Senate Report: Bin Laden within Grasp of US Forces in 2001

A new report issued Sunday by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee claims that the Bush administration missed a clear opportunity to capture or kill Osama Bin Laden in December 2001.  US forces had Bin Laden cornered in the Tora Bora mountain region in Afghanistan but the administration refused to send sufficient troops to the area to finish the job.  The report places blame for the decision squarely on former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and top U.S. commander Gen. Tommy Franks.  Apparently sending 800 more troops to the region in order to catch Bin Laden didn't conform to Rumsfeld and Frank's "light footprint model" of combat. 

The lack of forces allowed Bin Laden to flee to the tribal areas of Pakistan where he most likely remains today.  The report called bin Laden's escape "a lost opportunity that forever altered the course of the conflict in Afghanistan and the future of international terrorism, leaving the American people more vulnerable to terrorism, laying the foundation for today's protracted Afghan insurgency and inflaming the internal strife now endangering Pakistan."

President Obama will address the nation on Tuesday to outline his reformulated strategy in Afghanistan and the timing of this report will give him some much needed breathing room to explain the need for continuing the conflict.  Bin Laden has become a symbol of the Al Qaeda insurgency, providing money and recruits for   extremist groups world wide.  Obama made a campaign pledge to take out Bin Laden if US forces had him in their sights.  You can bet that this pledge will be restated Tuesday in light of this report.