On the 25th anniversary of 9/11, former CIA officer Gary Berntsen sat down with Lara Logan to revisit the opening weeks of the Afghanistan war and one of its defining missed opportunities: the hunt for Osama bin Laden at Tora Bora.
Berntsen, who commanded a CIA Jawbreaker team in Afghanistan, describes the rapid CIA-led campaign that worked alongside Afghan fighters and U.S. special operators after the attacks.
A CIA review identifies JAWBREAKER as the code name for teams sent into Afghanistan to support anti-Taliban forces, attack al Qaeda and pursue bin Laden.
The episode’s sharpest moment comes when Berntsen recounts his request for U.S. troops to block bin Laden’s escape routes.
“I asked for 800 rangers. I begged them for 800 rangers, and they wouldn’t give them to me,” Berntsen tells Logan.
A 2009 Senate report later cited Berntsen’s request and found that fewer than 100 American commandos were at Tora Bora. The report also said U.S. officials denied requests for reinforcements and troops to block escape routes into Pakistan.
Berntsen and Logan also revisit the CIA’s early partnership with Afghan forces, Pakistan’s role, missed pre-9/11 opportunities to target bin Laden and the 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan, which Berntsen calls “the single greatest military failure in American history.”
Watch the full Episode 98 interview HERE.
Provided by Dallas Express
