Senate Report Blames BushCo For Not Capturing Bin Laden

A Senate Foreign Relations Committee report is blaming the Bush administration for failing to kill or capture bin Laden when he was believed to be cornered in the Tora Bora region of Afghanistan in December of 2001.

Bin Laden had written his will, apparently sensing he was trapped, but the lack of sufficient forces to close in for the kill allowed him to escape to tribal areas in Pakistan, according to the report.

It said former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and top U.S. commander Gen. Tommy Franks held back the necessary forces for a “classic sweep-and-block maneuver” that could have prevented bin Laden’s escape.

“It would have been a dangerous fight across treacherous terrain, and the injection of more U.S. troops and the resulting casualties would have contradicted the risk-averse, ‘light footprint’ model formulated by Rumsfeld and Franks,” the report said.

Bush officials, including former Vice President Cheney, have said the location of bin Laden was too uncertain to commit resources.

“But 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,” the report said.

By: Alan

Alan Colmes is the publisher of Liberaland.