Osama bin Laden was unquestionably within reach of U.S. troops in the mountains of Tora Bora when American military leaders made the crucial and costly decision not to pursue the terrorist leader with massive force, a Senate report says.

The report asserts that the failure to kill or capture bin Laden at his most vulnerable in December 2001 has had lasting consequences beyond the fate of one man. Bin Laden's escape laid the foundation for today's reinvigorated Afghan insurgency and inflamed the internal strife now endangering Pakistan, it says.

Staff members for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee's Democratic majority prepared the report at the request of the chairman, Sen. John Kerry, as President Barack Obama prepares to boost U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • History • Military / Armed Forces • * Economics, Politics • Defense, National Security, Military • Foreign Relations • Politics in General • Office of the President • President George Bush • Terrorism • War in Afghanistan • * International News & Commentary • Asia • Afghanistan

1. Crabby in MD wrote: Hindsight is ALWAYS 20/20! November 29, 4:38 pm | [comment link]

2. Nikolaus wrote: I don’t believe this is really “news.”  It seems to me that this has been public knowledge for quite awhile now. November 29, 5:01 pm | [comment link]

3. Dilbertnomore wrote: Nikolaus, you are correct. Naked politics motivates this “news” release. As Obama seems not to have solved the Osama nut, he needs a little air cover to show that it really is W’s fault that we still haven’t accomplished what Obama claimed would be a high priority of his administration. November 30, 3:09 pm | [comment link]

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