And for jmc
Posted on 09/08/2005 7:21:21 PM PDT by jmc1969
IT had been more than two years since Pakistani intelligence last picked up the trail of the world's most wanted man, one of its top officers said in a hasty meeting at a secret rendezvous point.
"At one stage in early 2003 we thought we were quite close to him," murmurs the anti-terrorism official, whose high rank and sensitive work meant that he would only speak if his identity was not revealed.
"But a few hours before the operation could start in the border terrain near Afghanistan, he moved out."
Since then, nothing. Osama bin Laden's vanishing act continues to baffle the world's biggest military power and its allies, four years after the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.
While the smoke was still rising from the rubble of the Twin Towers, US President George W. Bush vowed to track down the al-Qaeda chief dead or alive. Weeks later, US-led forces invaded Afghanistan to topple the Taliban, the hardline Islamic regime that harboured bin Laden.
Many officials believe he was trapped late in 2001 by the ferocious US bombing of the Tora Bora cave complex in eastern Afghanistan, but he managed to slip out of the region, possibly across the porous border into Pakistan.
Thousands of people have since been arrested around the world, many confined to Guantanamo Bay without charge, but none has been able to provide the crucial nugget of information.
Even a $US25-million ($32.4-million) reward offered by the US has yielded no visible results, while Pakistan's military ruler, President General Pervez Musharraf, said late last year that the trail had "gone cold".
Inevitably, the focus remains on Pakistan, an enthusiastic ally in Mr Bush's "war on terror" and the site of almost all the key al-Qaeda captures since 9/11.
"We have been saying previously and we still maintain that we are not into manhunt," Pakistan's chief military spokesman, Major General Shaukat Sultan, told AFP at army headquarters in Rawalpindi, near Islamabad.
One key al-Qaeda suspect revealed under interrogation that bin Laden was using couriers travelling on foot or horseback instead of communicating by satellite telephone or the Internet, General Sultan said.
"Several special forces teams are stationed right at the border and use special sensors along the roads to pick up sound and vibration from the movement of cars," an official said.
In a potentially controversial move, US agents have also been secretly pursuing what the US calls "Operation Enduring Freedom" beyond Afghanistan itself, he said.
"Some cross-border reconnaissance raids by intelligence agents are taking place from Afghanistan into South and North Waziristan, and all the way up to Bajaur and the Northern Areas," the official said, referring to three of Pakistan's wild tribal zones plus its most mountainous region.
But even if the opportunity that passed so fleetingly in 2003 came up again, it is a widely held view among security officials that neither bin Laden nor al Zawahiri would let themselves be captured alive.
Security sources say the pair are reported to wear explosive belts and their huge retinue of Arab bodyguards have orders to kill them if it is impossible to escape.
Now they just need to put a step in his behind.
He is living as part of a normal family in the Pak tribal region. no big security detail around him that would make anyone notice. an occassional courier comes by, or a small meeting, and not much else. its hard to find him under these circumstances, in that part of the world, without a specific tip from someone.
this is my guess.
One man can hide - a "huge retinue" cannot.
Further, despite their monster qualities, they are only human. They make mistakes, and all it takes is one General to see the madness and betray Osama. Hitler suffered many such betrayals...
PING that I can't keep up with the news tonight.
And for jmc
...it is a widely held view among security officials that neither bin Laden nor al Zawahiri would let themselves be captured alive.Security sources say the pair are reported to wear explosive belts and their huge retinue of Arab bodyguards have orders to kill them if it is impossible to escape.
Works for me.
I thought they were going to raise it to $50M.
You made me cry!
kinda hard to catch ghost. maybe ghostbusters need a new gig?
Great mugshot......too funny
FIne with me. Saddam has been in custody for 2 years, his trial is expected to last up to a year, and then with an appeal or two it could be 5 years before he is fitted with a hemp necktie. And think of the scumbag liveral lawyers who would jump at the chance to defend them! No thanks. A few bullets in their gullets is fine with me.
he could be in Iran.
Except he is a Sunni Wahabbi and they tend to hate Shia Fundamentals. So maybe not.
Pakistan it is.
'Bout time.
Rumor has it he has crossed the border from Mexico and is disguised as the Mayor of New Orleans...
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