Turns out, Sen. Kerry was at least partially right during the campaign about Osama bin Laden’s escape from Tora Bora in Afghanistan.

During the debates with President Bush and on the campaign trail, Kerry repeated several times that the U.S. government had “outsourced” its pursuit of terror mastermind bin Laden by relying too heavily on Afghan forces and that decision had allowed him to avoid capture. The president said Kerry wasn’t telling the truth.

President Bush at a rally in October 2004: “Unfortunately – unfortunately, my opponent, tonight, continued to say things he knows are not true – accusing our military of passing up a chance to get Osama bin Laden in Tora Bora. As the commander in charge of that operation, Tommy Franks had said, it’s simply not the case. It’s the worst kind of Monday morning quarterbacking. … As Gen. Franks said, If we’d ever known where bin Laden was, we would have gotten him.'”

Documents obtained this week by The Associated Press, however, confirm that bin Laden was at Tora Bora and did escape alive.

A detainee, who was not named and is being held at Guantanamo Bay, “assisted in the escape of Osama bin Laden from Tora Bora,” the AP reported the document to say. The document is part of a summary of evidence used to keep the prisoner, who appears to be a higher-level al-Qaida operative, in detention. He surrendered to Pakistani forces after the December 2001 fighting at Tora Bora.

Something doesn’t track. Either the administration attacked Kerry contrary to the facts or the government is using bad information to hold a man at Guantanamo. Wonder which it is?