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Bush had no plan to catch Bin Laden after 9/11

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WASHINGTON, Sep 29 (IPS) - New evidence from former U.S. officials reveals that the George W. Bush administration failed to adopt any plan to block the retreat of Osama bin Laden and other al Qaeda leaders from Afghanistan to Pakistan in the first weeks after 9/11.

That failure was directly related to the fact that top administration officials gave priority to planning for war with Iraq over military action against al Qaeda in Afghanistan.

As a result, the United States had far too few troops and strategic airlift capacity in the theatre to cover the large number of possible exit routes through the border area when bin Laden escaped in late 2001.

Because it had not been directed to plan for that contingency, the U.S. military had to turn down an offer by Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf in late November 2001 to send 60,000 troops to the border passes to intercept them, according to accounts provided by former U.S. officials involved in the issue.

On Nov. 12, 2001, as Northern Alliance troops were marching on Kabul with little resistance, the CIA had intelligence that bin Laden was headed for a cave complex in the Tora Bora Mountains close to the Pakistani border.

The war had ended much more quickly than expected only days earlier. CENTCOM commander Tommy Franks, who was responsible for the war in Afghanistan, had no forces in position to block bin Laden's exit.

Franks asked Lt. Gen. Paul T. Mikolashek, commander of Army Central Command (ARCENT), whether his command could provide a blocking force between al Qaeda and the Pakistani border, according to David W. Lamm, who was then commander of ARCENT Kuwait.

Lamm, a retired Army colonel, recalled in an interview that there was no way to fulfill the CENTCOM commander's request, because ARCENT had neither the troops nor the strategic lift in Kuwait required to put such a force in place. "You looked at that request, and you just shook your head," recalled Lamm, now chief of staff of the Near East South Asia Centre for Strategic Studies at the National Defence University.

Franks apparently already realised that he would need Pakistani help in blocking the al Qaeda exit from Tora Bora. Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld told a National Security Council meeting that Franks "wants the [Pakistanis] to close the transit points between Afghanistan and Pakistan to seal what's going in and out", according to the National Security Council meeting transcript in Bob Woodward's book "Bush at War".

Bush responded that they would need to "press Musharraf to do that".

A few days later, Franks made an unannounced trip to Islamabad to ask Musharraf to deploy troops along the Pakistan-Afghan border near Tora Bora.

A deputy to Franks, Lt. Gen. Mike DeLong, later claimed that Musharraf had refused Franks's request for regular Pakistani troops to be repositioned from the north to the border near the Tora Bora area. DeLong wrote in his 2004 book "Inside Centcom" that Musharraf had said he "couldn't do that", because it would spark a "civil war" with a hostile tribal population.

But U.S. Ambassador Wendy Chamberlin, who accompanied Franks to the meeting with Musharraf, provided an account of the meeting to this writer that contradicts DeLong's claim.

Chamberlin, now president of the Middle East Institute in Washington, recalled that the Pakistani president told Franks that CENTCOM had vastly underestimated what was required to block bin Laden exit from Afghanistan. Musharraf said, "Look you are missing the point: there are 150 valleys through which al Qaeda are going to stream into Pakistan," according to Chamberlin.


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bansheewail

24 responses // Bush had no plan to catch Bin Laden after 9/11

  •  

    How long are we going to put up with weak leadership. The hawks are really doves.

    bansheewail
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    They dont even have evidence he did 9/11 and still to this day dont have enough evidence to convict him.

    dissimulator
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    I don't think Bush and Co. not having a plan is anything new. The only plan Bush and Co has is his axis of Greed Oil-Guns and Bombs. Steal all the oil sell guns and bombs to make money and terrorize people to keep fear in thier minds to keep the Repelicans in office.

    Robroy1
  •  

    The Bush Administration is incompetent? YOU DON'T SAY!!! :D

    He probably thought Jesus would take care it all. ;p

    SDLN
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    look on the bright side, now we get to be the belligerent old people that say "You think you have it rough, I was there when 'W' was in office". That definitely will trump anything grandma ever said and only great grandma trumps with slavery

    Wilmingtonian
    1 response to this
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    May I suggest that there is a good chance that old scary Bin has been dead since December 2001 from lack of medical care for kidney failure ?

    Is a big bad wolf so good at frightening a nation of village idiots that we can't spare to loose him ?

    Osama bin Laden:
    A dead nemesis perpetuated by the US government
    http://whatreallyhappened.com/WRHARTICLES/osama_dead.html

    Is Bin Laden Dead?
    http://thegoodargument.com/2008/02/23/is-bin-laden-dead/

    If bin Laden was dead,
    Would the U.S. admit it?
    http://www.welfarestate.com/binladen/funeral/

    Just saying ;)

    WhiteNoise
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    http://www.rense.com/1.imagesH/terror_dees.jpg
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    "Today Americans would be outraged if U.N. troops entered Los Angeles to restore order; tomorrow they will be grateful. This is especially true if they were told there was an outside threat from beyond, whether real or promulgated, that threatened our very existence. It is then that all peoples of the world will plead with world leaders to deliver them from this evil. The one thing every man fears is the unknown. When presented with this scenario, individual rights will be willingly relinquished for the guarantee of their well being granted to them by their world government." - Henry Kissinger speaking at Evian, France, May 21, 1992 Bilderburgers meeting.
    Unbeknownst to Kissinger, his speech was taped by a Swiss delegate to the meeting.

    "If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear." - George Orwell

    WhiteNoise
  •  

    Bush is nothing but a piece of crap that has ran this country into the ground. Mccain nor Obama will do any better. We need someone who will worry about this country and not whats going on in BFE!!!!!!

    CR00258
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    History will eventually catch up with all the spin, and in a couple years from now people will know what really was going on here.

    yonie
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    Well if he was gone then Bush wouldnt be able to convince people that we need to be at war! Remember, he kept on connecting the two? If we found him and executed him then they wouldnt be able to say "what about 9/11?" They had to keep it going with him so that Americans would be stupid enough to fall for all the "you're un-American if you are against the war" lies they were telling.

    needu
  •  

    My only question is: When will someone stand up and prosecute the Bush administration for War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity?

    catnlilie
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    http://www.rense.com/1.imagesH/trial_dees.jpg
    Image...

    THE SOONER THE BETTER BUT FIRST & FOREMOST AMERICANS WOULD HAVE TO GROW SOME BALLS & LEARN THE MEANING OF THE WORD DIGNITY... QUITE A TALL ORDER FOR WHAT THE DELIBERATE DUMBING DOWN OF AMERICA HAS REDUCED THE US OF A TO BECOME... A NATION OF VILLAGE IDIOTS ? http://www.deliberatedumbingdown.com/

    WhiteNoise
  •  

    WhiteNoise if you dont like america get the hell out!!!!

    CR00258
    1 response to this
  •  

    of course he did not have a plan.
    why would he?

    common sense really answers all the questions.
    something I see America heavily lacking in.

    intelligenceisacurse
  •  

    intelligenceisacurse
    if you dont like america get the Fu_k out

    CR00258
  •  

    intelligenceisacurse
    NO, you are a fu_king idiot thant just runs you mouth and dont have a clue what you are talking about.

    CR00258
  •  

    So, CR00258, clearly you do have a clue. Please do tell us!

    yonie
  •  

    Dear CR00258,

    "We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light." – Plato

    If you like America the way it is, get a shrink (ask him to explain the Stockholm Syndrome) or even better get an education...

    You probably mean well but there seems to be a few gaps in your background check of this debacle we still call America...

    These should lay down the foundation of a decent alternative narrative above the toxic pabulum you've seem to have been fed so far...

    Best Democracy Money Can Buy, the Rev.Ed. by Greg Palast, Al Franken, and Janeane Garofalo (Paperback - April 2004)

    Confessions of an Economic Hit Man by John Perkins (Paperback - 27 Dec 2005)

    A People's History of American Empire by Howard Zinn, Paul Buhle, and Mike Konopacki (Hardcover - April 2008)

    Armed Madhouse: From Baghdad to New Orleans--Sordid Secrets and Strange Tales of a White House Gone Wild by Greg Palast (Paperback - 24 April 2007)

    Remember there's a big difference between kneeling down and bending over. -Frank Zappa

    WhiteNoise
  •  

    Bush had no plan to catch bin Laden, because bin Laden is on HIS side. Bin Laden and Al-Quaeda are the stooges that are blamed for everything to cover the REAL agenda of power grabbing.

    There is nothing new or secret about the tactics that Bush and crew are using---it has been in print for over 60 years.

    Read "Animal Farm" by George Orwell.

    Although the allegory in the novel is to the history of the Soviet Empire---the techniques and tactics of power used work with any nationalistic and political system just as well. The means and manipulation of power remain the same whatever the philosophical basis of the political system is, Bolshevism, Royalty or Democracy.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_Farm

    Wetdog
  •  

    This is no surprise, we all knew that Bush never had any intention of busting his family's CIA creation.

    jubal
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    WhiteNoise
    it is plain to see that you have a great amount of book smarts but when it comes to common sense you dumb as shit. You hide behind all the propaganda you read and tru to sell yourself ass knowing what you are talking about when clearly your do nothining more than plagerize everything you read. Geat a life, hopefully out of the USA

    CR00258
  •  

    "Plus on est ignorant, moins on s’en aperçoit." – Louis Pasteur

    EXECUTIVE RESUME
    http://whitenoise.webnode.com/

    WhiteNoise

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