Bin Laden Escape Tied to Iraq War Planning

[unhappycamper]

Bin Laden Escape Tied to Iraq War Planning
October 01, 2008
Inter Press Service

WASHINGTON -- New evidence from former U.S. officials reveals the George W. Bush administration failed to adopt any plan to block Osama bin Laden's retreat from Afghanistan to Pakistan in the weeks after Sept. 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-Qaida in Afghanistan.

As a result, the United States had far too few troops and strategic airlift capacity in the theater 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 the al-Qaida leaders, 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.


Rest of article at: http://www.military.com/news/article/bin-laden-escape-tied-to-iraq-war-planning.html

[elleng]

1. 'New evidence,'

Oh Right!