that was convincing to us at all that Osama bin Laden was present at any stage of Tora Bora-before, during or after," he said.
"Truth is hard to come by in Afghanistan," Quigley said, and for confidence on bin Laden's whereabouts "you need to see some sort of physical concrete proof."
OF COURSE THERE IS NOT ONE HUNDRED PERCENT CERTAINITY THAT BIN LADEN WAS THERE, BUT THERE IS CERTAINITY THAT THE MILITARY SCREWED UP, AND OF COURSE THE U.S. IS GOING TO DENY THAT THEY THOUGHT BIN LADEN WAS THEREE
AI
