Posted on 03/16/2009 11:45:29 AM PDT by presidio9
Killing Osama may be a top priority for President Obama, but it's almost Mission Impossible - like it was for his predecessor - if the terror leader is holed up high in Pakistan's snowy peaks, experts say.
"The new people are going to face the same problems," warned a top adviser to President Bush.
The U.S. has been secretly training for years, however, in case the CIA scores that rarest prize: Bin Laden's home address. But they already know his neighborhood.
It's been a challenge, however, gaining intel on the region. Bin Laden hunters have had to turn to Lonely Planet's now out-of-print Hindu Kush trekking guide for information. The U.S. and Indian militaries snatched up boxes of them - so many that they're now almost impossible to find.
"Who else is interested in obscure passes along the Af-Pak-Indian border?" quipped one Pakistan expert.
A close look at the Hindu Kush mountains suggests the higher Bin Laden is, particularly in winter, the harder it'll be to squash him:
Terrain: He could be anywhere in thousands of square miles of mountains among the tallest on Earth and fortified by deep, avalanche-prone snow. Elevation: If he lives at 10-16,000 feet, U.S. hunters must be acclimatized or suffer altitude sickness, which can be fatal. Aircraft: The huge CH-47 Chinook is the only chopper that can lift a sizeable force using oxygen to those heights, but it's a big, loud and slow target. "With very precise information on Bin Laden's whereabouts, it would be possible to mount an operation to get him," said an ex-CIA officer in Pakistan. "The problem is getting the intel."
A "very high risk" high-altitude parachute jump or "ill-advised" chopper assault by U.S. Delta Force or Navy SEALs are both doable but arguably foolhardy, said the officer whose men last battled Bin Laden at Tora Bora in 2001 before he escaped into Pakistan.
"There is no reason to commit special ops forces" if an armed drone can simply "launch multiple Hellfire missile strikes," said former Delta Force commander and "Kill Bin Laden" author Dalton Fury - a pseudonym.
Fury devised a plan - scrapped by top brass - for his elite unit to attack Bin Laden's unguarded rear flank by traversing the Tora Bora mountains above 10,000 feet using oxygen canisters in the thinner air. But bin Laden escapedinto Pakistan.
If bin Laden lives high in the Hindu Kush, he's snowbound for winter and likely free of fear from attack.
Concern about altitude sickness - a common affliction above 9,000 feet - prompted the Army to study dozens of civilian climbers who recently scaled Tanzania's 19,340-foot Mt. Kilimanjaro to find out how to adjust soldiers to extreme heights.
"Even if you could get people acclimatized," insisted the Bush adviser, "it's hard to just drop white guys in unnoticed."
Experts point to the disaster of 19 troops killed in a secret mission in 2005 as a learning lesson.
Three SEALs died in a firefight after tribal goatherds spotted them, and 16 more troops perished in a botched Chinook rescue in the Chitral region.
The huge, lumbering twin-rotor chopper can haul troops up to 16,000 feet, but it is "not very stealthy," said a retired aviator.
jmeek@nydailynews.com
“Build a network of people who are able to go in an out of places you can’t and able to talk to people you can’t. You have to have several layers of people so that you can tell when you’re being fed bad data by some of your people. You want to make sure that everyone in the network knows that there are other people in the network he doesn’t know about.
And you have to build the team that can do snatches in these areas. They might not be American military. And you have to start using them, going after people further down the chain of command, because thats how you’re going to get the information you need. Grab people who know people, and have a heart to heart talk with them where no one else can hear them holler. Don’t worry about the army interrogation manual, because this ain’t no disco and these guys aren’t army.”
We’re talkin Camden, NJ right?
I always figured Bin Ladin was living in one of his family’s villas overlooking the Red Sea, maybe just over the border from Yemen. He watches Egyptian soap operas, bores the household help with his war stories, walks his dog up and down the beach.
I know what you mean... I imagined him in California somewhere.... Mendecino County or Half Moon Bay. He’d fit right in.
Killing Bin Laden will transform him into a mythic hero like Che Guevara. Let him age in some dung-hole. The ultimate judgement waits for him.
He'd probably make a good liberal arts professor at the community college.
We have no enemies now, right?
Obama could invite him for a sleepover in the Lincoln bedroom. He’d come, they love Obama. All the Universities could invite him to speak to the students. Ayers is getting old on the “terrorist” speakers circuit.
Kumbya
Step 1: Special forces ops sneak into numerous villages in the general vicinity and capture the elders (or whoever would be considered most likely to have information).
Step two: Make the captives watch as a large hog (or two or three) are slaughtered and butchered and cooked.
Step three: Give them the choice of either divulging the info that’ll lead to bin Laden’s capture or eat some pork and wash it down with hot bacon grease.
Step 4: Be willing to use one or more of the captives as an example to show that our side is serious.
Step 5: Make them all disappear so there’s no evidence of what happened.
Anticipating angry replies to me in 5... 4... 3... 2...
Ahhh, the genesis of the Birther/Deather combo! Nice!
If Obama stays in office much longer, I wouldn’t be shocked to see Osama taken off America’s “most wanted” list, and eventually be a special dignitary visitor to the White House - maybe even with a stay in the Lincoln Bedroom. Obama has been doing everything he can to alienate America’s allies and make friendly with our sworn enemies in the Muslim world... how would this be any different?
You know that I always enjoy the "Weekend at Bernie's," threads.
5.56mm
I’m still amazed at the number of people who believed the junk Obama was spouting just to get elected.
It's all about denying the enemy a martyr. Got to give the US credit--they did a pretty good job of turning Obama into an insignificant weenie.
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