From The Associated Press, 6/24/03:
http://abcnews.go.com/wire/US/ap20030624_1661.html

Officials: Bush Administration Was Slow to Develop, Send Armed Drones
to Track Osama Bin Laden

WASHINGTON June 24 --

Though Predator drones spotted Osama bin Laden as many as three times
in late 2000, the Bush administration did not fly the unmanned planes
over Afghanistan during its first eight months and was still refining
a plan to use one armed with missiles to kill the al-Qaida leader when
Sept. 11 unfolded, current and former U.S. officials say.

The military successfully tested an armed Predator throughout the
first half of 2001, and top administration officials discussed such a
mission at a White House meeting just one week before the suicide
attacks.

But they failed to resolve a debate over whether the CIA or Pentagon
should operate the armed Predators and whether the missiles would be
sufficiently lethal, officials told The Associated Press.

The months-long disappearance in 2001 of U.S. Predators from the skies
over Afghanistan is discussed in classified sections of Congress'
report into pre-Sept. 11 intelligence failures and is expected to be
examined by an independent commission appointed by the president and
Congress, officials said.

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The torch was passed to Georgie and he dropped it. What a screw up!

Harry