SAS Joins Fresh Bid To Snare Bin Laden

The Guardian (UK) ^ | 2-29-2004 | Jason Burke

[blam]

SAS joins fresh bid to snare bin Laden

Jason Burke, chief reporter
Sunday February 29, 2004
The Observer (UK)

American and British forces have launched a dramatic new effort to capture or kill Osama bin Laden and other senior al-Qaeda leaders in Afghanistan. SAS detachments will join thousands of US troops - including a 'super-secret' special forces unit transferred from Iraq - and contingents of Afghan soldiers in a huge sweep of mountainous border areas where the terrorists are believed to be hiding.

The push will be the biggest such operation for 18 months. Attempts to find the fugitives last year were hindered by a lack of special forces soldiers - most of whom had been deployed in Iraq - and the failure of Pakistan to cut off escape routes by closing its border with Afghanistan. Harsh winter conditions in recent months have made movement in the high ground where bin Laden is thought to be hiding impossible.

Thousands of Pakistani troops and paramilitaries are preparing to move into positions along the 1,520-mile frontier to act as an 'anvil' against which the US-led 'hammer' can strike. Reports from an Iranian news agency yesterday that bin Laden has been captured proved false but Washington is confident the Saudi-born militant will be killed or captured within a year.

The operation will be led by the ultra-secret Task Force 121 - a unit of elite Navy SEALs and Delta Force soldiers led by top intelligence analysts that was formed by the Pentagon last year to head the hunt for Saddam Hussein.

Key personnel from the unit have now been transferred to Afghanistan. The Americans are also expected to draw on British elite forces. Soldiers from territorial army units 21 SAS and 23 SAS have recently arrived in Afghanistan to join their full-time counterparts. Unmanned Predator drones have also been switched from Iraq to Afghanistan. The Predator is equipped with Hellfire missiles and powerful spy cameras which can follow cars or even individuals from thousands of feet up.

Bin Laden, 47, is believed to be hiding with his partner Ayman al-Zawahiri, an Egyptian militant, in the mountains lining the border. The terrain and sympathetic tribesmen offer substantial protection. Al-Zawahiri issued two tapes last week calling for attacks on the 'Crusader-Zionist alliance'. In one he referred to the recent controversy in France over the banning of the Islamic veil from schools, making it clear he was alive at least a month ago.

The hunt is being boosted by a computer program developed in Iraq to locate 'high value human targets'. The program charts links between thousands of people associated with a fugitive, allowing intelligence officers to detect key individuals who might have vital information.

The Americans are also employing 'psychological operations' against bin Laden, allowing news of the new push to leak into the media. US intelligence specialists know that, like Saddam, bin Laden and his aides monitor the media and are hoping that news of the operation will 'flush out' the terrorist leader, forcing him to leave winter hideouts for fear they have become known to the coalition or to Pakistan.

'The sands in their hourglass are running out. We reaffirm our effort to track these guys down and get 'em,' said Lieutenant-Colonel Matthew Beevers, a US military spokesman in Afghanistan.

Officials are careful not to seem over-confident. Beevers admitted that if coalition forces knew where bin Laden and his men were, 'we'd already have him'. Last week Donald Rumsfeld, US Defence Secretary, played down the prospect of catching bin Laden, al-Zawahiri and Mullah Omar, the leader of the Taliban.

Most intelligence analysts believe bin Laden and a small number of associates have been hiding somewhere between the eastern Afghan city of Khost and the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta since slipping the net drawn round them by American forces at the cave complex of Tora Bora in December 2001.

American intelligence officials say bin Laden recently crossed into Afghanistan from Pakistan, where they believe he was being sheltered in the remote south Waziristan tribal agency by local leaders, during the winter. Mullah Omar is believed to be on the move in the areas of south eastern Afghanistan where support for the Taliban is strongest, travelling remote desert and mountain regions by motorbike.

Both bin Laden and Mullah Omar have been assisted by the fiercely autonomous, heavily armed tribes which straddle the border. Pakistan has adopted a 'carrot and stick' policy towards the tribesmen, many of whom see bin Laden as a hero.

Pakistani troops using helicopters and artillery flattened three housing compounds and detained at least 20 people last Tuesday in a remote region where bin Laden and other al-Qaeda fugitives are believed to have hidden recently. Four of the detainees were from the Middle East, the rest from the local Pashtun tribes. On Friday armed tribesmen raided a military compound in south Waziristan and 11 men died in a shoot-out at a border post.

[Dog]

And please note post 19..

[JOE43270]

I think it's nice to have them along. From what I understand those SAS guys can hold their own with the best.

[babaloo]

FWIW Julian Phillips has opined this morning that he has been on record that Osama needed to be found and that he thought the US should have dealt with that earlier. What a buffoon. Thanks for playing, Julian.

[hershey]

It will boost Blair's popularity at home if the SAS is in on the 'kill'. Bush probably called him up with the invite. He owes Blair a favor or two, plus this will shut Kerry up about the US 'going it alone' baloney and how the world would be better off if we handed the keys to the front door to the UN.

[ASA Vet]

and you all tell me to calm down

I'm not telling you to calm down dog.
I'm having fun watching you chase your tail. ;-)

[Cap Huff]

"The Americans are also employing 'psychological operations' against bin Laden, allowing news of the new push to leak into the media."

I have come to the conclusion that the weird use of the expression "sands of the hourglass" relates somehow to psyops. It may be that flyers dropped in the region use this analogy. It may also be a case of using OBL's own words against him. Maybe this was an expression he used in a communication he thought was secure, but we intercepted. Once he finds out that his communications have been hacked, he might panic. Maybe it is a way of taunting him (and may just be the reason that Zawahiri tried to taunt back in his tape the other week).

[mewzilla]

Sounds like we were waiting for the SAS to arrive, so they could be in on the fun.

[ASA Vet]

It may also be a case of using OBL's own words against him.
Maybe this was an expression he used in a communication he thought was secure, but we intercepted.

Thus insuring discontinuance of that communications channel,
and the loss of any intel which could have been gleaned from it.

Yep, sounds like something we'd want to do. ;-)

[Cap Huff]

Here's another report that repeats a lot of the same information that has already been reported, but there are some interesting items:

Hunt for bin Laden, allies heats up
Posted on Sun, Feb. 29, 2004
SATELLITES, SOLDIERS COMB MOUNTAINS

By John Walcott

Knight Ridder

>>snip<<

In addition, said the officials, who all spoke on the condition of anonymity because the operations are highly classified, U.S. reconnaissance satellites were redirected this weekend to spend more time over border areas near Pakistan's South Waziristan region, where Pakistani forces recently have clashed with what appear to be heavily armed members of Al-Qaida or of Afghanistan's former Taliban military.

However, the officials cautioned that they still had no independently confirmed intelligence pinpointing bin Laden, his second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahiri, or Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar, and on Friday they said the unusually public discussions of intensifying operations are an effort to flush out the 6-foot, 5-inch Al-Qaida leader in hopes that drones, other aircraft, satellites or spies are more likely to spot him if he moves.

>>snip<<

The officials also expressed skepticism about reports that intercepted satellite telephone conversations referring to ``the Sheik,'' a suspected code name for bin Laden, indicate the presence of Al-Qaida members along the border.

``Bin Laden and the people who know where he is stopped yakking on `sat' phones more than five years ago,'' said one official. ``If we can overhear it, it's probably disinformation.''

The officials said they expect that the hunt will end, whenever it does, in bin Laden's death rather than his capture. Both the armed Predator drones and the special-forces teams along the border are authorized to shoot to kill if they're certain they have bin Laden, Zawahiri or Omar in sight, one official said.

>>snip<< Hunt for bin Laden, allies heats up

[Cap Huff]

" Yep, sounds like something we'd want to do. ;-)"

Of course what you imply would ordinarily make good sense. If we've broken into his communications we'd like to glean as much as we could from it by keeping that fact secret. But in a game of cat and mouse there may be times when the cat may want to give up a little to get a lot more. The whole point is that the phrase may have been used MONTHS ago, and maybe he knows that the channel is already gone.

For example:

Man arrested for contacting Qaeda(In contact with the Al Qaeda leadership)

As the article says our guys have been "allowing news of the new push to leak into the media."

I caught the winking smiley . . . . I think we'll all be smiling when this all gets resolved!

[ASA Vet]

Having done it for 28 years I can attest to some really strange ploys, plots,
and yes sometimes deliberate lose of sources.
I'll never say never.

I wish FR was a SCIF.

[Ditter]

Am I the only one who thinks Bin Lauden is dead?

[atomicpossum]

The Pentagon let leak, quite loudly I might add, that a Spring Offensive was in the offing in the Border Region. So bin Laden's people as well as his eyes and ears in Bagram, Kabul, Islamabad, Baghdad, and other spots, have kept their eyes on the movements of American military units, paying special attention to landings by paratroopers, Rangers, Air Assault units, or Mountain Division troops.

Don't you think that our forces were probably already in place before they 'let it leak?'

[IGOTMINE]

They are varsity squad all right...but I wouldn't look past The D boys or the Super Squids at Dev Group.

At the level these guys play, they're all "the world's best". Near olympic class atheletes that will kill at the drop of a hat. We're fortunate that we have a positive outlet for such men.

[section9]

I can almost guarandamteeya that either the SAS or the DELTA's were tracking Binnie in the Northwestern Frontier states, probably Waziristan.

Be Seeing You,

Chris

[swarthyguy]

Remember the news reports about SAS being deployed in Iraq last fall in the Saddam Triangle. And then, bingo, shortly thereafter, Saddam's nabbed.

There were some reports that SAS had a significant hand in that capture.

At the take I have on the news, this means the SAS boys have been hunting in their latest version of Operation Snipe for at least a month or two, if not longer.

EndGame Osama. Now to the Saudis.

[swarthyguy]

>>>"sands of the hourglass"

A medieval allegory, well understood by these denizens of Araby, whose flowery rhetoric and florid allusions are all too obvious in some of their seminal books and works - titles such as "Under the Shadow of the Lances", "Milestones on the Path", and nom de guerres like "Jihad Falcon".

Osama means Lion and remember his own allegory about people wanting to ride the stronger horse, referring to the appeal of his movement among like minded islamis.

[swarthyguy]

>>I wish FR was a SCIF.


What've you got against the rest of us:)

If we speculate enough, we'll probably hit upon the right answer. Except we won't know it.

[swarthyguy]

You mean like this little puppy here. A TurboCharged Triple XXX version?

http://www.namebase.org/cgi-bin/nb06?_BIN%20LADEN_OSAMA_

[progop]

Section9, I always read your posts. I tend to agree with you 99% of the time. You always have good insight.

However, I have to disagree with you here. No way is SAS getting the takedown on Bin Laden or Al Zawahiri. (If UBL is even alive).

The American Special Forces would have none of it. They are very competitive and our Special Op's guys (DEVGRU & DELTA) have risked way to much in the past 3 years not to be allowed this takedown.

Trust me, if a takedown happens on UBL or Zawahiri it will be conducted by the Jedi Knights of DEVGRU or DELTA (probably members of both).