Bin Laden may have just escaped U.S. forces
August mission in Tora Bora almost snared 'high value target'
(MSNBC.com) - A little more than a month ago, with the anniversary of Sept. 11 approaching and fears of a new al Qaeda attack rising, some U.S. intelligence and military analysts thought they had found one of the world’s two most wanted men just where they last saw them six years ago.
For three days and nights — between Aug. 14 and 16 — U.S. and Afghanistan forces pounded the mountain caves in Tora Bora, the same caves where Osama Bin Laden had hidden out and then fled in late 2001 after U.S. forces drove al Qaeda out of Afghanistan cities. Ultimately, however, U.S. forces failed to find Bin Laden or his deputy, Ayman al Zawahiri, even though their attacks left dozens of al Qaeda and Taliban dead.
(MSNBC.com) - A little more than a month ago, with the anniversary of Sept. 11 approaching and fears of a new al Qaeda attack rising, some U.S. intelligence and military analysts thought they had found one of the world’s two most wanted men just where they last saw them six years ago.
For three days and nights — between Aug. 14 and 16 — U.S. and Afghanistan forces pounded the mountain caves in Tora Bora, the same caves where Osama Bin Laden had hidden out and then fled in late 2001 after U.S. forces drove al Qaeda out of Afghanistan cities. Ultimately, however, U.S. forces failed to find Bin Laden or his deputy, Ayman al Zawahiri, even though their attacks left dozens of al Qaeda and Taliban dead.
posted by BP News Bureau | 9:48 AM
4 Comments:
Bin Laden is dead, and has been for 6 years.
Next!
I think so too...
Steve,
Any chance you could elaborate on why you think Bin Laden is dead? I'm curious about what you know and why this belief is not commonly held.
Thanks,
RWM
Actually, Robert, it is just not widely held by anyone but the neocons and the media. The neocons need their bogeyman to continue to grasp at the reins of power, the media needs to sell soap and beer. I have seen a number of polls, online and in print and broadcast media that say Americans believe Bin Laden is dead or out of commission by a margin of two to one. But that's not what you asked.
Shortly after we ran the Taliban and Bin Laden into the hills, a number of third parties reported that he had been seriously injured. Up to and after 9/11, he appeared pretty regularly on Al Jazira, both live and on video tape. Remember also that Bin Laden was known to have diseased kidneys and required dialysis regularly. Combine his reported injuries with the distinct lack of advanced medical attention in the mountains of Afghanistan, add a liberal pinch of sudden absence from Arab media, and I think the evidence, circumstantial as it may be, is pretty strongly in favor of his very timely demise.
If you recall, around the time of the 2004 election, a video tape appeared having footage that appeared to have Bin Laden endorsing John Kerry. What was not widely reported later was that the tape was pretty conclusively identified as a fraud. If I recall correctly, most of the references to Kerry were oblique and it was discovered that large portions of the audio had been dubbed. I think that is pretty conclusive by itself. Now, if I was a true tinfoil-hatter, I might suspect that Bush and his cronies cobbled the tape together, but I think that is really stretching things, even for them. My guess is that the tape was a product of the Muslim Brotherhood and the collected remnants of Al Qaeda.
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