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 firsthand 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. The intelligence community is convinced 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 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, using Americans on the ground as first-line combat units.
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In the fight for Tora Bora, corrupt local militias did not live up to promises to seal off the area, and some colluded in the escape of fleeing Al Qaeda fighters. Franks did not perceive the setbacks soon enough, some officials said, because he ran the war from Tampa.
The Bush administration never has acknowledged that bin Laden slipped through the cordon ostensibly placed around Tora Bora as U.S. aircraft began bombing on Nov. 30. Until now it was not known publicly whether Al Qaeda’s leader was present on the battlefield.
But inside government there is little controversy on the subject. Captured Al Qaeda fighters, interviewed separately, gave consistent accounts describing an address by bin Laden around Dec. 3 to fighters dug into the warren of caves. One official said “we had a good piece of sigint,” or signals intelligence, confirming those reports.
Rear Adm. Craig Quigley, Franks’ chief spokesman, acknowledged the view outside Tampa but said the general is unpersuaded.
Franks has told subordinates that it was vital at the Tora Bora battle, among the first to include allies from Afghanistan’s Pashtun majority, to take a supporting role and “not just push them aside and take over because we were America,” according to Quigley.
Franks, he added, “still thinks that the process he followed of helping the anti-Taliban forces around Tora Bora, to make sure it was crystal clear to them that we were not there to conquer their country . . . was absolutely the right thing to do.”