Posted on 01/15/2002 4:38:07 PM PST by t-shirt
Bin Laden fled in December, says CIA
Jan 15 2002
Osama bin Laden not only escaped the US bombing of eastern Afghanistan, but has reportedly fled the region by sea, according to a CIA report.
In a major setback to the war on terrorism, CIA analysts have said bin Laden escaped from the Tora Bora cave complex around the first week of December.
CIA officials told America's ABCNews that one captured al-Qaida fighter claims to have witnessed, in one of the Tora Bora hiding places, bin Laden handing control to one of his deputies
"I think that most intelligence analysts are absolutely convinced at this point that bin Laden has slipped the noose and has left Afghanistan and Pakistan," said Vince Cannistraro, a former CIA counter-terrorism chief.
To fool US forces in the area, the CIA believes, bin Laden left behind a video message that was transmitted only after had escaped.
Asked about bin Laden's whereabouts, Secretary of State Colin Powell said he did not know where bin Laden was but that US forces were in "hot pursuit" of him. "I can't say he is out of that immediate region. I have seen nothing that suggests we know where he is, whether it's in Afghanistan, Pakistan or somewhere else," Powell said.
US, British, German and French forces have been searching dozens of ships in the Arabian Sea for the last two months and the CIA have concluded that bin Laden most likely fled by sea to Pakistan.
It just goes to show you....you can't believe everything you read, LOL!!!!! Not to mention that using common sense helps in these matters.....;-)
Not necessarily. One of the Fox news hours last night hosted a convincing guest on (former CIA) who said that the CIA was geared up for the cold war, not for one of this type. He thought that it seemed probable OBL had gotten out of the region by sea. Another guest right after the shoe incident said that the most likely course of action for OBL would be to slip away by sea through Sri Lanka (and that was when the experts were still insisting that that guy was acting on his own). This particular man, very credible, thought it was no accident that the show incident with the Sri Lankan connection happened soon after reports of OBL getting away by sea. Sorry, I forgot both of these gentlemen's names. Personally, I'm not sure what to think, but there seems to be plenty of evidence to make several, contradictory, cases. I distrust ABC as much as anyone, but I'm not at all sure that the CIA has gotten its act straight either.
If Bin Laden were to be captured, he would probably have a lot of information about CIA support he received in his fight against Russia in Afghanistan. Don't know if the present administration (with ties to that era) would benefit from media coverage of that.
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