Posted on 02/28/2004 8:47:48 PM PST by 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.
I'm not telling you to calm down dog.
I'm having fun watching you chase your tail. ;-)
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. ;-)
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
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!
I wish FR was a SCIF.
Don't you think that our forces were probably already in place before they 'let it leak?'
Be Seeing You,
Chris
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).
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.