Enormous Failure

Evidence of a potentially enormous intelligence/national security failure in the months after 9/11.

Not long after 9/11, one senior Taliban official told me Osama bin Laden was a pain in the backside. Hard to control, intent on doing his own thing. The only reason they didn't turn him over was out of fearsome ethnic tribal loyalty known as Pashtunwali. Bin Laden and Mullah Omar are at opposite ends of the ultra-conservative corner of Islam they occupy. Not natural bedfellows.

If this is truly the case, we really ought to been persuasive enough to get the Taliban to turn him over. But I doubt our intel knew this and our state department was too red with anger over 9/11 and wanted to show our muscle. Imagine the number of lives and treasure saved if we convince the Taliban to turn over OBL? All it would of taken - a little bit of intel plus a good negotiating team. I know this is Monday morning QBing, but...