Secretary of State Colin Powell on Friday rejected Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry's charge that the Bush administration had bungled a chance to catch Osama bin Laden in late 2001.
Powell was responding to Kerry's accusation in Thursday's presidential campaign debate with President Bush that U.S. military commanders had let the al Qaeda leader escape from the Tora Bora mountains of Afghanistan.
Kerry said Bush had "outsourced" the mission to Afghan warlords who were former allies of the Taliban regime.
"I think it's a stretch to say that they knew he (bin Laden) was there and they knew it at the time the battle was going on," Powell said following a speech to the Atlanta Press Club. "I have no reason to believe that our commanders mishandled that."
U.S.-led forces ousted the fundamentalist Taliban rulers shortly after a fierce battle in Tora Bora in December 2001. It is believed that bin Laden slipped out of the heavily-bombed region around this time, possibly fleeing into Pakistan.
Powell said U.S. and Pakistani forces were continuing to search for bin Laden, whose al Qaeda network carried out the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States. Powell denied Kerry's suggestion that the U.S.-led war in Iraq had diverted attention and resources from the hunt.
