Bin Laden was tracked to the mountainous areas of Milawa and Tora Bora, Afghanistan, in late November 2001. After unsuccessful attacks on him, CIA Field Commander Gary “Berntsen, who was back in Kabul, summoned several members of his team to tell him what they would need to take down bin Laden now that they thought they knew where he was. The response: ‘We need 800 Army Rangers between bin Laden and the [Pakistani] border.’ Berntsen wrote to his superiors, begging for troops. His pleas went unanswered, according to a Senate Foreign Relations Committee report on Tora Bora. Without more manpower, Berntsen couldn’t risk a ground assault.” [The 25th of the month used for date sorting purposes only.]
– Peter Finn, Ian Shapira, and Marc Fisher, “Introduction: Becoming More Like Him,” The Washington Post, May 6, 2011