Posted on 11/29/2001 5:25:56 AM PST by 11th Earl of Mar
From NICK PARKER
on the Afghanistan border
THE secret of Osama bin Laden's mountain hideout was revealed yesterday by the man who delivers his groceries.
Trader Haji Jamal saw the terror chief last week when he delivered food to the remote cave complex by mule convoy.
He said bin Laden and his fanatical 400-strong bodyguard had set up an intricate supply-chain at the al-Qa'ida fortress village of Tora Bora, close to the Khyber Pass and the Pakistan border.
He told an undercover Afghan reporter: "I saw the sheik (bin Laden) after he returned from a short run to the Pakistani border."
Jamal would not say what was on the monster's shopping list, but said he took the order from military commander Anwar Gul. Gul is answerable to ageing warlord Younis Khalis, who first invited bin Laden into the area in 1996.
Grinning Jamal then admitted he would be delighted if the al-Qa'ida fighters kept their pledge to defend their master "to the last breath". He chuckled: "They have advised me that if they are killed I am authorised to take their wives. The ones I do not want I must give to my fellow tribesmen."
Sources in Jalalabad said yesterday that bin Laden led his men out of the city about two weeks ago to take refuge in the caves 35 miles south west. His retreat was said to have been so hurried that he left behind a fleet of trucks.
Tora Bora is made up of bunkers and ammunition depots surrounded by dense forests in the shadow of cave-riddled 13,000ft peaks.
With US help, the caves were expanded and cut more than 1,000ft into mountainsides at angles in the 1980s during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. They are now believed to have running water, electricity, and heating and ventilation systems and have been described as "the last word in Nato engineering".
Years of blistering Soviet barages failed to smash the network of tunnels, and military strategists believe a bloody ground assault or a long siege may be needed to clear them now.
American bombers have already dropped GBU 28 "bunker-buster" bombs which burrow into rock before detonating a warhead packed with 1,000lbs of high explosive.
But Allied commanders fear they have only wrecked cave entrances, allowing bin Laden and his cronies to scurry from other exits.
The terrorists are also thought to have regularly set up decoy encampments to draw US fire.
Washington is now considering using giant "daisy cutter" bombs which ignite a cloud of fuel vapour, creating a fireball to suck oxygen from the caves and suffocate anyone caught inside.
US General Tommy Franks, leading the Afghan operation, confirmed the search for bin Laden and Taliban chief Mullah Mohammed Omar was now centering on Tora Bora. Anti-Taliban leader Mohammed Zeman said he too was "90 per cent" sure bin Laden was there, riding horses in the mountains at night and sleeping during the day.
He said he met US officials to talk about bin Laden and al-Qa'ida and added: "The only decision we made was to eliminate them."
Last night Pentagon spokesman Rear Admiral John Stufflebeem said bin Laden and the Taliban were losing control of their troops because of US attacks on communication systems.
He added: "In some cases they are severed from communicating by any means whatsoever. The effect of reducing and isolating the leadership is that troops under their control are not going to know what it is they should be doing."
Yeah, sure. LOL!
Notice they even have the secret door listed. Don't tell anyone about the secret door. It's a secret.
Daisy cutters are conventionally explosive, not fuel-air.
Send 'em up in a fireball of flaming bacon grease!
(fuel-air mixture exploding missile packed with lard and bacon drippings)
Fatwaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh!
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