Heroes and Criminals

💡 Did You Know?

The Battle of Tora Bora, what Sonny refers to as "the great escape", was a military engagement that took place in the cave complex of Tora Bora, eastern Afghanistan, from November 30 - December 17, 2001, during the final stages of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan. The goal of the engagement was to capture Osama Bin Laden, al-Qaeda had been using these caves as a base of operations since the Taliban's war with the Soviet Union in the 1980's and CIA intel placed Bin Laden in the caves. Intel from recon done on the area by the CIA and British Signals Intelligence also showed a large force of al-Qaeda fighters in the area. After an initial air strike on the area by the Air Force, U.S. Army Special Forces Command and JSOC deployed elements of 1st SFOD-D (Delta Force), Army 5th Special Forces Group (Green Berets), CIA Special Activity Division, British Special Boat Services & Signal Intelligence Services (Royal Navy special forces) and KSK (German Army Special Forces), assisted by local anti-Taliban Afghan militia, to sweep the caves, eliminate any surviving al-Qaeda forces and find Bin Laden. Prior to entering the caves and engaging al-Qaeda forces the commanding officers of the Delta Force and CIA teams on the ground both requested that SOCOM deploy a battalion from the Army's 75th Ranger Regiment to block off the mountain passes into Pakistan and cut off bin Laden's escape, however the request was denied. SOCOM felt the Afghan fighters in the pass could do that job but they failed and bin Laden managed to escape into Pakistan, which led to some embarrassment for both Army SOCOM and JSOC. The CIA, Delta Force and Green Beret commanders felt the failure to deploy the Rangers at Tora Bora and overreliance on the Afghan militia had allowed bin Laden to escape. Hence why Sonny said that anyone pretending to be a legit special forces operator "would not take credit for being a part of the Great Escape".