Free Republic

US military officials are holding a bodyguard of Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden at the naval base prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the Washington Post reports. The report cites Defence Department memos and sources familiar with base captives. The Post says the bodyguard is Moroccan Abdallah Tabarak, who enabled bin Laden to escape from the battle of Tora Bora in Afghanistan in late 2001 by making calls on his leader's personal satellite telephone. The information is contained in memos documenting meetings between military personnel and inspectors from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). ICRC officials, who keep...

Al-Qaeda Draws New Recruits Via Internet Al-Qaeda is using the Internet to recruit vulnerable young people to its terrorist network, according to a programme aired on Saudi Arabian TV late on Tuesday. Umm Osama, the founder of al-Qaeda's first women-only website, al-Khansa, joined several others on the programme to discuss how they renounced jihadist ideology. Among those who sought a response to this question was an imam from the Medina mosque, Saleh Ibn Awad al-Mudamsi, and the father of a young al-Qaeda suspect held in an Iraqi prison. Read More Qaeda Targets U.S. Oil Interests in North Africa U.S....

Arab Liberal Dr. Mamoun Fandy: The Palestinians Have Chosen the Model Of Tora Bora Over That of Singapore In an article published April 21, 2008 in the London daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, well-known researcher, writer, author, and columnist Dr. Mamoun Fandy wrote that the Palestinians must proceed from revolution to state-building, demonstrating that they are capable of building a prosperous state which will contribute to the stability of the region. [1] The following are excerpts from the article: "When Will the Palestinians Advance From the 'Adolescence' of Revolution to the 'Maturity' of Statehood?... [Will the] Palestinian State... Strengthen, Rather Than Weaken,...

GOTTA SEE THIS -- OPERATION ENDURING FREEDOM 12/13/01 Strike Videos, Milawa Valley, Tora Bora, Freedom, Continued Food Maldistribution, Brave Military REPORT FROM THEATRE 1 - AFGHANISTAN WAR FOR ENDURING FREEDOM 12/13/01 Multiprong final attack on Usama - The War at Tora Bora Strike Videos, Tora Bora Bombed and Taken by Cave by Cave, Usama's Horses Taken, Food Maldistribution Looms Briefing: Latest DOD info (click here) STRIKE VIDEOSreleased after the DoD News Briefing 12/12/01   VIDEO TITLE    MPG version rm (REAL VIDEO) version  #1: An Al Qaeda vehicle mpg #1   rm #1  #2: Al Qaeda soldiers mpg #2 rm ...

GOP presidential candidate Sen. John McCain knocked President Bush for failing to capture Osama bin Laden despite "opportunities over the past six years, and vowed to "get" the terrorist kingpin if voters put him in the White House. "I will get Osama bin Laden," McCain told a crowd of supporters at a New Hampshire town hall meeting Saturday – even if it takes following him "to the gates of hell." "I want to assure you of that as president of the United States," he said. On Sunday, McCain repeated the promise in an interview with NBC News anchor Tim Russert....

Raid of two B-52 on Tora-Bora TORA BORA (Afghanistan), 10 déc (AFP) - Two American bombers B-52 simultaneously rammed Monday towards 7H00 local (2H30 GMT), the mountainous zone of Tora Bora (is), den of group Al-Qaïda, Ossama Ben Laden, noted a journalist of the AFP. The two heavy bombers, shifted approximately km, carried out a passage to the top of Tora Bora and released each one a series of bombs which exploded in a thunderous noise. It was the first raid of B-52 of Monday. Previously, during all the night of Sunday to Monday, of the raids of American ...

September 28, 2007A Quiet Triumph May be BrewingBy Ray Robison There are signs that the global Islamic jihad movement is splitting apart, in what would be a tremendous achievement for American strategy. The center of the action is in Pakistan and Afghanistan, the very territory which is thought to harbor Usama, and from which Al Qaeda was able to launch 9/11. Capitalizing on existing splits, a trap was set and closed, and the benefits have only begun to be evident. There were already signs of a split, but recent events strengthen that trend. In March and again in May of...

So the US left the terrorists an escape route into Tora Bora. Once they had detected a large group of al Qaeda at the fortress and the likelihood of High Value Targets as determined by large scale security detachments, the US dropped the curtain on the escape routes back into Pakistan. We have been pounding the hell out of them for weeks in near complete secrecy. But an observer may wonder why, if al Qaeda had to vacate the camps, didn't they just go to other hideouts in Pakistan? According to this article in the Telegraph: The Uzbeks are a...

There are signs that the global Islamic jihad movement is splitting apart, in what would be a tremendous achievement for American strategy. The center of the action is in Pakistan and Afghanistan, the very territory which is thought to harbor Usama, and from which Al Qaeda was able to launch 9/11. Capitalizing on existing splits, a trap was set and closed, and the benefist have only begun to be evident. There were already signs of a split, but recent events strengthen the that trend. In March and again in May of this year I reviewed relevant South Asian media reporting to...

A little more than a month ago...some U.S. intelligence and military analysts thought they had found one of the world’s two most wanted men just where they last saw them six years ago. For three days and nights — between Aug. 14 and 16 — U.S. and Afghanistan forces pounded the mountain caves in Tora Bora... (snip) The military operation included "several hundred" U.S. and Afghan ground forces... Elements from the 82nd Airborne blocked off escape routes through the mountains on the Afghanistan side of the border, while helicopters inserted U.S. Navy Seals at night. The Seals pinpointed enemy positions...

Bin Laden may have just escaped U.S. forces August mission in Tora Bora almost snared 'high value target' A little more than a month ago, with the anniversary of Sept. 11 approaching and fears of a new al Qaeda attack rising, some U.S. intelligence and military analysts thought they had found one of the world’s two most wanted men just where they last saw them six years ago. For three days and nights — between Aug. 14 and 16 — U.S. and Afghanistan forces pounded the mountain caves in Tora Bora, the same caves where Osama Bin Laden had hidden...

Soldiers glimpse children hiding up in the caves War on terrorism By Richard Lloyd Parry at Tora Bora 07 December 2001 In the Tora Bora valley of the White Mountains, pick-up trucks, Land Rovers and mortars abound, but the last thing you would expect to find is a bicycle. However, when the mujahedin soldiers got within sight of caves in the valley yesterday morning, that is what they saw. It was a dangerous moment, at the start of the second day of the battle against al-Qa'ida guerrillas, but the soldiers of Halim Shah, the front-line commander, agreed: they saw bicycles, ...

BRITAIN'S SAS is poised to lead an attack on the underground fortress in the White Mountains of eastern Afghanistan where Osama Bin Laden is thought to be preparing for a last stand.The 60-strong SAS Sabre squadron that captured a cave complex near the southern city of Kandahar last month has been told to prepare for the even tougher mission of hunting down Bin Laden in his Tora Bora stronghold.A senior British defence source said yesterday that the SAS soldiers had "honed and developed unique skills and experience" during the raid, in which 18 Afghans were killed and four Britons injured. ...

<p>TORA BORA, Afghanistan (AP) -- Osama bin Laden loyalists rained mortar shells, rockets and bullets from high in the mountains Friday as tribal fighters attacked them from below and American warplanes bombed them from above.</p> <p>Jets made constant runs over the forested mountains of eastern Afghanistan, dropping bombs every two or three minutes. The valley was filled with smoke and dust from the explosions.</p>

Who do you think is right? From 11:30 pm lastnight the media has been reporting the capture of Tora Bora while Geraldo has been stating that the fighters in the area clame to have just started doing work on figureing out what area to target. He has been wrong in the past but considering that he is on the frontlines while the rest of the media is reporting at their desks in NYC and D.C. who are we to believe?

Nothing follows..

KABUL, Afghanistan, Dec 07, 2001 (AP WorldStream via COMTEX) -- Taliban forces were surrendering in the southern city of Kandahar and nearby towns on Friday. In Afghanistan's mountainous east, fierce fighting and heavy bombing raged around al-Qaida's cave hide-out.A senior Taliban defector said Taliban supreme leader Mullah Mohammed Omar, who is wanted by the United States for sheltering Osama bin Laden, fled Kandahar sometime before the surrender to an unknown location. Other Taliban leaders had also left the city, which had been their last stronghold.Low-ranked Taliban fighters were returning to their homes after being granted a general amnesty, said ...

Tora Bora Said Captured, No Sign of Osama Bin Laden KABUL (Reuters) - Anti-Taliban forces have captured the main base of Osama bin Laden in the Tora Bora mountains of eastern Afghanistan, but failed to find the Saudi-born militant, a military spokesman said on Friday. ``The last and main base of Osama in Tora Bora was captured last night,'' Mohammad Habeel, a spokesman for the militarily dominant Northern Alliance, told Reuters, adding that there had been fierce resistance as the assault was pressed home. ``Our troops led by commander Hazrat Ali said that we have taken almost all of Tora ...

According to Pakistani diplomatic sources, U.S. intelligence has revealed that Osama bin Laden is hiding in the "White Cave" in the Tora Bora mountains, and is currently carrying out military operations there aimed at leading to his capture.

Senior al Qaeda leader may have been wounded in the ongoing battle at Tora Bora The battle at the Tora Bora mountains in Nangarhar province has completed its first week, the fighting has intensified as Afghan Army and US forces hunt Taliban and al Qaeda fighters who have infiltrated the region. Scores of Taliban and al Qaeda operatives are reported to have been captured after upwards of 50 terrorists were killed in the initial fighting. A senior al Qaeda leader was also reported to have been wounded in the attack. Dr. Amin al Haq, who serves as Osama bin Laden's...

Osama bin Laden's cement-lined swimming pool fed by a mountain stream still lies, half destroyed, at the entrance to his cave complex at Tora Bora. Close to the caves, which have been dynamited shut, is a rusting 1980s vintage Soviet tank; bullets and scraps of camouflage clothing litter the ground. An air of brooding gloom hangs about the cloud-wreathed mountains. But six years after US special forces failed to capture the al-Qa'eda leader in his mountain stronghold, the place where the September 11 attacks were hatched, American troops are again scouring the mountains of Tora Bora. A week ago American...

Text of report by Mushtaq Yusufzai headlined "More Pakistan troops deployed along Tora Bora" published by Pakistani newspaper The News website on 16 August Peshawar [North-West Frontier Province]: Pakistan deployed thousands of security forces on the border areas of Kurram tribal agency with Afghanistan's Tora Bora where a major operation has reportedly been launched by the US and NATO forces against Taleban and Al-Qa'idah. Tribal sources told The News from the border villages that heavy contingents of the Pakistan army and the paramilitary Frontier Corps (FC) reached there and strengthened security on the border with Afghanistan. This new and rather...

US and Afghan forces have launched a blistering anti-Taliban campaign in the mountains of southern Nangarhar province, home of the infamous Tora Bora mountain fortress. The offensive began shortly after a massive IED blast ripped through a US Humvee on Sunday, killing 3 US soldiers and their interpreter. A local security official told Pajhwok News that up to 50 militants have been killed in the offensive and at least 40 others are ‘under siege.’ Qari Sajad, a purported spokesman for the local Taliban splinter faction, The Tora Bora Military Front, denied his group sustained any casualties saying the 34...

The Tora Bora cave complex, an entrenched network of caves and tunnels carved into the Safed Koh mountain range on the Nangarhar-Pakistan border, sustained a withering barrage of Coalition air strikes over the last 24 hours. A band of ‘Arab, Chechen and Pakistani’ militants numbering close to 300 allegedly reoccupied the infamous mountain redoubt earlier last month. The group is thought to be loyal to the late Yonuis Kahlis’s son, Anwar ul-Haq Mujahid who leads a Taliban splinter group called Tora Bora Nizami Mahaz, or the Tora Bora Military Front (TBMF). The fortified positions and close proximity to Pakistan’s...

Insurgents backed by al-Qa'eda have opened a new "front" on the eastern border of Afghanistan, re-occupying the Tora Bora cave complex from which Osama bin Laden escaped the closing net of US forces in 2001. The "Tora Bora Front", as Taliban propaganda calls it, borders the province of Nangahar and has been active for about three weeks. The complex of deep caves, which proved impervious to US bombing in 2001, sits on an infiltration route from the Spin Ghar mountains between Nangahar province and Pakistan's lawless Tribal Areas, where bin Laden is still thought to be hiding. Western officials and...

Afghan Warlord Says He Helped Bin Laden Escape Tora Bora Thursday, January 11, 2007 ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Afghan insurgent leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar said in a television interview broadcast Thursday that his fighters helped Al Qaeda leader Usama bin Laden escape intense U.S. bombing in the Tora Bora mountains in 2001. Hekmatyar, a former Afghan prime minister and leader of the Hezb-e-Islami militant group, told Pakistan's private Geo TV network that when the United States began its assault on the rugged Afghan mountains five years ago, some of his fighters moved bin Laden, his deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri and other associates to...

Afghan warlord 'aided Bin Laden' The interview was conducted in Afghanistan nearly three weeks ago Afghan warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar says his fighters helped al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden escape a US offensive five years ago.Bin Laden was moved to "a safe place" when the US assault on the Tora Bora mountains began in late 2001, the Hezb-e-Islami leader told Pakistani TV. Mr Hekmatyar said Ayman al-Zawahiri, al-Qaeda's second-in-command, was also taken to the undisclosed location. The rare interview was broadcast on Thursday by the private Geo TV network. The authenticity of the interview could not be independently confirmed, but...

PESHAWAR, Aug 18: A son-in-law of Al Qaeda No 2 Dr Ayman Al-Zawahiri is believed to be the mastermind of the plot to blow up transatlantic flights and he met one or some of the plotters at a place close to the Pakistan-Afghan border, credible sources told Dawn. “The mastermind in the planes bombing plot is Zawahiri’s son-in-law,” said the sources who did not want to be named. “He is the guy being looked for,” they added. Osama bin Laden’s top lieutenant is known to have several sons-in-law. One of them was reported to have been killed in a...

Rumors of Osama bin Laden's death are greatly exaggerated and the al-Qaida leader is preparing his next video broadcast to be aired on al-Jazeera, reports an acclaimed Pakistani journalist who has interviewed him. In an exclusive interview with Paul L. Williams, author of the new book, “The Dunces of Doomsday,” and David Dastych in Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin, Hamid Mir says bin Laden is not only alive and well but in the process of preparing a video-taped appearance for al-Jazeera, the Qatari Arabian news network.

Lost at Tora Bora by MARY ANNE WEAVER Well past midnight one morning in early December 2001, according to American intelligence officials, Osama bin Laden sat with a group of top aides - including members of his elite international 055 Brigade - in the mountainous redoubt of Tora Bora in eastern Afghanistan. Outside, it was blustery and bitterly cold; many of the passes of the White Mountains, of which Tora Bora forms a part, were already blocked by snow. But inside the cave complex, where bin Laden had sought his final refuge from the American war in Afghanistan - a...

Posted on Thu, Mar. 09, 2006 Michael Smerconish | BIN LADEN: HOW CLOSE HAVE WE COME? RAFTER 9/11, IT WAS Gary Berntsen's job to get Osama bin Laden. Picture a real-life Jack Bauer. Strong. Focused. Committed. A guy who probably knows how to kill you with his car keys. More than 23 years as an officer in the clandestine service of the CIA. In his new book, "Jawbreaker," he says he stopped dozens of bombings and assassinations. He'd learned about al Qaeda when investigating the East African embassy bombings in 1998. In 2000, he was sent to Afghanistan to try...

RABAT, Morocco - For more than a decade, Osama bin Laden had few soldiers more devoted than Abdallah Tabarak. A former Moroccan transit worker, Tabarak served as a bodyguard for the al Qaeda leader, worked on his farm in Sudan and helped run a gemstone smuggling racket in Afghanistan, court records here show. During the battle of Tora Bora in December 2001, when al Qaeda leaders were pinned down by U.S. forces, Tabarak sacrificed himself to engineer their escape. He headed toward the Pakistani border while making calls on Osama bin Laden's satellite phone as bin Laden and the others...

Osama bin Laden has vowed never to be taken alive and once gave his bodyguard a pistol with two bullets to shoot him if it appeared that he might be caught, according to a new book of interviews with people who know the al Qaeda leader. The book excerpted in the new issue of Vanity Fair, "The Osama bin Laden I Know: An Oral History" by CNN security expert Peter Bergen, also says bin Laden intensely dislikes deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. After the 2001 attacks on the United States carried out by al Qaeda the Bush administration made much...

Where in the world is Osama bin Laden? Let's face it. He shouldn't be hard to find, especially from a Predator, an aerial reconnaissance vehicle that can read the minute hand of a wristwatch from an altitude of 26,000 feet. Bin Laden is very tall – slightly over 6'6" – and incredibly thin, less than 150 pounds. He wears shalwart kameez – the loose-fitting tunics and baggy pants of al-Qaida and Taliban soldiers – and, when the weather is cold, he dons a camouflage jacket. Although he was born in 1957 and far from retirement age, the al-Qaida chieftain appears...

Former CIA Officer Sues to Publish Book Detailing Osama Bin Laden's EscapeBy Katherine Shrader Associated Press Writer Published: Jul 28, 2005 WASHINGTON (AP) - The CIA is squelching publication of a new book detailing events leading up to Osama bin Laden's escape from his Tora Bora mountain stronghold during the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan, says a former CIA officer who led much of the fighting. In a story he says he resigned from the agency to tell, Gary Berntsen recounts the attacks he coordinated at the peak of the fighting in eastern Afghanistan in late 2001, including how U.S. commanders...

JALALABAD, Afghanistan, May 31, 2005 – When the U.S. Marine Corps' 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, ventured into the Tora Bora mountains recently to hunt down enemy fighters, they instead found Afghans eager for a brighter future. Navy Corpsman David Stanfield watches a U.S. Army CH-47 Chinook helicopter descend into a landing zone to drop off aid supplies for Marines to distribute during Operation Celtics in Afghanistan's rugged Torah Bora mountains. Photo by Sgt. 1st Class Rick Scavetta, USA The mission, dubbed Operation Celtics, began as an offensive in an enemy sanctuary - the rugged mountains of Nangahar province that...

Tin SoldierAn American Vigilante In Afghanistan, Using the Press for Profit and Glory By Mariah Blake In April 2004, a former U.S. Special Forces soldier named Jonathan Keith Idema started shopping a sizzling story to the media. He claimed terrorists in Afghanistan planned to use bomb-laden taxicabs to kill key U.S. and Afghan officials, and that he himself intended to thwart the attack. Shortly thereafter, he headed to Afghanistan, where he spent the next two months conducting a series of raids with his team, which he called Task Force Saber 7. By late June, he claimed to have captured the...

Mar 23, 8:51 AM EST Document: Bin Laden Evaded U.S. Forces By ROBERT BURNS AP Military Writer WASHINGTON (AP) -- A commander for Osama bin Laden during Afghanistan's war with the Soviet Union who helped the al-Qaida leader escape American forces at Tora Bora is being held by U.S. authorities, a government document says. The document represents the first definitive statement from the Pentagon that bin Laden, the mastermind of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, was at Tora Bora and evaded his pursuers. President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney asserted during the presidential election that commanders did...

WASHINGTON: A terror suspect held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, was a commander for Osama Bin Laden during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s and helped the Al Qaeda leader escape his mountain hideout at Tora Bora in 2001, according to a US government document. The document, provided to The Associated Press in response to a ‘freedom of information’ request, says the unidentified detainee “assisted in the escape of Osama from Tora Bora.” It is the first definitive statement from the Pentagon that Osama was at Tora Bora and evaded US pursuers. The detainee is not identified by name...

WASHINGTON (AP) - A terror suspect held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, was a commander for Osama bin Laden during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s and helped the al-Qaida leader escape his mountain hideout at Tora Bora in 2001, according to a U.S. government document. The document, provided to The Associated Press in response to a Freedom of Information request, says the unidentified detainee "assisted in the escape of Osama bin Laden from Tora Bora." The detainee is not identified by name or nationality. He is described as being "associated with" al-Qaida and having called for a jihad,...

U.S. concludes Bin Laden escaped at Tora Bora fight and that the failure to send troops in pursuit termed major error

Afghan forces arrested three Americans, including a purported former Green Beret, after raiding a jail they were allegedly running in the Afghan capital and finding prisoners hanging from their feet, officials said Thursday. The U.S. military, facing a widening inquiry into prisoner abuse, quickly distanced itself from the three, who had been posing as American agents before being detained Monday. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Thursday "the U.S. government does not employ or sponsor these men." Afghan officials also dismissed claims by the apparent ringleader, Jonathan K. Idema, that he was a "special adviser" to their security forces, saying...

Hunting for Osama bin Laden, the C.I.A. established a series of small, covert bases in the rugged mountain frontier of northwest Pakistan in late 2003. Mr. bin Laden, the terrorist leader, was being sheltered there by local tribesmen and foreign militants, the agency had concluded, and controlled a group of handpicked operatives dedicated to attacking the United States. But since the bases opened, the C.I.A. officers stationed there have been strictly supervised by Pakistani officials, who have limited their ability to operate and have escorted them wherever they travel in the Pakistani border region. As a result, it has been...

It is [said]... the only sure winner in American politics is the media.... Maybe not this time. Big Media lost big. But it was more than a loss. It was an abdication of authority. Large media institutions, such as CBS or the New York Times, have been regarded as nothing if not authoritative. In the Information Age, authority is a priceless franchise. But it is this franchise that Big Media, incredibly, has just thrown away. It did so by choosing to go into overt opposition to one party's candidate, a sitting president. It stooped to conquer... National Guard... Abu Ghraib......

With Osama Bin Laden emerging anew as an issue in the presidential election, the Bush administration has flatly denied it bungled a chance to capture the mastermind of terror at Tora Bora in Afghanistan. White House officials and retired Gen. Tommy Franks assert that there is no evidence Bin Laden was ever present inside the mountain redoubt in late November and early December of 2001. As a reporter who closely tracked Bin Laden's movements at Tora Bora in late 2001, I would like to point out some glaring contradictions. Overwhelming evidence indicates that Bin Laden, accompanied by a large entourage...

In a semi-coherent videotaped message, Osama bin Laden is trying to influence the Tuesday election by castigating President George W. Bush for everything from oppression of Muslims to passage of the Patriot Act. The message reads as if al Qaeda has become a nightmarish version of a "527" group. But it is very bad news for John Kerry. As the Daily Telegraph reported on Saturday, bin Laden, "...did not endorse Mr Kerry for election but did effectively campaign against Mr Bush, saying: 'Despite entering the fourth year after September 11, Bush is still deceiving you and hiding the truth...

QandO Explodes The Afganistan "Outsourcing" Myth Jon Henke at QandO, the essential neolibertarian blog, does some research on John Kerry's oft-repeated assertion that the US "outsourced" its efforts at Tora Bora in order to do war on the cheap. Despite the vehement denials by General Tommy Franks and others within the Afghan operation and the detailed explanations as to why our strategy not only made sense but paid off, Kerry continues to use this canard as a major part of his stump speeches. It should surprise no one at this date that Kerry's position represents a complete reversal from what...

KERRY'S TORA-BORA 'OUTSOURCING' LIEPOURQUOI JOHN KERRY EST DANGEREUX POUR L'AMÉRIQUE   (viewing movie requires Flash Player 7, available HERE) thanx to Wolverine for the audio NEW! compleatjohnkerry.blogspot.com NEW! unfitforcommand.blogspot.comjohnkerryisdangerousforamerica.blogspot.com "What we are doing, I think, is having its impact and it is the best way to protect our troops and sort of minimalize the proximity, if you will. I think we have been doing this pretty effectively and we should continue to do it that way.... I think we have been smart; I think the administration leadership has done it well and we are on the right track." JOHN...

...We strategized Tora Bora in essentially the same way [as] the Afghanistan war: by using a combination of our elite Special Forces and CIA Agents, embedded with native Afghan troops. We chose this approach in waging the Afghan war for many reasons: it minimized the number of U.S. troops put in harm's way; it drew on the strengths of the native Afghans who had been fighting in that terrain for years and who were adept at traversing the mountainous terrain on horseback; and it helped avoid the same mistake the Soviets made in Afghanistan. They had opted for a large...

In the campaign’s final days, Kerry continues to claim that Bush “outsourced” the job of going after bin Laden in Tora Bora (search) to Afghan warlords. But the Democrat’s charge rankles not only retired Gen. Tommy Franks, a strong Bush supporter on the campaign trail, but also Army special forces soldiers who say they searched for bin Laden in Tora Bora’s treacherous mountains.