Posted on 09/11/2006 5:29:58 AM PDT by voletti
WASHINGTON: A special US unit now has the authority to go after Osama bin Laden inside Pakistan without having to seek permission first, according to two US officials.
A comprehensive report on the hunt for bin Laden run by the Washington Post on Sunday says that Lieutenant General Stanley A McChrystal, the commander of the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) operates on the understanding with Pakistan that US units will not enter Pakistan, except under extreme circumstances, and that Pakistan will deny giving them permission.
This is what happened in January 2006, when the JSOC troops clandestinely entered the village of Saidgai, two officials familiar with the operation said, and Pakistan protested.
“The authority,” one knowledgeable person said, “follows the target”: if the target is bin Laden, the stakes are high enough for McChrystal to decide any action on his own.
The JSOC has been given more resources from the National Security Agency and other intelligence agencies. President Bush recently directed the team to “flood the zone” or intensify the search for bin Laden. The resources of the special group in terms of personnel and materials were also increased. However, no one is certain where the “zone” is.
Gary Berntsen, the former CIA officer who led the first and last hunt for bin Laden at Tora Bora in December 2001, told the Post, “This could all end tomorrow.” One unsolicited walk-in, one tribesman seeking to collect the $25 million reward, one courier who would rather his kids grow up in the US, one dealmaker, “and this could all change,” he said.
A senior Pakistani intelligence official told the newspaper, “For technical intelligence ISI works hand in hand with the NSA (National Security Agency). The US assistance in building Pakistan’s capabilities for technical intelligence since 9/11 is superb.”
Since early 2002, the US is said to have stationed a small number of NSA and CIA personnel near where bin Laden may be hiding. They are embedded with counter terrorism units of the Pakistan army’s elite Special Services Group, according to senior Pakistani intelligence officials. The NSA and other specialists collect imagery and electronic intercepts that their CIA counterparts then share with the Pakistani units in the tribal areas and with Balochistan. But even with sophisticated technology, the local geography presents formidable obstacles.
The army lost its best source of intelligence in 2004, after it began raids inside the tribal areas. Scouts with blood ties to the tribes ceased sharing information for fear of retaliation. The report says: “Pakistani and US counter terrorism and military officials admit that Pakistan has now all but stopped looking for bin Laden. ‘The dirty little secret is, they have nothing, no operations, without the Pakis,’ one former counter terrorism officer said”.
Last week’s truce with the Taliban that calls on the insurgent Afghan group to end armed attacks inside Pakistan and to stop crossing into Afghanistan to fight the government and international troops has created unease in Washington.
According to the Post, “Pakistan will permit only small numbers of US forces to operate with its troops at times and, because their role is so sensitive politically, it officially denies any US presence. A frequent complaint from US troops is that they have too little to do. The same complaint is also heard from US forces in Afghanistan, where there were few targets to go after.” McChrystal has become the de facto leader of the hunt for bin Laden and developed a good working relationship with the CIA. He asks for targets from the CIA, and it tries to comply.
Find him and kill him, no trail.
This is very good news.
It took five years for the old gray whore to learn of the operation and expose it. Keep in mind the OGW is our enemy ....not our friend.
wanna catch UBL? Stop sharing infomation with the ISI
Doogle
Didn't the Gov't of Pakistan just make a peace deal with the tribes that not only prohibits Pakistani troops from entering these areas but the US also?
Need clarification because I'm not so sure what the truth is here.
From what I understand, the exit of the pak army essentially clears the decks for the US army to operate there at will.
Or so I hope.
Pak is known to have perfected the art of running with the Taliban hare and hunt with the American hound (or is it the other way round?).
I do trust Pakistan (where even in the urban areas public sentiment is some 90%+ anti-American) to do anything that would genuinely help America.
I hear John Kerry will be leading the effort crossing national borders just like he did in Cambodia on Christmas 1968!
Git 'er done!
Yes but these troops are NATO troops. The problem was always the Packistani Army. If we get into a fight with them... then cooperation such as the Plane Bombing out of England would be over.
But if the Packistani army is out of the way, with no chance of conflict, then nothing is stopping NATO from going into Packistan. If the terrorists complain to the Packistani government... they just say... we are not allowed in to that area of Packistan so we have no way of knowing if NATO troops are in there are not. In fact the Packistani Army would not even be able to confirm where we got Osama.
Of course the Packistani goverment would say that they have ordered us not to invade Packistani territory... But that doesn't bind NATO.
The Terrorists wanted the Packistani army ouf of that area of Packistan. They were also certain that the NATO forces that replaced the US forces would be just like the UN forces in Lebanon. They are finding out they are not.
"No body, no trial, no papers to file."
Are you suggesting the Special Ops military version of that southern Good-'Ol-Boy mantra for dealing with predatory varmints??
Shoot... Shovel.. and.. Shut up?
Translation, they know he is in Iran now.
These tribal leaders right;y suspect America's commitment to them personally. Money aside, their very lives are on the line each and every time they help as the extremist views of many surrounding them make their very survival tenuous, at best.
America has had a very bad track record with them, as was on display in the 9/11 docu-drama; first we support them, then we're not sure if we can hold up our end of the bargain.
Remember the Shiites and Kurds after Gulf I, they thought that they had our complete support to rise up against the Baathists, then "we" (cowards in high places) backed out of the deal.
I would have thought at least an entire Division (3000-6000 men) would be deployed for that job!
would be nice that this is a done deal. Bush comes out in some cermony today and says Btw I have just been informed we killed bin laden 3 days ago dna was confirmed just now.
YES!
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