French troops 'find bin Laden site'

News.com ^ | March 23 2004 | NA

[Dog]

French troops 'find bin Laden site'

FRENCH troops had recently helped track down an area in Afghanistan where Osama bin Laden might have hidden out, France's defence minister said in an interview published today.

Michele Alliot-Marie did give specifics on where the location was or whether the fugitive al-Qaeda chief was believed to have remained there. It was also unclear how large of an area she was talking about.

"Our men are well-established and know the terrain well," Alliot-Marie was quoted as telling L'Express news magazine. "Thanks to certain information, they in fact recently helped contribute to locating him."

Asked whether she was sure it was bin Laden and not someone else, the defence minister said, "Everything leads us to believe so."

"But you understand, it's difficult to say more for reasons of confidentiality and security," Alliot-Marie said in the report published on L'Express' Web site. The Defence Ministry's press office did not respond to phone calls seeking further details before office hours today.

About 200 French troops have been working with US forces in Afghanistan in the drive to track holdouts of the Taliban and bin Laden's al-Qaeda terrorist group.

Last week, the head of France's armed forces, General Henri Bentegeat, said bin Laden might have narrowly escaped capture by French troops in Afghanistan, perhaps several times.

Bentegeat did not specify when or where the escapes took place, and a Defence Ministry spokeswoman would not give details.

The Associated Press

[Dog]

I searched and didn't see this posted..

[Dog]

fyi..

[VRWC_minion]

"But you understand, it's difficult to say more for reasons of confidentiality and security,"

Clintonian quote.

[maquiladora]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1103362/posts

[Coop]

Saw it earlier. Whole lotta nothin' in this article.

[AngieGOP]

Were the walls of this site decorated with pictures of John Kerry and other America haters?

[Peach]

And the French will surrender to AQ when?

[HiJinx]

I searched and didn't see this posted..

LOL!!! That's the classic hunter's excuse...that could just as easily have been a quote from the article!

"Mais, oui, messeiurs! We searched exact-ly where we knew the terror-eest was hi-deeng! But he was not there! He must have escaped in the neeck of time!"

[Cate]

Oh sure,how hard could this be for the French since they've been invited for family dinners at his various camps? Geez. rocket science. not.

[sarasota]

Did they also find the tunnel which led OBL from "the site"?

[Blood of Tyrants]

Have they surrendered to bin Laden and turned Vishy yet?

[Ashamed Canadian]

Heh heh. I think they were disappointed they found the camp empty, they had no one to surrender to.

[kinghorse]

did they offer to spruce it up a bit. Add a little color to balance out the earthtones.

What a load of crap.

[twigs]

"Our men are well-established and know the terrain well,"

The more we hear, the more we learn how true this is.

[kdot]

"Bin Laden Slept Here" Sounds like a destination on a chartered bus tour bus. Have the French become entrepreneurs?

[Grampa Dave]

This should receive an award for BS creativity by a writer pretending to be a reporter.

[Boot Hill]

The French made this same claim about a week ago. I give it about 20% credibility.

--Boot Hill

[CougarGA7]

No really they did find Bin Laden's site. It was www.AlQada.org