Elite Officer Recalls Bin Laden Hunt

Delta Force Commander Says The Best Plan To Kill The Al Qaeda Leader In 2001 Was Nixed

(CBS)  Fury had two choices: advance his small team with no Afghan support, or return to camp and assault in the morning. He was under orders to make the Afghans take the lead, and intelligence said there were more than 1,000 hardened fighters protecting bin Laden.

"You write in the book 'My decision to abort that effort to kill or capture bin Laden when we might have been with 2,000 meters of him, about 2,000 yards, still bothers me. It leaves me with a feeling of somehow letting down our nation at a critical time,'" Pelley quotes.

Asked why he feels that way, Fury says, "Had we gone up that ridgeline towards that location, Osama bin Laden might have been 500 meters way. We might have run right into him. So there's always that doubt that we might have run into him. We also might got up there and found nothing. It wasn't worth the risk at that particular moment to go up there and play cowboy. It was better to be cautious, refit, go up there with the entire force the next day and play the battle out as we had planned."

In the morning, bin Laden was on the radio. The CIA, Delta, and their Afghan allies were listening.

How did the Afghans react when they heard from bin Laden on the radio?

"Osama Bin Laden is [to] many a Muslim’s hero," Fury says. "These guys in my opinion were more in awe of Osama Bin Laden than they were willing to kill him. When they heard him talking on the radio they would gather around the individual that held that hand held transistor. He would hold it up in the air, almost as if he didn't want the connection to break, almost like they could see the ridge line Osama bin laden happened to be talking from, like if they could almost see him and feel his presence and they just stood there with wide eyes and somewhat in awe that here is the leader of the jihad, the leader of al Qaeda and they’re actually hearing his voice over the radio."

"And these were the men who were supposed to help you capture or kill him? Some allies," Pelley remarks.

"Some were better than others," Fury says.

The radio intercepts gave Delta a fix on bin Laden's location. And one of the Delta soldiers narrated his own video.

"This top hill. The very top up there. That’s supposedly where Bin Laden is hiding out….We’ve seen movement along this saddle right here. We don’t know if it’s friendly or not so we haven’t been able to call fire on it," the soldier said on the video.

And then something extraordinary happened: Fury's Afghan allies announced they had negotiated a cease fire with al Qaeda, something the Americans had no interest in. When Fury's team advanced anyway, his Afghan partners drew their weapons on Delta. It took 12 hours to end the bogus cease fire, precious time for al Qaeda to move.

Fury says their assumption was that bin Laden was heading for a valley at that time.

Bin Laden had changed direction, and the tone of his radio calls. "Clearly under duress. Clearly hurting. Clearly caring for his men," Fury says.

[jmilavic]

Compelling story. Will obtain book for more information. Frustrated will lack of positive action from DOD. Even today, there is a small DOD Organization named Big Crow Program Office that has the capability to find Osama but restricted by USAF and other DOD entities. WHY?

Jack A. Milavic PhD
Edmond Oklahoma

[ProfessorMilcript]

The story that was aired on CBS 60 Minutes on July 12, 2009 at 7 PM EST practically mirrors the book, "Target Washington: The Search for Osama Bin Laden." ISBN: 9781434375230, published April 2009, more than three months prior to the CBS report written by Professor Milcript. If you want to read what really happened, you MUST read this book! You must read this book on how Bin Laden was CAUGHT and RELEASED and for what reasons!

[MaMaSweet]

It makes no sense to me why he was allowed to give this information out. Even filming his disguise bothers me. I saw a graying bald spot too on him. I couldn't even watch all of the video, I'm too upset.
I understand capitolism and freedom of speech, I don't think its right that this information was released though.
If my son/daughter was killed in Iraq/Afghanistan in the name of justice to then find this Delta man's story, I would be really miffed! I do apologize to and thank service personnel for their sacrifices, patriotism and muscles.
We could end this war and save our money & service men-women and feed our hungry people living below standards here in the USA.
I pray for the Obama family and for peace every day. Be well all!

[cactus4rx]

I see Bin Laden in a city called Ctesiphon. He is living on the coast in a cove of buildings with red roofs.

[4angel2]

I think we should ask ourselves: who stood to gain the most from these intentional errors? Let's see, if bin Laden was captured or killed, would the Bush administration have been able to bring the war to Iraq, suspend habeas corpus, give the CIA the right to torture, consolidate power for himself and his cronies so they could plunder the economy and leave us in ruins. Bin Laden empowered Bush and Cheney, just as 9/11 did.

[dfnj2009]

When the time came to make a decision he just stood there wide eye.

continued
I''ll say it here now. Bush Jr. was merely an accessory. The President who was Annointed to lead us was not the Mastermind. Bush Jr. is not an Intelligence Director. (It''s hilarious to have to write that sentence.)

Bush Sr is still tight with CIA. He still gets PDBs. He''s intimate with CIA and other "Former" CIA, and he''s intimate with the Saudis, with Adnan Khashoggi who funded Al-Qaeda in the past.

SEPT 11 WAS A MILTIARY-INTELLIGENCE OPERATION.
SEPT 11 WAS NOT A "CONSPIRACY" per se.
SEPT 11 WAS OFFICIAL POLICY, or nearly-official. The plans were published beforehand too, by top advisors such as Ledeen and Perle, but in discreet terms, a vague "wish" or "hope" that such a bloodbath would occur, since it was VITAL to the future of America''s power in the world.

3000 - 8000 dead Americans? Grief forever? Trauma? Millions of dead Arabs? Who cares? Not them. I care. Ann Coulter said the survivors who demanded answers were enjoying the tragedy, the limelight. Ha ha ha. They hate you. They hate you. They hate you. They hate me. They hate all of us. They don''t care about your suffering. They hate what America REALLY stands for, a liberal democratic republic with an "uppity" population of serfs who think they deserve a say in how things are run.

comment: You Bush-haters out there need to go join your great hero, bin Laden!!! Leave the US! We don''t need nor want your kind!!

However - if Bush made the call to NOT get bin Laden, then HE needs to leave the US as well!
----------
FINALLY! A Bush-loving patriot breaks out of the mind-mold slightly to consider that Bush helped Binladen go free.

9-11 Press for Truth collects a lot of Corporate Media reports on Afghanistan, including Seymour Hersh explaining how they were allowed to escape. THEY WERE FRIGGIN AIRLIFTED ON C-130s to PAKISTAN!!!!

I''m still astonished at the mind control that caused Republicans (and Democrats) to ignore that Bush Senior, former CIA Dir Carlucci, and others were meeting at the Ritz-Carlton hotel with Binladen''s brother on Sept 11, all with the Carlyle group. There was even a scandal! Bush was embarrassed into supposedly divesting. Binladens sold their stock. Binladens are estranged from Osama, but OBL just made them all billions, while getting millions of Arabs killed.

No more questions about that??

Bin Laden''s group got money and weapons in the CIA''s war, but he never worked for the CIA.

WHAT????!!!!!!!

And that a Pakistani General from ISI Intell who sent $100k to the "hijackers" in Venice was in Washington the entire week, having breakfast with future CIA Director Porter Goss on Sept 11.

HOW COULD WE ALL BE THIS COLLECTIVELY STUPIDIZED?

Fury, SAY IT. It''s because Osama Bin Laden is one of our guys. Just like he was in 1979 when Brzezinski secretly started funding the Mujahideen to LURE the Soviets into Afghanistan. Just like during the Clinton Era when the Senate Republican Policy Committee wrote a report the Pentagon using Al-Q, OBL and Iranian weapons in Bosnia-Kosovo (a scandal the Republicans NEVER mention).
Just like when Zawahiri''s brother Mohamed was training guerillas in Macedonia at a US camp, in 2001 and beyond.
Just like on Sept 11.
Just like when James Baker nixed the 9-11 Families inquiry into the Saudis'' Al-Qaeda connections (Baker-Botts law firm).
Just like the 12 agents who testified, three on TV and under oath, one dead agent on a PBS special, about being THWARTED probably over 200 times (70 for Harry Samit alone) in trying to prevent Sept 11.
Same as CIA Director Krongard said we should LET OSAMA STAY FREE, which Bush echoed.

I''m sure that was on a need-to-know basis. You didn''t need to know. But you knew.

(Frankly, considering how top advisors stated that a BLOODBATH was VITAL to starting their wars, I doubt they relied on lapdanced, coked-up, hungover, Arab party boys ... er Islamic Extremists .. willing to die for Allah. Remote control is much more reliable. The Arabs running around the US on the CIA''s black budget can be disappeared.)

[fredrick house]

Osama was the best thing that happened to CheneyBurton since they inherited the vice presidency. He had to escape or like singrich says,
"it really would have been bad for ''bidness'' ". Have we ever been played????????

[fredrick house]

What is the time frame here?
Was Bin Laden in the sights before the Iraq invasion got into full swing.? If so, it all makes sense. Someone wanted a war in Iraq and needed a reason to justify going into a full scale invasion. Bin Laden and his lieutenants had to be allowed to escape in order to justify what was to happen next. If that''s not the case,it still makes a good plot for a "24" episode!

[wkuinkc]

I just read this over on armytimes.com

Here is a quote: "The nation%u2019s most prestigious group for Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans released a congressional scorecard on Tuesday that ranks Republican presidential candidate John McCain as having one of the worst voting records when it comes to supporting troops and veterans."

http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/10/military_vets_congress_reportcard_100708/

John McCain and Sarah Palin say in negative campaign attacks that that Senator Barack Obama has voted "against veterans". But that is not how the group "Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America" sees it. Does Sarah Palin want to challenge their patriotism too?

"Sooner or later, people are going to figure out if all you run is negative attack ads you don''t have much of a vision for the future or you''re not ready to articulate it." [John McCain - 2/21/2000]

[itdfactsu]

Wasn''t 9/11 an inside job?

Most information is now classified to hide the truth look it up

[jimnospam]

Singinrich - stop with the name calling! Gives zip substance to you and your arguments.

[RedSkelton]

The report was factual but left much to be desired. All you did was say that several good assault plans were rejected by command, forcing a frontal assault using unreliable locals, and that the focus was to Afghanize the fighting of the war. You did not say why. You did not point out that before 9/11 the Bush administration was planning on attacking Iraq. You did not say that Weinberger hated the 1992 decision to stop short of invading Iraq. You did not wonder why we wanted to attack Iraq since Hussein and Al Queda were staunch enemies. You did not say that Afghanize really meant keep the 82nd Airborne and other highly mobile units ready for Iraq not Afghanistan. You did not give the background for any of it, just the already known fact that we lost him because we were stupid and decided to attack the wrong country.

[hbel2]

Does anyone else see the irony in the use of a "theatrical makup artist" for this?

[rastacyborg]

Yeah that''s it. "The media" is to blame. Anything to take the blame away from the inept gang of morons running the White House at the time.
Conservatives believe in personal responsibility until it''s applied to them.

[memerider]

The media gave away all of our moves to capture Bin Laden and helped him escape by trying to be the first with the story. I remember hearing all about triangulating his cell phone, and I thought he''ll never pick it up again. He didn''t.

[wildhare55]

"This is why the Laden Family were never picked up and hung."

Where were you born, beehive? Hang the family for the sins of the son. That''s warped...I don''t care who you are. I want justice. That doesn''t include killing the innocent. Isn''t that what Osama did?

There won''t be a WWIII. The WORD WAR (War On Terror)will last forever.imo

If after Pearl Harbor being bombed we attacked Japan enough to weaken them. Then took the majority of our troops around to Germany it would have just as much sense as what has happened in Afghanistan.

It''s the same as a boxer getting out of the ring during a fight and going after his next opponent prior to the fight being over.

[beehive21-2009]

Bush and his Family,are friends with Bin Ladens Family ,they''re in construction.The elder Bush has been working with the family and made millions,when the kid went bad ,they let him go.So, Bin is loose or maybe jailed somewhere for his own good,but, the Bushes and Ladens are said to have an agreement,worth Billions,now.
It''s the word on the street.
This is why the Laden Family were never picked up and hung.
It''s going to be very difficult to rid the nation of the Bush influence ,they been in charge for 3- 4 decades.
Do not be surprised, if they start WW3,then it shall be King George,no elections in time of War.