High-tech snooping for bin Laden

CNN ^ | Friday, March 5, 2004 | Barbara Starr

[Anti-Bubba182]

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- U.S. forces searching for al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden along the mountainous border between Pakistan and Afghanistan will soon implement high-tech surveillance tactics in the region, enabling them to monitor the area 24 hours a day, seven days a week, CNN has learned.

[gov_bean_ counter]

Any public statements by Kerry on unmanned predator drones? Sure would be fun to know if he dissed 'em.

[Ethyl]

Loose lips sink ships, and foil our efforts to capture the bad guys................. I don't want to hear about it until it is is shackels.

[blam]

We can't post from the Independent anymore so I'll link this good article here:

Al-Qa'ida Suspects Captured After Phone Chips Left Electronic Trail

[mercy]

Something has puzzled me since the start of the Afgan war. We have technology that can monitor rabbits miles away. Several different kinds that work in concert. We should know how many times Osamma takes a whiz every day. This with just the tech we average citizens know about. I'm sure they have stuff we haven't even dreamt of. Makes me wonder.

[zarf]

That's so much bull. Sure we have amazing technology, yet to find a loner in a vast expanse of mountains who has cut himself off from civilization is close to impossible.

Fortunately, Osama bin Gayboy has to have some contact with his worker bees....that's where we'll nail him.

[gaijin]

Lots and lots of whiz-bang gear to deploy to Af-Pak border, but none for our southern border, I see...

Too expensive, and too logistically complex, I guess, right?

[Ranger]

Its about damn time. You have to wonder why this wasn't done 2 years ago.

[Tunehead54]

Loose lips sink ships, and foil our efforts to capture the bad guys................. I don't want to hear about it until it is is shackels.

---

I don't like seeing the details of our efforts before they've even begun but if its on CNN you can't just close your eyes to it. Seems we need better OpSec if we hope to catch OBL unawares.

[Boot Hill]

CNN reports:   "Among the devices that will be in place within days are U-2 spy planes flying at 70,000 feet...Unmanned Predator drones, flying closer at 25,000 feet...Ground sensors may also be placed along mountain passes"

Also expect the Global Hawk, high-altitude (60k+ feet), long-endurance (24 hours), unmanned aerial vehicle.

And the Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System (JSTARS), a long-range, air-to-ground surveillance system with multi-mode radar systems including a Doppler radar to detect ground movement and synthetic Aperture Radar which produces a photographic-like image or map of selected geographic regions.

And FLIR infrared sniper scopes. These are far more advanced than the common night scopes that we are familiar with. FLIR does not require any incident light to work. They depend solely on the heat given off by the human body, engine, etc. Comparing Gen III night vision scopes to FLIR, is like comparing a Model T Ford to a Ferrari (the comparison holds true for price, also).

The spec ops group affectionately known as the Nightstalkers, the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (SOAR) has been transferred to the Khowst/Wana area from Iraq (where they captured Saddam Hussein). They are equipped with FLIR night scopes.

One problem/opportunity is that area under surveillance is about 2,800 miles (round trip) from our airbases in Doha, Qatar, in the Persian Gulf (most likely staging area). The problem is not that JSTARS and the U-2 lack the range, but that the cycle time per mission versus the number of aircraft in our inventory, make closer basing a distinct plus. I expect this to happen, possibly at our Pakistani base in Dalbandin, near Afghanistan's southern border with Pakistan. It's remote, has a long runway and is close to the Khowst/Wana area of operations. Jacobabad, near the center of Pakistan, is an adequate alternative.

--Boot Hill

[Coop]

I can't even take this article seriously. Assets like these have been deployed for years and years, but just now we're going to use them hunting for OBL? I dun thin' so.

[freeperfromnj]

Bin Laden 'evaded Pakistani raid'

by Andrew North
BBC, Tora Bora in Afghanistan

Pakistani soldiers patrol the border with Afghanistan A local official in eastern Afghanistan says he has received credible reports that Osama Bin Laden escaped the recent Pakistani operation to catch him.

Speaking to the BBC, the official said the information came in a fax sent to a former Taleban member three days ago.

It comes amid reports of stepped-up American military operations aimed at capturing al-Qaeda's leader.

Bin Laden is believed to be hiding in the mountainous border region between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

His former Tora Bora hideout in eastern Afghanistan has come under particular scrutiny.

'Alive and well'

The official, who did not want to be named, says he met a former member of the Taleban who had received a fax referring to "the Sheikh", the term often used for Bin Laden by his supporters.

The fax reportedly said the Sheikh was alive and well and that he had escaped an attempt by Pakistani forces to catch him on their side of the border last week in the tribal areas of South Waziristan.

It is a surprising claim - especially that the news came by fax, given that American intelligence and military units are likely to be keeping a close eye on all electronic communications.

But the government official said he believed the report was genuine and had passed it on to Afghan authorities in the region.

[Boot Hill]

"Assets like these have been deployed for years and years, but just now we're going to use them hunting for OBL?"

I believe it. Especially now that we have such solid information that our target(s) have been identified in a relatively small footprint (6,000 square miles). The application of these hi-tech systems acts a force multiplier for our relatively low (11,000) troop strength. involved in this operation.

--Boot Hill

[Coop]

I don't. Not for a minute.

If you were getting ready to deploy "new" assets, would you announce it to CNN beforehand? :-)

As far as a new location, this area is essentially the same area of concern from 2.5 years ago.

[Boot Hill]

"If you were getting ready to deploy "new" assets, would you announce it to CNN beforehand?"

There is no downside to such an announcement because there are no effective counter measures that bin Laden can employ against these assets. But the announcement acts as a form of psychological warfare that works to our advantage.

I've been up all night and need to crash. See you tomorrow.

--Boot Hill

[Ranger]

The bulk of the resources were sent to Iraq.

[js1138]

Actually we can do as much damage by ting up the organization as by capturing OBL. It's probably better to draw the process out as long as possible and compromise as much of the organization as possible.

[swarthyguy]

Binnie's fav/mosted hated infidel chant must be

I always feel like, somebody's watching me, And I have no privacy...oh ho ooh!

[swarthyguy]

Nukes before Osama. The ISIKhan ring was dealt with first.

I was pissed when the Afghan campaign was stopped in Spring 2002. But makes sense in hindsight; Bush's priority was the nuke issue.

IMO, this announcement, like all others about this campaign, is not what is to come, but what has already been done. We've been tracking Osama etal since last fall and are now in the culmination of the campaign.