Posted on 08/31/2003 5:51:35 PM PDT by sarcasm
NEW YORK: World's most wanted terrorist Osama Bin Laden convened a huge 'terror summit' in Afghanistan shortly after the Saddam Hussein regime collapsed in Iraq, in which he outlined plans to launch "unbelievable" attacks using biological weapons, a media report said on Sunday.
At the meeting held in a mountain stronghold in April, Bin Laden said he was working on "serious projects", the latest issue of Newsweek magazine quotes Taliban officials in Pakistan and Afghanistan as saying.
"His priority is to use biological weapons," a source, who claimed that al-Qaeda already has such weapons, was quoted as saying. The source insisted he did not know any further details like how these would be transported, but bragged: "Osama's next step will be unbelievable."
The plan was reportedly delayed and revised after the March capture of al-Qaeda's operations chief Khalid Shaikh Mohammed in Rawalpindi, the report said.
US intelligence officials were quoted as saying that no one disputed Bin Laden's interest in germ warfare. Nevertheless, they argued, his main priority was to kill Americans by any means readily at hand - and most bioweapons are harder to get and use than many of the alternatives.
Two years after the September 11 attacks, the world's most wanted terrorist remains free.
"We don't know where he is," US Army Col Rodney Davis, spokesman for US forces in Afghanistan, told Newsweek. "And frankly, it's not about him. We'll continue to focus on killing, capturing and denying sanctuary to any anti-coalition forces, whether they are influenced by Bin Laden or not."
Some US officials, the magazine said, speculated that life on the run had made it impossible for Bin Laden to communicate with his followers, effectively turning him into a figurehead.
"Bin Laden's operational role is not as important as it was to al-Qaeda and Taliban," said a senior US diplomat in Kabul. "But symbolically he is still very important."
But the senior Taliban officials contacted by Newsweek said Bin Laden remained directly engaged as a strategist and financier for al-Qaeda, the Taliban and related groups.
One man, named Khan Kaka, who lives in Afghanistan's remote Kunar province, told Newsweek that since 1996 his son-in-law, an Algerian named Abu Hamza al Jazeeri, has been a special bodyguard to Bin Laden, whom Kaka calls 'loar sheik' -- "big chief."
Every two months or so, al Jazeeri comes down from the mountains to visit his wife and three sons, who live with Kaka. "He appears and disappears like lightning," Kaka told Newsweek. "I never know when he's coming or going."
The old man and his neighbours listen eagerly to the latest news from the al-Qaeda leader's hideout.
On a visit in January, al Jazeeri reported, according to the magazine, that one of Bin Laden's daughters-in-law had recently died in childbirth and that Bin Laden blamed America for her death.
"I had enough riches to enjoy myself like an Arab sheikh," Bin Laden said, according to al Jazeeri's account. "But I decided to fight against those infidel forces that want to sever us from our Islamic roots. For that cause, Arabs, Taliban and my family have been martyred." Kaka and his neighbours have memorized the eulogy, Newsweek reports.
Asked where Bin Laden is now, he grinned and waved without a word toward the 12,000-foot peaks surrounding the valley: 'up there'.
Bin Laden seems to be in good health, according to both a former Taliban deputy foreign minister and an Afghan named Haroon, who claimed to have visited the al-Qaeda leader in June.
Three of Bin Laden's sons are said to be with him, sworn to kill their father rather than let him be captured alive. Two of his wives are said to be living nearby in the mountains, but not with him; he visits them when security allows, Newsweek reports.
Taliban sources told Newsweek that the al-Qaeda leader communicates with his friends and followers via handwritten letters and computer disks delivered by relays of messengers. Each carrier knows only where to find the next link in the chain. The system is slow, but it keeps the Americans from using electronic intercepts to find him.
I don't see any problems, do you? ;-)
It is "unbelievable" that a man that's been dead for almost two years would be planning attacks.
Add to that list the insignificant North Korean entity and those ground-sucking towel-heads in Iran.
I give my blessings for the president to use his "football" for a bomb or just some razzle dazzle play!!!
Who will be the Patton for today?
Perhaps on small boats entering Puget Sound from Canada, or even on the ferries. The FBI, CIA, and even Ashcroft himself have been visiting Seattle at a great rate, inspecting the ports. Meanwhile, the leftie citizens complain when "intrusive" guards are posted on the boats and in ferry loading areas. Everyone here seems to work for alQaida.
It is pretty easy to understand the Muslim mentality. When they are srong they feign weakness so as to invite an attack in which they can defeat and distroy their enemy. When weak they feign strength hoping to ward off attacks from their enemy.
Look at the predictions of Saddam and the Taliban. Both predicted that if we attacked we would suffer huge casualties in the terrible battles of the war.
When attacked they both retreated giving up nearly all their territory rather than fight.
It will soon be 2 years since their last attack on the USA.
They started this war on our turf. They hoped that in Democratic fashion we would keep it on our turf. Instead we are making them fight on their turf and that is a very good thing.
Guess what, OBL. We didn't give a $h!t about your Islamic roots until you brought to our attention that they were roots that grew terrorism.
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