What happened here?
 

From the February 27, 2001 White House Press Briefing web site:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/briefings/20010227.html

Q: Ari, according to India Globe, the Taliban in Afghanistan, they have offered that they are ready to hand over Osama bin Laden to Saudi Arabia if the United States would drop its sanctions, and they have a kind of deal that they want to make with the United States. Do you have any comments?


MR. FLEISCHER: Let me take that and get back to you on that.

Where do you think he took that? What did the Bush Admin do with this information?

[crickets chirping] ...uuhhh, I got nothing. [/crickets chirping]

It was taken up under advisement and determined that it would much more fun to someday we waged war on the entire middlebeast, even if 2000+ civ and 2000+ troops died to kick it off. How else could you approve of such actions? Face it, they aren't gonna stop hating us and we ain't gonna stop being us. Let the bombs burst and the blood let and at the end there should be plenty-o-oil to go around cuz there will be 25% less people to burn it!

Simple: bin Laden was never intended to be captured. He was and continues to be the trump card. Besides which, his capture in 2001, would have potentially rendered Iraq a moot point - much as it is today.

Interesting. Easy to see how it got lost in the fog. Did Ari ever get back to the reporter on that issue?