According to Commander Mohammed Musa, an Afghan militia leader who battled al Qaeda elements at Tora Bora, Afghanistan, on December 12, 2001: ” ‘Haji Zaman (another Afghan commander) told me about a ceasefire with the Arabs. Al Qaeda wanted to escape from a particular village; Ghalanjali village in the mountains. Al Qaeda said, *We want to surrender to the United Nations. We want a cease-fire.* Zaman said, *We’ll accept a cease-fire at 4 p.m. in the afternoon.* That night al Qaeda and the Taliban all escaped to Pakistan. We only captured thirteen people who escaped. We did not want the cease-fire to happen. It was Haji Zaman who agreed to it.’ …My personal view is if the Americans had blocked the way out to Pakistan, al Qaeda would not have a had a way to escape. The Americans were my guest here, but they didn’t know about fighting; how to do it.’ ”
– Peter Bergen, The Osama bin Laden I Know, Pages 330-331