Posted on 11/16/2001 1:21:18 PM PST by blam
FRIDAY NOVEMBER 16 2001
Message betrays panic at top of al-Qaeda
BY DANIEL MCGRORY
A BRIEF but frantic message on a short-wave radio picked up by US special forces in the mountains of southern Afghanistan this week is the first evidence that al-Qaeda’s high command are going their separate ways to escape.
The panic in al-Qaeda’s ruling shura council is evident from the risks that they took in breaking cover knowing that their communications are being monitored.
Until this week al-Qaeda’s most wanted stayed close to their leader and never dared to use satellite telephones or radios in case they betrayed the location of their headquarters. Now some of Osama bin Laden’s most trusted lieutenants who planned the September 11 attacks are thought to have fled to a new hiding place so that even if their leader is captured or killed the terror campaign can continue.(They want to kill you and everyone you know)
Most are believed to be holed up in mountains in Paktia, or the neighbouring mountainous provinces of Oruzghan and Ghor.
US intelligence chiefs suspect that some may have already slipped across the border to Pakistan or Tajikistan to a haven. “You have to assume they always had an escape plan in the event the Taleban folded,” a Western security source said yesterday.
Since he settled in Afghanistan in 1996, bin Laden has spent a great deal of time and money preparing an emergency exit strategy. There are caves, safe houses, camps, refugee centres, tribal areas and routes across the mountains.
Bin Laden realises that the obsession is with catching him, so that leaves a chance for his lesser-known associates. “Once they saw what had become of the Taleban this week, they would have activated their escape plan so they live to fight again,” the source said.
The key figure that al-Qaeda needs to protect is its deputy and founding member, Ayman Zawahiri, a former Cairo surgeon who is regarded as the terrorist tactician. He recruited the financiers and planners who were sent to operational bases abroad and he is alleged to have picked the hijack leader, Mohammed Atta, who went to his university.
When he merged his Islamic Jihad group with al-Qaeda, Dr Zawahiri brought his acolytes with him. They had devised operations such as the attack on USS Cole in Aden last year, the bombings of US embassies in East Africa in 1998 and the suicide hijackings in America.
Bin Laden is sure to have taken steps to arrange a safe house for his financiers, who know where al-Qaeda’s bank accounts, which would be needed in any future attacks, are kept.
The banker whom the FBI believe was the field commander for the hijackings was Shaykh Saiid, who flew to Pakistan on the morning of September 11 on his way to join his leader.
Tony Blair revealed how bin Laden sent secret messages to the chosen few to be back in Afghanistan by September 10. What Western intelligence does not know is how many of this ruling shura were trusted with the secret of the identities of its agents based abroad.
Bin Laden kept his European operations separate from the US mission so only a handful know all al-Qaeda’a secrets. Other key figures who have not been seen recently include Saudi-born Abu Zoubeida, who was co-ordinating a series of bomb attacks timed for New Year’s Eve in December 1999.
Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah is an explosives expert who has taught al-Qaeda’s most promising recruits, who were later sent to Europe, the Far East and America to await their orders.
What leaders like George Bush and Tony Blair find ironic is that for all their boasts of seeking martydom, al-Qaeda’s leading figures have spared no cost and energy in ensuring that they survive
We cannot afford to take this approach. The terrorist networks must be exterminated and their financial backers must be dealt with as well. When all is said and done, there should be some serious redrawing of the Middle East maps. I hope my faith in the current administration is not misplaced.
We may just allow a few of them to "escape" so they can lead us to the others.
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