US gaining on bin Laden and Saddam, senator says

Reuters ^ | 8/17/03 | Jim Wolf

[LibWhacker]

WASHINGTON, Aug 17 (Reuters) - U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Pat Roberts said on Sunday the noose was tightening around both al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

Roberts, who receives regular briefings on terror threats, said bin Laden apparently was hiding in a mountainous tribal region with peaks reaching 14,000 feet (4,500 meters) on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.

"But that noose is tightening as well, as is the noose in regards to Saddam Hussein," said Roberts, a Kansas Republican.

Roberts, speaking on CNN's Late Edition, said bin Laden was using couriers and other low-tech communications methods to evade U.S. signal-tracking technology.

The United States blames bin Laden, a Saudi exile, for the 1988 bombings of two embassies in East Africa, the October 2000 attack on the USS Cole in the Yemeni port of Aden, and the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center that killed about 3,000 people.

Saddam has been sought since U.S.-led forces invaded Iraq in March.

Roberts hailed what he described as growing counter-terrorism cooperation from Saudi Arabia, Indonesia and Thailand, where Southeast Asia's most-wanted terror suspect, Hambali, was captured early last week.

Hambali had been hunted as a suspect in bombings at a Bali nightclub strip last year and a hotel bombing in Jakarta this month before his capture in Ayutthaya, about 50 miles (80 km) north of Bangkok.

"We are seeing the realization of many countries, the value of really cooperating with the United States, whether it's Afghanistan or Pakistan, or whether it's in the Mideast or whether it's in Southeast Asia," Roberts said.

"And so, basically, we're making a lot of progress," Roberts said. Probably 60 percent of the al Qaeda leadership had been "taken down," he said.

Roberts gave Saudi Arabia relatively high marks for its intelligence-sharing since a bombing attack on Western residential compounds in Riyadh in May killed 35 people, including nine attackers.

"Ever since the Riyadh attacks and ever since they came to realize that their own government was threatened, I think they've been working much better with us," he said.

[Peach]

And so we're letting the bad guys know we're closing in? Either misinformation or someone should be jailed for treason.

[jwfiv]

The United States blames bin Laden, a Saudi exile, for the 1988 bombings of two embassies in East Africa, the October 2000 attack on the USS Cole in the Yemeni port of Aden, and the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center that killed about 3,000 people.

Interesting...that Rooters chooses to phrase it that way, every chance they get.

The could say: "Bin Laden has claimed responsibility" for the attacks...but...nooooooooo.

Rooters + Dog Doo

[Kath]

I'll believe Osama is alive when they produce the body. So far all I have seen are re-runs of tapes that prove nothing.

[Ronin]

Yeah, right.

Let me know when we have them in plastic cuffs, face down on the floor of a C-17 heading for Gitmo or somewhere more hospitable.

(Someone mentioned Operation Deep Freeze in Antartica, that sounds nice to me.)

[mrtysmm]

According to the lib/dems, we still don't know who's responsible for these attacks. They discount the admission by bin Laden by saying the tape has been doctored. Go figure.

[skyman]

That ole noose has been tightning for a
loooooooooooooooooooooooooooong time.

It's darned near impossible to get these guys
with zillions of dollars to pay everyone off and
who also have fanatical followers in the local
population.

I'll be as happy as the next guy when we
finally do get them (or they die of old age)
but I won't hold my breath.

Sky