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Even before 9/11, there were those in the Taliban government who wanted to "resolve" the OBL issue, and there had been several attempts to negotiate some solution, generally met with intransigenceon both sides.
So, in the aftermath of 9/11, would it be at all possible for Taliban leaders to say "oh shit! OBL's gotta go!" and give him up? How about some of the moderates making a deal to basically rat out OBL and AQ (and possibly some of the hard line Talib) in exchange for no US invasion?