Rumors of Bin Laden's Lair

Newsweek ^ | August 2003 | Sami Yousafzai & Ron Moreau

[Angelus Errare]

Rumors of Bin Laden’s Lair

Some believe life on the run has made it impossible for Osama bin Laden to control and lead Al Qaeda. In Afghanistan’s Kunar province, people tell a different story.

Sept. 8 issue — Gray-bearded and almost toothless, Khan Kaka lives in a mud house with a weather-beaten pine door beside a little plot of corn and vegetables. But to his neighbors in this corner of Afghanistan’s remote Kunar province, the gangling, tobacco-chewing old man is one of the most respected figures in the Pech River valley.

[Angelus Errare]

Interesting information that could be relevant to the war on terror.

[Angelus Errare]

Ping

Note the reference to Chechen as well as Arab al-Qaeda at the terrorist summit. Around the same time as the Riyadh and Casablanca bombings, we had the suicide bombing in Chechnya. Coincidence? I think not ...

[Dog]

At the same meeting bin Laden said he was working on “serious projects,” another ranking Taliban source tells NEWSWEEK. “His priority is to use biological weapons,” says the source, who claims that Al Qaeda already has such weapons. The question is only how to transport and launch them, he asserts. The source insists he doesn’t know any further details but brags: “Osama’s next step will be unbelievable.”

Coming to a city near us..

[blam]

" At the same meeting bin Laden said he was working on “serious projects,” another ranking Taliban source tells NEWSWEEK. “His priority is to use biological weapons,” says the source, who claims that Al Qaeda already has such weapons. The question is only how to transport and launch them, he asserts. The source insists he doesn’t know any further details but brags: “Osama’s next step will be unbelievable.”

We'll just see.

[Destro]

At the height of the war against the Soviets in the 1980s, the CIA effectively ceded Kunar to the Arab volunteers who were pouring in to join the mujahedin. “We preferred that they operate in their own fief, and out of our way,” says Edmund McWilliams, a retired State Department officer and Congress’s special representative to the mujahedin during the late 1980s. In the last two years the mujahedin veterans have been joined by hundreds of Qaeda members and supporters uprooted from other parts of Afghanistan.

Do we not want to root out this are because we can't or because we don't want to?

[RANGERAIRBORNE]

That would be a VERY bad move for the Islamofascists- unless they are really, really suicidal. An America panicked by a biological attack (think smallpox) is not going to worry very much about whether a lot of Muslim cities go on existing or not...

[Angelus Errare]

Indeed.

Of course, such weapons are somewhat difficult to manufacture in the survivalist lifestyle that bin Laden seems to favor, which is why stories like these take on so much more of worrying note:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=&contentId=A12187-2003Mar22&notFound=true

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=&contentId=A42876-2002Dec11&notFound=true

Then there's always stuff like this that suggests that Khalid already had a plan in full swing when he was arrested:

http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30000-1070733,00.html

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/2582931.stm

http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.asp?D=1/24/03&ID=9537

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/2637515.stm

Also:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/2711645.stm

Those plots were organized by Zarqawi, probably at Khalid's instigation:

http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/02/06/sprj.irq.alqaeda.links/

And of course, Zarqawi was based in Iraq and working with Ansar al-Islam (and Abu Wael, one of Ansar's top leaders, was a Mukhabarat agent) and the Chechens. You want the "imminent threat" that liberals keep whining about, that seems like this pretty much fits the bill.

[Recovering_Democrat]

At the same meeting bin Laden said he was working on “serious projects,” another ranking Taliban source tells NEWSWEEK. “His priority is to use biological weapons...

Ohh...well, then bin Laden IS a serious threat to us after all! Man, oh man. And ALL this time I thought the huge danger to our country was John Ashcroft!

[Recovering_Democrat]

You're damn right about that, Ranger.

[11B3]

Seems as though the area in which binny boy is hiding could be literally saturated by MOABs fairly quickly. To hell with any 'collateral damage'. The MOABs would leave the place vegetation free as well - with nowhere to hide.

Likewise, the FLIR systems on AC-130s should be helpful in locating entrances and huts. Predators with the FLIR systems could loiter for long periods as well as leaving Hellfire calling cards. If he does indeed use biologicals, this is the first area that should have multiple sunrises in one day.

[mrtysmm]

I like your ideas. I hope someone with authority is reading this stuff. FR could be a great asset to those "in charge" if they pay attention.

[irish_lad]

The biological threat is really more psychological than lethal to a large group of people. The problem using biological is dispersion of the agent. Although I'm not a proponent of using nuclear weapons, we may want to consider vaporizing this area of Afganistan so the Al Queda cockroaches are snuffed for good.

[Monty22]

PC makes it so we can't use the effective weaponry (nukes) that would work here.

[okie01]

"Although I'm not a proponent of using nuclear weapons, we may want to consider vaporizing this area of Afganistan so the Al Queda cockroaches are snuffed for good."

You presume that this story is true. Osama bin Laden is alive, just because Newsweek says it is so?

[MississippiMan]

That would be a VERY bad move for the Islamofascists- unless they are really, really suicidal. An America panicked by a biological attack (think smallpox) is not going to worry very much about whether a lot of Muslim cities go on existing or not...

I don't think our leadership has the will to respond in kind. I think we've shifted so far into the no-innocent-people-can-be-hurt mindset as to preclude serious and broad retaliation. We'd just see more of the same current tactics, i.e. "we'll hunt you down" kind of operations. I think Reagan was the last president we had who would've retaliated strongly.

MM

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

[“Osama’s next step will be unbelievable.” ]

More likely if the insufferably anti-military and anti American Democrats -- especially Dean, Kerry, Clinton, McCain, Sharpton, etc., etc. -- continue to undermine Republican efforts to defeat him.

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

An America panicked by a biological attack (think smallpox) is not going to worry very much about whether a lot of Muslim cities go on existing or not...

An America panicked by a biological attack (think smallpox) is not going to worry very much about whether a lot of Muslims cities go on existing or not...

[RANGERAIRBORNE]

I think that we live in a country that goes bonkers with every outbreak of the sniffles- Americans probably spend more on unnecessary medicines than the rest of the world combined.

The sudden appearance of a plague that might kill several million of us is going to be retaliated against in the strongest possible terms, if there is any evidence AT ALL as to who started it.

And this would seem to be a "smoking gun", if such an epidemic were to occur in the next few months...

By the way, I don't trust the North Koreans on this, either. There seems to be evidence that they have been helping some of our enemies (notably Iran) to devlop biological weapons. The "North Korea has Nukes" thing could be simple misdirection.

We shall see.

[marron]

If it was me, and I knew exactly where he was, I would watch the entrance to the valley and slowly tighten the noose without calling much attention if possible. Then, along about a week after the Democratic Convention I would send in the guys and roll them up like a wet bathmat.

If he's not there, nothing lost, but if he is, it would suck the air out of the other party's media campaign. Second term, sewed up.

Unless you really believed he could direct his operations from in there, in which case you would have no choice but to go in and get him now. The problem is that with his death people will want to believe the war is over, when its a long way from over. This is a ten year effort, Bin Ladin or no. Until we have dealt with the Sauds, until Iran has changed regimes, until we have dealt with the Wahabs and the Mullahs, and until we have finished rebuilding and reforming Iraq and Afghanistan, we will be busy.

[HangThemHigh]

"Osama’s next step will be unbelievable."

Rise from the dead?