CIA director George Tenet briefs National Security Advisor Sandy Berger on what Tenet writes is the “first of what would become several plans to try to capture bin Laden.”
The plan briefed is to work with a group of “tribals” in southern Afghanistan, Pashtun groups opposing both the Taliban and willing to work for the CIA. The tribals would attack Tarnak Farm outside Kandahar, bin Laden’s main residence, kidnap bin Ladin and take him to a desert landing zone. From there, a CIA plane would take him either to New York or an Arab capital, or wherever he was to be arraigned. Despite many possibilities of these going wrong, the briefing says that “sooner or later, nin Ladin will attack U.S. interests, perhaps using WMD [weapons of mass destruction].”
The CIA is direction to continue to move ahead with the planning and, among other things, to start drafting any legal documents that might be required to authorize the covert action. (9/11 Commission Report, p. 112.)
Day: February 13, 2021