In a new report released yesterday, Sunday, Nov. 29, by the Democratic staff of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, it blames Bush officials for Osama bin Laden’s escape.
The report claims bin Laden was cornered in Afghanistan’s Tora Bora mountain region in December 2001. It said Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfelt and top U.S. commander General Tommy Franks held back the necessary forces for a “classic sweep-and-block maneuver” that could have prevented bin Laden’s escape.
“Bin Laden expected to die,” the report says indicating that a copy of his will was found.
"It would have been a dangerous fight across treacherous terrain, and the injection of more U.S. troops and the resulting casualties would have contradicted the risk-averse, 'light footprint' model formulated by Rumsfeld and Franks," the report said.
When former President Dick Cheney received criticism for not zeroing in on bin Laden, his response was that his location was uncertain.
The report said, "But the review of existing literature, unclassified government records and interviews with central participants underlying this report removes any lingering doubts and makes it clear that Osama bin Laden was within our grasp at Tora Bora.”
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