WASHINGTON , Oct. 30 - The broadcast of a new videotape from Osama bin Laden prompted Senator John Kerry on Friday to renew his criticism that President Bush had the leader of Al Qaeda cornered in the rugged mountains of Tora Bora, Afghanistan, in December 2001, but "outsourced" the job of killing or capturing him to unreliable Afghan warlords.
Mr. Kerry's accusation has elements of truth, but is also somewhat exaggerated, military commanders and Pentagon officials say. Gen. Tommy R. Franks, the commander of American forces in Afghanistan at the time, said this month that Mr. Kerry's "understanding of events doesn't square with reality."
Really? Mr. Kerry is exaggerating? And Tommy Franks and military commanders and Pentagon officials dispute Kerry’s account?
The Bush administration has concluded that Osama bin Laden was present during the battle for Tora Bora late last year and that failure to commit U.S. ground troops to hunt him was its gravest error in the war against al Qaeda, according to civilian and military officials with first-hand knowledge.
Intelligence officials have assembled what they believe to be decisive evidence, from contemporary and subsequent interrogations and intercepted communications, that bin Laden began the battle of Tora Bora inside the cave complex along Afghanistan's mountainous eastern border. Though there remains a remote chance that he died there, the intelligence community is persuaded that bin Laden slipped away in the first 10 days of December.
After-action reviews, conducted privately inside and outside the military chain of command, describe the episode as a significant defeat for the United States. A common view among those interviewed outside the U.S. Central Command is that Army Gen. Tommy R. Franks, the war's operational commander, misjudged the interests of putative Afghan allies and let pass the best chance to capture or kill al Qaeda's leader. Without professing second thoughts about Tora Bora, Franks has changed his approach fundamentally in subsequent battles, using Americans on the ground as first-line combat units.
Amazing, isn’t it? Kerry is basically quoting the Bush administration and the Bush administration is saying Kerry’s “understanding of events doesn’t square with reality”.
And the fucking New York Times prints it.
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