In December 2001, “The Taliban was on the run, and bin Laden and the hard core of al Qaeda were cornered in the White Mountains at Tora Bora [Afghanistan], against the Pakistani border. But the Pentagon did not deploy enough American troops to seal off the area, on either side of the border. Army Gen. Tommy Franks, the chief of U.S. Central Command and in overall charge of U.S. operations in Afghanistan, was under intense pressure from [Secretary of Defense Donald] Rumsfeld to limit the number of U.S. troops being deployed to the country… As a result, Franks lacked the conventional forces needed to corral bin Laden. Instead, the United States relied on the forces of a local Pashtun warlord, Hazrat Ali, to attack at Tora Bora. They were joined by small numbers of U.S. Special Forces and CIA paramilitary officers, backed by U.S. airpower, but the combination of elite U.S. units, airpower, and indigenous forces didn’t work this time. Bin Laden escaped. CIA officials are now convinced that Hazrat Ali’s forces allowed Osama bin Laden and his key lieutenants to flee Tora Bora into Pakistan. Said a CIA source, ‘We realized those guys just opened the door. It wasn’t a big secret.’ ” [The 15th of the month used for date sorting purposes only.]
– James Risen, State of War, Page 168