Is This how Bin Laden Escaped?

[mainer]

British SAS forces accused Americans of screwing up the capture in Tora Bora:

Sorry -- no link, I got this off my Lexis-Nexis service.
***********************

The Spectator

February 16, 2002

SECTION: Pg. 22 24

LENGTH: 1154 words

HEADLINE: IS THIS HOW BIN LADEN ESCAPED?;
Bruce Anderson says that American fear of casualties almost certainly stopped the SAS from killing Osama bin Laden

BYLINE: Bruce Anderson

>snip<

By the end of the battle, the SAS was certain that it knew where bin Laden was: in a mountain valley, where he could have been trapped. The men of the SAS would have been happy to move in for the kill, dividing themselves into beaters and guns. Going round the side, the guns would have positioned themselves at the head of the valley to cut off bin Laden's retreat. The beaters would then have swept up the glen. If such a drive had taken place, the SAS is convinced that bin Laden would not have escaped. It would have been happy to fight alongside Delta Force and would have been glad of the assistance of American ground-attack aircraft. But it would also have been confident that it could finish the job on its own.

It did not get the chance. The SAS was under overall US command, and the American generals faltered. Understandably enough, they wanted Delta Force to be in at the death; they would have preferred it if bin Laden had fallen to an American bullet. So would Delta Force; every bit as much as the SAS, its men were raring to go. It was their commanders who held them back...

They wanted Delta Force to kill bin Laden; they were not prepared to allow their men to be killed in the process. They would not even allow USAF ground-attack aircraft to operate below 12,000 feet. As far as the SAS could tell, their hope was that the ragged trousered militants of the Northern Alliance would do most of the dangerous stuff - and take most of the casualties - while Delta Force came in for the coup de grace. Nor were the American generals willing to allow the SAS to win the glory which they were denying to American troops...

While the generals agonised about bodybags, bin Laden was escaping.