Report: bin Laden within U.S. reach in '01

WASHINGTON, Nov. 29 (UPI) -- Osama bin Laden was cornered in the Afghan mountains in 2001 but the United States did not deploy massive force to capture or kill him, a Senate report says.

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee report, to be released Monday, blames former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Gen. Tommy Franks, the former American commander, for not sending more U.S. troops after bin Laden.

"The failure to finish the job," the report said, "represents a lost opportunity that forever altered the course of the conflict in Afghanistan and the future of international terrorism, leaving the American people more vulnerable to terrorism, laying the foundation for today's protracted Afghan insurgency and inflaming the internal strife now."

The report said emphatically bin Laden was in a complex of caves and tunnels in Tora Bora in December 2001 before escaping to Pakistan.

But the report said the U.S. command severely limited its capacity to get to the al-Qaida leader. The command relied on airstrikes, American Special Operations, CIA officers and untrained Afghan militants to go after bin Laden and on loosely organized Pakistani corps to block his escape, the report said.

"The vast array of American military power, from sniper teams to the most mobile divisions of the Marine Corps and the Army, was kept on the sidelines," the report said.

The report cites experts saying bin Laden arrived in Tora Bora in November 2001, accompanied by 1,000 to 1,500 fighters and bodyguards.

"The decisions that opened the door for his escape to Pakistan allowed bin Laden to emerge as a potent symbolic figure who continues to attract a steady flow of money and inspire fanatics worldwide," the report said.

The report, "Tora Bora Revisited: How We Failed to Get bin Laden and Why it Matters Today," was prepared at the request of Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, by the committee's staff.

In a letter accompanying the report, Kerry said it examines "the consequences of the failure to eliminate bin Laden and other extremist leaders in the hope that we can learn from the mistakes of the past."

The report's release is to come a day before President Barack Obama makes an announcement on increasing troop levels in Afghanistan. White House aides have reportedly said Obama will announce a troop increase of up to 30,000 U.S. soldiers, in addition to 68,000 already in Afghanistan.