Posted on 06/16/2005 1:05:54 AM PDT by HAL9000
Osama bin Laden and fugitive Taliban chief Mullah Mohammed Omar are thought not to be in Afghanistan, U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad said Thursday, a day after a purported commander of the rebel group said the pair are alive and well."Mullah Omar is not in Afghanistan. I do not believe that Osama is in Afghanistan," Khalilzad told reporters at a press conference in the Afghan capital, Kabul.
He did not say where the two were believed to be hiding.
Officials have repeatedly said that the al-Qaida leader is thought to be some place in the rugged mountains between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Despite the failure to catch bin Laden since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on America, Khalilzad said progress had been made in combatting his terror network. He said it wasn't clear how much operational control bin Laden still had over al-Qaida.
"Significant numbers of the leaders of al-Qaida have been captured. Their network has been disrupted ... the financial network has also been disrupted," he said. "But this is a long-term struggle. ... Symbolically (it is) very important that he (bin Laden) is brought to justice and sooner or later I believe firmly that he will be caught."
On Wednesday, Pakistan's Geo television broadcast an interview with a man it identified as Taliban military commander Mullah Akhtar Usmani, a former Afghan aviation minister, who said bin Laden was "absolutely fine" and Omar was directing the Taliban rebels in Afghanistan. He would not specify where bin Laden was hiding.
Some reports as late as yesterday place him in Iran.
Question for you. How do I contact the Admin Mod so that I can ask about posting from a particular site?
I found an article about the Hillderbeast that mentions FR, but I dont know if it would be cool to post from their site.
Send a FR mail addressed to "Admin Moderator".
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