2 CIA officials tell us Washington –twice– declined to send the reinforcements they asked for when bin Laden was cornered in Afghanistan in 2001.  By the time of the 2nd request by the CIA for troops, the special ops force could hear Osama on radio asking his followers for forgiveness for leading them to their imminent capture.  It was that close.

From Gary Bernsten, who led the CIA's paramilitary unit chasing bin Laden after he fled from Kabul (Christiane Amanpour interviewed him on CNN) –

AMANPOUR:  ... the CIA was sure it knew where he was, thanks in large part to a radio taken off a dead al Qaeda fighter.

BERNTSEN: We listened to bin Laden for several days using that radio, listened to his communications among him and his men. We listened to him apologize to them for having led them  –
          [-- crossposted at dailykos --]