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Posted on 10/19/2004 4:45:58 PM PDT by cgk
By John J. Lumpkin
ASSOCIATED PRESS
2:35 p.m. October 19, 2004
WASHINGTON – The top American commander in Afghanistan said Tuesday he has no evidence Osama bin Laden is in day-to-day control of al-Qaeda but suggested the long-absent terrorist leader is alive.
Lt. Gen. David Barno, speaking to reporters during a visit to the Pentagon, talked mostly of a lack of evidence about bin Laden's whereabouts, health and current role in the al-Qaeda network. He remains, however, a critical target, Barno said.
Still, "I don't see any indications that he is in day-to-day command and control, as it were, of the al-Qaeda organization or the other terrorist groups that work with him, certainly in the Afghanistan-Pakistan area," Barno said.
Barno suggested that bin Laden's death would be difficult to conceal from intelligence services, even if he died in a secret place, because his associates would talk about it. Recent communications from al-Qaeda's top echelon have come from bin Laden's chief deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri, as videotaped messages.
Early in 2004, Barno and his staff predicted bin Laden would be captured by the end of the year. No longer. "I retired my crystal ball, and I don't make predictions anymore in terms of when we're potentially going to get any of the figures out there that we pursue every day in Afghanistan," he said.
Barno called the Oct. 9 presidential election a success, and described stories of Afghans waiting in the snow for hours to vote. Some stayed in line even as insurgent rockets landed 200 yards away.
Another visitor to Washington, Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. ambassador in Afghanistan, speaking to reporters at the State Department, characterized the elections as "a spectacular success" unprecedented in the South Asian country's 5,000-year history.
"The people of Afghanistan want their country to succeed," said Khalilzad, who was born in the South Asian country. "They want us to help them."
To do that, he said, the threat from Afghanistan's former extremist Taliban rulers must be ended, and the country's massive cultivation of opium, which accounts for half Afghanistan's economy, must be stopped.
Security forces must be built up under a strategic partnership between the United States and Afghanistan, he said.
"We have seen that the failure of Afghanistan causes problems that can have enormous effect on the security of the American people. We saw that Sept. 11," Khalilzad said. The airplane hijackers who attacked the United States on that day in 2001 were trained at al-Qaeda camps in Afghanistan.
Barno said Afghanistan's major security problems include stemming the narcotics trade and trying to persuade former rank-and-file Taliban militiamen to join them into society.
U.N. surveys estimate Afghanistan's illegal poppy cultivation accounted for three-quarters of the world's opium last year and earned $2.3 billion.
Barno suggested that U.S. troops may eventually be used to interdict the drug trade but said it is less likely they will begin to eradicate crops. So far, British-trained Afghan forces have taken the lead in counternarcotics efforts, but the trade flourishes.
Promoting reconciliation with rebel Taliban fighters would be critical over the next six months, Barno said, but he offered no numbers on how many holdouts were still fighting.
"They want to join this political process. They want to join the economic development of the country," he said. "And they don't want to be living up in the mountains in the snow with an AK-47 any more."
The 100 to 150 senior Taliban leaders would not be allowed back, Barno said.
Makes sense. For OBL to be in command he would have to communicate. And for this Islamofascist to communicate would mean a certain death sentence.
So, if Osama's alive, he's a crazy, sick man with a kidney condition who's afraid to talk to anyone.
No wonder Bush isn't that worried about him. ;-)
I don't care, his head still needs to be held up on a pike.
Its not apparent that he's alive. Geez..If he was alive we would have proof. He'sszzzzzzzzzzzz dead.
That's because he's dead Jim, er, John.
I agree. There is more evidence this guy's dead then there is that he's alive.
I'm not sure I buy this as proof that if he's alive he's not in command.
If OBL is alive (I don't think there's any good reason to believe he is BTW), he's not alone in a cave, there are people around him. There are people getting his food and monitoring his kidney machine and there's probably a young boy who he... Well anyway not to get off track here, the point is, if he's alive he'd most likely have with him a right hand man, a consigliere... let's call it a Message-Relayer. OBL decides such-and-such must be done, whispers it into MR's ear, MR (not OBL) is the one who gets on the horn and sends the command out. It's understood contextually (pre-arranged code words? in personal meetings OBL explained that MR speaks for him? whatever) amongst AQ's upper echelon that this command has the OBL stamp of approval even though MR never uses such words.
Now, our military's hearing that and going "Nope, not OBL's voice, therefore I guess he's not in command"? Let's just say I sure hope not. If they really have concluded OBL's not in command I hope it's based on something more than "no comms from him that we have heard".
Yep. He's dead, David.
Afghanistan's going to be a major problem in the years to come. How do you win peoples hearts and minds while trying to eliminate 50% of their economy? I'm sure most of them like us now for ridding them of the Taliban, but if we ever start to crack down on opium production...
"I don't care, his head still needs to be held up on a pike."
I agree. We need to take these Islamofacists and Pike their heads, like the old days. And give them a Pigskin
tie.
This is what they understand and until we deal with them in terms they understand we will protract our efforts longer than necessary!
I want him to be dead, even if he is not running things.
I also want it announced next week that his dna has been identified, scraped from the side of a Tora Bora cave.
I also want it stated that he was killed by the Afghan warlords who America "outsourced" that assignment to, backed up by coalition troops, including never-to-be-forgotten Poland.
Tall order, but that's the October surprise I want. And, oh yeah, I want those darn wmds found!
He lives in Ohio. Will vote for Kerry under the name "Mary Poppins". Plays bingo down at the community center.
Since December 2002 there were more Elvis sighting since than Osama sightings, and we all know Elvis is dead.
Portions of those tapes have been scavenged to produce some Audio-video "messages" from Osama..
They ( Al Queda ) have used everything that was usable to help incite and recruit..
Any further use of that material would require repeats, or cut and paste productions..
Such material would be readily identified and add to the proof that Osama is dead..
Case Closed..
Osama is Dead..
You give them another way to make a living, a better living.
best thing that ever happened is for obl to quietly disappear...if he dies in combat he's a martyr and if he's alive than he is flaunting our weakness...i imagine he ended up on the wrong end of some serious special operations forces and we won't ever hear from him again...
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