Did Osama bin Laden Escape Capture In 2001 ?

Did the U.S. let Osama Bin Laden escape capture? That's the implication in a news report by Calvin Woodward of the Associated Press that I read on MSN this afternoon. A recently released U.S. Senate report says that the American Military was hot on Osama bin Laden's heels in December of 2001 at Tora Bora, mountainous area of eastern Afghanistan. American leaders decided not to pursue him at that time, giving him a chance to escape and regroup.
According to the report, bin Laden was within reach in 2001 and the U.S. had the means to capture him, but instead of captilizing on the opportunity, the let it slip by, presumably on the orders of then Defence Secretary Rumsfeld, and military leader Tommy Franks. Osama bin Laden and his bodyguards simply left the area at that time and disappeared into Pakistan. Had a full scale effort been ordered it is unlikely that would have happened, bin Laden may very well have been killed or captured, instead, the U.S. sent a small commando unit of about 100 troops in to try to capture the al-qaida leader and his followers.

The question that we have to ask, now, especially in light of my last post about the idea of a conspiracy behind the 911 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, is whether or not bin laden was allowed to escape on purpose. It has always been a contention of mine that the U.S. leadership at the time, who had their own agenda to follow, may not have wanted to capture Osama bin Laden too early in the game. After all, capturing bin laden would have severely limited support to push the war much further, and perhaps invading Iraq would never have come up as an opportunity.

It has always been a thought of mine that capturing or killing bin Laden and letting that news get out was the last thing the Americans wanted, especially early in the attack on Afghanistan. Since the premise behind sending troops to Afghanistan was obstentially  to route out the al-qaida leader, it would seem to make sense they would want to get him early rather than later or never at all.  However, as long as Osama bin Laden was alive and well, there is a reason for the ongoing Western military activities in the Middle East, and the motives of the American Government of the day for invading Afghanistan and later Iraq,  remained....well...pure....certainly not about the oil reserves in Iraq, or controlling events in the Middle East.

You can read the Associated Press report, Here

What do you think? Is Osama bin Laden already dead? Or is he alive and well?

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