Bin Laden 'within grasp' Al Jazeera: The Senate foreign affairs committee report (.pdf) said that the failure to move in on Bin Laden when he was at his most vulnerable had 'enormous consequences'... 'The failure to finish the job represents a lost kill Osama opportunity that forever altered the course of the conflict in Afghanistan and the future of international terrorism.'...
The committee's report criticises Donald Rumsfeld, the then-US defence secretary, and General Tommy Franks, the US general who commanded the invasion of Afghanistan, for not sending more US troops to Tora Bora to block the mountain paths to Pakistan, which were bin Laden's only means of escape.
'Fewer than 100 commandoes were on the scene with their Afghan allies and their calls for reinforcements to launch an assault were rejected, the report said. 'The vast array of American military power, from sniper teams to the most mobile divisions of the Marine Corps and the army, was kept on the sidelines... Instead, the US command chose to rely on airstrikes and untrained Afghan militias to attack bin laden and on Pakistan's loosely organised Frontier Corps to seal his escape route.'
Related:
'The only justification for the bloody presence of America in Afghanistan is the ambiguous existence of Usamah Bin- Laden and the Al Qa'idah terrorist network... All these slogans, this fighting and killing are a game, a painful and prolonged game, whose end even the players do not know and which is running out of control.'
'How often does Delta come up with a tactical plan that's disapproved by higher headquarters?' CBS' Scott Pelley asked the commando leader. 'In my experience, in my five years at Delta, never before,' he replied.
Delta Force Commander Says Best Plan to Kill the Al Qaeda Leader in 2001 Was Nixed
