http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A62405-2004Dec13.html
• ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- Pakistan said there was no evidence that Osama bin Laden was hiding in the country and denied a report that it allowed CIA agents to set up bases along the border to search for the al Qaeda leader.
Masood Khan, a Foreign Ministry spokesman, said bin Laden had not been seen anywhere and scoffed at reports he might be hiding in the Chitral region, in the country's scenic north.
http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/10409823.htm
Posted on Tue, Dec. 14, 2004
Bin Laden
Bin Laden not in Pakistan, officials say
The Associated Press
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Pakistan said Monday there was no evidence Osama bin Laden was hiding in the country.
It also denied that it allowed CIA agents to set up bases along the border to search for the al-Qaida leader.
Pakistani and American generals agree the trail for bin Laden has gone cold, more than three years after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Masood Khan said bin Laden had not been seen anywhere and scoffed at reports he might be hiding in Chitral, in the country's scenic north.
“Osama bin Laden has not been sighted in Chitral or in any other part of Pakistan,” Khan said, adding: “There are no operations being conducted by U.S. forces inside Pakistan.”
President Gen. Pervez Musharraf previously has acknowledged that a small number of American experts were working with Pakistani troops in operations against al-Qaida militants. But he has denied that U.S. forces — deployed in neighboring Afghanistan — are actively hunting bin Laden in Pakistan.
A report Monday in The New York Times, citing anonymous U.S. officials, said the CIA had set up small bases along the border in late 2003, but the operatives were being hampered by uncooperative Pakistani military officials.
It said the CIA had concluded bin Laden was being sheltered by tribesmen and foreign militants in northwestern Pakistan, and that he could be aiming to launch a “spectacular” attack on the United States.
The issue is a sensitive one for Musharraf, who is under pressure at home from hard-liners.
“There are no CIA cells in Pakistan ... in our tribal areas, and there is absolutely no truth in this New York Times report,” said army spokesman Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan.
In an interview televised Sunday, Afghan President Hamid Karzai said bin Laden was “definitely” in the region.
A senior Pakistani counterterrorism official said Monday U.S. officials had not found intelligence on bin Laden's whereabouts, although their information had helped seize some al-Qaida suspects in Pakistan.