Posted on 06/24/2004 3:53:12 PM PDT by bunkerhill7
Pakistan restrictions slow down US search for Laden Indo-Asian News Service Washington, June 24 http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_847696,00050001.htm US efforts to find Osama bin Laden have been hampered by Pakistani restrictions, the Washington Times said on Friday. The paper said bin Laden is still in command, but to a reduced level and remains on the run along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.
The Bush administration launched the war against the Taliban regime in Afghanistan soon after the September 11 terror attacks. The Hamid Karzai government replaced the regime, but the US has failed to find bin Laden, considered the mastermind of the attacks.
"He is much less in day-to-day control because he is on the run so much. To the extent that he runs operations, he uses cut-outs, human messengers, because he doesn't use cell phones," said the report.
It said a new group of terror leaders is now planning attacks at the local level in extremist spin-off groups linked to bin Laden. Washington believes bin Laden is still alive. He has not been heard from since April and no longer appears in videotapes.
Despite the ongoing efforts of the Bush administration to capture him, its attention has been considerably diverted to get hold of his ally Abu Musab Zarqawi, the most wanted man in Iraq, who has dominated headlines as one of the world's most gruesome terrorists.
Zarqawi is believed to be responsible for the beheading of American civilian Nicholas Berg. He has organised a series of suicide car bombings that killed scores of Iraqis and Americans, the Times report said.
Meanwhile, bin Laden moves through the rugged mountains by any means available - foot, donkey or vehicle - and attracts a loyal following willing to provide cover, defence officials say.
Pakistani troops have launched an offensive along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border but most of the tribal regions of eastern Pakistan are off-limits to American infantrymen who will not be able to search for bin Laden in the way they hunted down Saddam Hussein and his two sons in Iraq.
This is because President Pervez Musharraf needs the allegiance of tribal leaders and he cannot go beyond a certain limit, the report said.
The Times report quoted officials as saying that Musharraf must take extra precautions not to launch an offensive in the ungoverned areas to avoid triggering a rebellion in the tribal areas.
Last winter, the Pentagon shifted elements of the secretive Task Force 121 from Iraq to Afghanistan to aid the search for bin Laden.
Well, don't forget this is 'harvest' time!
OBL is dead.
concur
It seems to me that it's in the interests of both the US and al-Qaida to pretend that he's still on the loose.
Way dead!
I say Musharraf is a puppet who enjoys his life as the leader of a terrorist government...He's worse than the Saudis because he KNOWS BIN LADEN in his his JURISDICTION and does do a damn thing to kill the head of this terror organization...Man, I just boil over thinking about how we have failed to achieve this MAJOR coup!
The Pakis do about as well as can be expected. They have some really severe internal divisions. Musharraf wants to crack down on the Islamists (they threaten him quite directly). But he cannot move too quickly lest he collapse his nation into civil war.
Time and patience and steady hard work led us to Saddam's hole. Sometimes it takes ten or twenty years to catch a fugitive in the USA. All is NOT forgiven and Osama still has a rendezvous with destiny on his dance card. When that happens, US or Afghan elements will get all the credit, but it may have been Pakistani help that made it happen.
Finally, never forget that HT is a paper of India and is spring-loaded in a suspicious position as regards Pakistan. It would be unnatural if this were not the case as Pakistan has repeatedly waged war on India.
d.o.l.
Criminal Number 18F
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