Posted on 02/21/2004 9:14:03 AM PST by MegaSilver
OSAMA bin Laden is reportedly surrounded by United States special forces in a mountain range that straddles north-west Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Internationally respected investigative journalist and author Gordon Thomas says the al-Qaida terror group leader has been sighted for the first time since 2001 and is being monitored by satellite.
In a report to be published in a British newspaper, Thomas says bin Laden is in a mountainous area to the north of the Pakistani city of Quetta.
The region is said to be a stronghold for bin Laden supporters and the terror kingpin is estimated to have 50 of his fanatical bodyguards by his side.
Thomas attributes his report to "a well-placed intelligence source" in Washington who is quoted as saying: "He (bin Laden) is boxed in."
The area makes an all-out conventional military assault impossible, according to the report.
The plan to capture him would depend on a "grab-him-and-go" operation.
"US helicopters already sited on the Afghanistan border will swoop in to extricate him," the report says.
It continues by saying bin Laden and his men "sleep in caves or out in the open".
"The area is swept by fierce snow storms howling down from the 3000m-high mountain peaks. Donkeys are the only transport."
The US special forces are "absolutely confident" there is no escape for bin Laden and are waiting for the order to snatch the shadowy terrorist leader.
The timing of that order will ultimately depend on President George Bush, the report says.
"Capturing bin Laden will certainly be a huge help for him as he gets ready for the election.
"It will be an even bigger bonus than getting Saddam."
The article goes on to say bin Laden's movements are continually monitored by a US National Security Agency satellite positioned over the land in which the wealthy Saudi is trapped.
Joint chiefs of staff chairman General Richard Myers said last week the US had been engaged in "intense" efforts to capture bin Laden.
But General Myers insisted that the focus of the search had not narrowed for months.
"There are areas where we think it is most likely he is, and they remain the same," he said. "They haven't changed in months."
Asked where bin Laden was hiding, General Myers said: "We think in that border region somewhere. We don't know precisely."
Bin Laden's whereabouts were discovered, according to the report, when US Central Intelligence Agency analysts – geographers and soil experts – studying the background in the al-Qaida boss's latest video suggested it matched rocks in the Toba Kakar ranges.
CIA agents, working with Pakistani guides, went from Afghanistan to the region to take photographs and bring out rock and soil samples.
These were flown to Washington where the CIA analysts electronically matched them to the video background.
A two-man special forces surveillance unit infiltrated the area.
"Within a week, they had picked up the first clues that bin Laden was around," according to a source quoted in the report.
"Other teams then slipped into the area.
"No helicopters were used, to avoid any alert."
Once the area was sealed, the special forces troops watched and waited for the order to go in and end the largest manhunt in history.
Bin Laden, head of the fanatical Muslim al-Qaida group, is alleged to have masterminded the September 11, 2001, terror attacks on New York and Washington.
But Bush is just waiting until the right time to do that, for maximum political effect, dontcha know...
< /sarcasm>
Tuesday, 25 September, 2001, 23:46 GMT 00:46 UK The wild border town of Quetta
At least 10,000 Afghan refugees are waiting on the Afghan border near the Pakistani town of Quetta - a place which bristles with weapons and struggles with grinding poverty, writes BBC News Online's Daniel Lak. [snip]Quetta is, and has been, a rough town. Its ethnic and tribal fault lines are often violent.
On the main Jinnah Avenue, Bata shoe shops and jewellers advertising Rolex watches sit alongside arms and ammunition dealers, each emporium of death replete with a contingent of turbaned tribesmen checking out the merchandise.
Quetta is awash with weapons [snip] Kandahar, just 200 km (125 miles) away over the Afghan border, . [snip]Even so, a young man did confront me, wanting to know if I thought Osama Bin Laden was behind the World Trade Center bombings, and whether the US would provide proof of that. [snip]
A government official had told me earlier that Bin Laden had a following in Quetta: "He is very popular here." [snip]Around the corner from the posh Serena Hotel, now overflowing with international media, is the local office of Al Rashid Trust, the charity whose bank accounts were frozen by President George W Bush for alleged links with Bin Laden.
A lurid sign hangs over the door, a painting of one hand gripping a sword, another with a Holy Koran.
Bush let him slip away AGAIN!? (Maybe his connection with the Saudis), or...
He coulda had him anytime. Playing politics with security?
I don't trust anything during a presidential election year.
You say that as if it's a bad thing.
Saddam... check. Osama... check. Ill...check please. :)
It doesn't matter what they say -- they have pat responses for any eventuality. If we find Saddam's WMD they'll either suggest the administration had them (or knew where they were) all along and was merely waiting for the politically expedient opportunity to present them to the electorate, or they'll say that Saddam posed no threat to us even with those weapons and the loss off American lives wasn't worth the trouble (and cost) of the war. And they'll say that we willfully ignored other much hotter spots - like No. Korea, as you mentioned - just so that Dubya could take care of a personal vendetta on Saddam ......and to make an oil grab for Cheney's good buddies at Halliburton, of course.
In regard to bin Laden, the Rats will drone on and on about how we would've doubtlessly caught him a long time ago had the President devoted our resources to doing so (rather than concentrating solely on his revenge mission in Iraq).
Luckily most Americans won't buy their BS.
Where? I just did a search and didn't see another thread with the same title
That's not possible. Mansoor Ijaz's unimpeachable sources has seen him recently in Iran,
Both al-Qaida leaders are disguised, Ijaz said. Bin Laden, has shaved his head bald and is wearing a shorter beard that is dyed to make him look more like an Iranian cleric. He also has put on a considerable amount of weight.
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