On March 19, 2004, Director of Central Intelligence George Tenet released a top secret report. Regarding the surveillance of Usama Bin Ladin, it read: “In May 1999, the military again contemplated a cruise missile strike against Bin Ladin in the Qandahar [Afghanistan] area. [Redacted] we intensely tracked and reported on Bin Ladin’s whereabouts for almost a week [redacted] from May 13-19. Again, the military was concerned about precision [redacted] respect to identification of particular buildings as well as potential collateral damage to surrounding facilities, resulting in policy officials not authorizing a strike.”
– CIA, “DCI Report: The Rise of UBL and Al-Qa’ida and the Intelligence Community Response,” (Draft, CIA Analytic Report), The Central Intelligence Agency’s 9/11 File:, The National Security Archive, March 19, 2004