Dem: Bush Let Bin Laden Escape ... on Purpose

A Democratic congressman today accused President Bush of purposely letting Osama bin Laden escape capture in order to justify the Iraq war—and, when given an out by MSNBC’s David Shuster, Rep. Maurice Hinchey reiterated, “I don’t think it’ll will strike a lot of people as crazy. I think it’ll strike a lot of people as accurate. That’s exactly what happened.”

Hinchey, who represents an upstate New York district, appeared to have been referring to a Senate report that the al-Qaeda leader had been within reach of US troops in 2001. “When our military went in there, we could have captured them. … But we didn’t, and we didn’t because of the need felt by the previous administration and the previous head of the military—that need to attack Iraq, which is completely unjustified.”
(More Maurice Hinchey stories.)