Posted on 09/09/2005 4:25:30 PM PDT by gandalftb
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 official.
"But a few hours before the operation could start in the border terrain near Afghanistan, he moved out."
Since then, nothing. "We have been saying previously and we still maintain that we are not into manhunt," said Major General Shaukat Sultan.
"If your sole objective was capture of OBL, yes we remain where we were but ... in Pakistan that is not our sole objective."
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.
"It generally takes them about two months to get the message across and get its response," he said. "This is the time involved in that, so one can make rough guess about where would the man be."
CIA director Porter Goss said he had an "excellent idea" of where bin Laden was hiding - though he did not say where.
Elite US Delta Force and Navy SEAL units have just started to come back to Afghanistan after tours of duty in Iraq and are spearheading the hunt.
"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.
"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.
(Excerpt) Read more at theaustralian.news.com.au ...
Balochis are sunni arabs and have 900 miles of remote coastline. Balochistan mountain valleys run N-S, mostly dead-ending on the Afghani border very hard for cross-border ops, and at higher elevations are forested for good cover. Couriers taking 2 months, very likely especially in the western areas near Iran.
Clearly, the Pakis are dragging their feet, milking us for weapons and money. OBL is their biggest "tourist" attraction and they don't want to lose him.
Goss' complaints of sovereignty issues refers to the degree of autonomy in Baluchistan which is now planned to increase to a federalized province.
Either all of this or he's driving a cab in Seattle.
That will do nicely, thank you.
He's hiding in the basement of tie Pakistani Intelligence.
LOL... We have GOOGLE EARTH where I can track my old lady on her way home from work but we can't find Bin Laden???
10 Predator Aircraft
Satellite Survellence
Electronic Survellence
Some on the ground natives looking around
100 Man Special Operations Ground Force with regular backup of 2000 regular Grunts, and Helicopter Air Support.
Seems like these resources would produce a find at some point.
No he's not. A couple of years ago, he shaved his beard, put on a white shirt and tie, rolled up his sleeves, then yelled, "yeeeeeeeeearrrrrrrrrrgh!" at his Presidential Campaign rally.
He's dead people. Figure it out.
He is near Chitral in Northern Pakistan....IMHO.
he's not dead. who was that in the video tape released just before the 2004 election?
Where are my manners ...I forgot to ping you.
We will get him.
Here's what we need to do. Go to Kentucky and central/western Virginia and everywhere else there's a big frenzy on opening day of deer season. Organize a few dozen adventurous good ol' boys, fly 'em with their rifles to Afghanistan, tell 'em the reward is a case of Coors, and set 'em loose.
We'll have bin Laden bagged by Monday.
That's my opinion. Osama Bin Tora Bora Toast courtesy of the U.S. Military and Mr. Daisy Cutter, circa 2001 ...
I agree with you.
And man will I celebrate the day we do..
I may be wrong, but I was pretty sure that al-Qaeda was never a big "operations organization" in and of itself. It supplied financing and logistics to a myriad of islamist groups. That is why you hear "groups with links to al-Qaeda". If the leadership is bottled up, and the flow of its money stopped, its effectiveness is nill. It seems lately, that the media has transformed al-Qaeda into a Hamas type organization, that is, an organization with foot soldiers. I believe OBL is bottled up and that we are fighting the individual islamist organizations (also a bunch of Baathist).
Even if he's alive, the way the search is going, he'll die from old age!
agreed
The specops guys will get him or he'll end up dead in a rathole hiding from them. Either way is OK by me.
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