Bin Laden Seeking Medical Attention

UPDATE: Reuters reports the U.S. military denies that one of its officers had told reporters Osama bin Laden was seeking medical attention.

Reuters reports that Osama bin Laden is in poor health and is seeking medical attention.

"Osama bin Laden is trying to obtain medical attention," Colonel Don McGraw, director of operations at the Combined Forces Command in Kabul, told a group of British reporters, including one from al-Hayat, it said.

"He (McGraw) refused to say what the al-Qaida leader is suffering from or whether it is the same kidney disease which Pakistani officials said in the past he was suffering from," the newspaper added.

Al-Hayat said it was not clear how the U.S. military had obtained its information or where it thought bin Laden might be.

Another Reuters report states that Afghan commanders let bin Laden escape to Pakistan from Tora Bora in 2001:

Lutfullah Mashal, Afghanistan's Interior Ministry spokesman, said commanders helped the al Qaeda leader escape from the Tora Bora mountains as U.S. warplanes and Afghan forces attacked his hideout near the Pakistan border in late 2001.

"The help was provided because of monetary aid availed by al Qaeda and also partly because of ideological issues," Mashal said.

"Osama along with other al Qaeda people managed to go to Parachinar (in Pakistan) at the time and then Pakistani forces battled the al Qaeda runaways, killing around 70 of them," Mashal added, referring to an area in Pakistan's Kurram tribal agency.

He said commanders loyal to Maulvi Yunus Khalis had helped the al Qaeda leader escape. The whereabouts of Khalis, a top mujahideen leader from the war against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, is unknown.

The article goes on with the often repeated claim that U.S. forces made a mistake in entrusting the capture of bin Laden to Afghan commanders. I'm so tired of hearing this one. It seems pretty clear that there was no choice but to rely on the Afghan commanders. There were precious few U.S. forces in Afghanistan. Certainly not a sufficient number to assault Tora Bora. If U.S. forces had waited for adequate U.S. reinforcements, the result would have undoubtably been the same.

Liberating Afghanistan was a great strategic victory in the War Against Terror. The capture of bin Laden would have made the victory so much sweeter, but the evil doers escape does not diminish the liberation of Afghanistan.