Taliban offered to surrender bin Laden before and after 9-11

This is from a Counterpunch story from 2004, which says that through an Afghan employed by the US government, the Taliban had offered repeatedly to hand in bin Laden before and after 9-11--but the Bush administration did not take the opportunity. Before 9-11, the Taliban thought bin Laden to be an embarrassment that could attract US retaliation, for instance for the USS Cole bombing in 2000.