AHC: Capture or Kill Bin Laden Before He Escapes Into Pakistan

Make it possible for US forces to capture or kill Osama Bin Laden successfully in December 2001 before he can escape into Pakistan via the area around Tora Bora.
 
Make it possible for US forces to capture or kill Osama Bin Laden successfully in December 2001 before he can escape into Pakistan via the area around Tora Bora.

Yes, but the easiest way to have it happen is the U.S. changes the whole war plan and focuses on controlling the exists to Iran and Pakistan before the bombs start dropping.

Bin Laden after he excaped into Pakistan stayed only symbolically important anyway. Power inside the jihadi movement devolved to his old friend and sometimes competetor Zarqawi who was leading the fight in Iraq while he hide out and handed over operational control of al-Qaeda in Pakistan to others.

The biggest change to the 2001 campaign that would have the biggest long term effect is not a bomb getting lucky and killing Bin Laden. It was keeping the majority of the jihadi movement that was for the most part held up in Afghanistan at the time from escaping and wiping out the Taliban leadership as well so we are talking about Bin Laden and his commanders, Mullah Omar and his commanders and Zarqawi and his commanders getting wiped out.

That could have happened, but we did Afghanistan after 911 too quickly and with too poor planning. It would be one thing in politics forced the WH's hand, but the public support was there for a lot more they just didn't know it yet and also they left the war in the hands of some very poor military planners.
 
IIRC I can remember reading about reports of units being in potentially the right area near Tora Bora to block his escape but being refused permission due to conflicting priorities and communication problems. Now I've got no idea how accurate these stories were and even if they were true and things run better that's still no guarantee of Bin Laden being killed or captured, but his death at the start of the campaign could have some rather large knock-on effects.
 
I also read that story that it would have been possible as there were forces in the area which could have caught him.

I also read somewhere (I think) that it was a matter of having the right forces in the area.

Special forces (rangers/SAS or something) might have been the better option but were they ever called for at that time?

Ivan
 
The book "kill bin laden" is a good read. In it, bin laden got away because of 2 things
1)the Pakistani border wasn't secured. There were plans to send in the Rangers to secure the border but Musharraf promised to secure it. However, nothing happened. The second option which was to drop mines in the routes leading out were denied by centcom because of fears of the long term ramifications of dropping said mines.
2) most important one in my opinion is that one of the tribes that Delta was working with made a truce with bin laden and had a ceasefire for a few hours. The tribesmen turned their guns on delta when they attempted to go after the fleeing al Qaeda fighters.
 

jahenders

Banned
Simple, have some Afghani border tribe say, "Hey, look at this crap this Osama guy brought down on us and the Americans will pay a fortune for him." So, they capture him while he's trying to escape and turn him over to the nearest US forces.

Make it possible for US forces to capture or kill Osama Bin Laden successfully in December 2001 before he can escape into Pakistan via the area around Tora Bora.
 
Top