Did a Bribed U.S. Officer Allow bin Laden to Escape?

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Did a Bribed U.S. Officer Allow bin Laden to Escape?

One theory of how it was possible for the terrorist mastermind to escape American capture at Tora Bora, despite being surrounded, is that negotiations for his capture led to the bribery of a high-level American officer. What is known, according to U.S. Special Forces troops, is that bin Laden ‘mysteriously escaped.’

By TH

September 19 - 25 Issue

Tunis Hebdo - Original Article (French)

Four years after the murderous terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, Osama bin Laden is still on the run. In fact, from the moment the United States made a priority of capturing him, no one has laid a finger on the al-Qaeda leader. Up until now, the Americans have failed to capture their public enemy number one.

Tracking of the Saudi millionaire began on October 7, 2001, the day the United States began its military attack on Afghanistan, then run by the Taliban regime of Mullah Omar.

Numerous attempts to locate the al-Qaeda chief finally made it possible for American Special Forces to place him in southeast Afghanistan toward the Pakistani border, amongst the massive mountains of Tora Bora, according to information obtained by the New York Times from a top U.S. official. We are then in November 2001.

Osama's Home Away from Home: Tora Bora

It was in these extremely inaccessible mountains that bin Laden, protected by 2,000 men, decided to build a real bunker and establish his headquarters.

To the Americans, the capture of the mastermind of the attacks against the United States was nothing but a matter of time. The area surrounding bin Laden’s headquarters had been secured by U.S. Special Forces, who only awaited a convenient moment to act.

TREASON IN THE U.S. RANKS?

But this conclusion was reached without taking into account the widespread support for bin Laden amongst the local population. A very popular figure in the area, the al-Qaeda leader, thanks to their support, succeeded in escaping the American trap.

But versions differ since, according to the London daily newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat, Osama bin Laden was only able to escape the net of the U.S. Army thanks to the complicity of a senior American officer.

The fact is, U.S. Special Forces had succeeded in cutting off all indirect contact with the al-Qaeda leader, and there was the prospect of surrender. It would have been during these full negotiations that lieutenants of the Saudi millionaire would have succeeded in bribing this senior [American] officer, who would have then facilitated the escape of bin Laden and a thousand of his men.

According to the testimony of many members of the American Special Forces having taken part in the operation, bin Laden is said to have mysteriously disappeared one night in December 2001, when he was almost completely encircled.

Approached without being caught during the attack on the caves of Tora Bora, bin Laden had managed to escape his enemies. A few months later during Operation Anaconda, similar words were reprinted, when the Americans, within a hair’s breath of capturing him, once again let him escape.

Today, the Pentagon has called upon agents of the CIA to track bin Laden. Their biggest handicap now is not knowing exactly where their public enemy number one is hiding.