Posted on 01/14/2002 7:30:05 PM PST by notyourregularhandle
In a major setback to the war on terrorism, CIA analysts have concluded bin Laden escaped from the Tora Bora cave complex in eastern Afghanistan around the first week of December, intelligence officials said.
The officials also told ABCNEWS that one captured al Qaeda fighter claims to have witnessed, in one of the Tora Bora hiding places, bin Laden turning over operational 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, an ABCNEWS analyst and former CIA counterterrorism chief.
To fool U.S. forces in the area, the CIA believes, bin Laden left behind a tape-recorded message that was transmitted only after he was long gone.
Search Has Spread Beyond Afghanistan
Today, the Pentagon acknowledged the search for bin Laden and top al Qaeda leaders has spread well beyond Afghanistan.
"It would not be unfair to say that every one of us has this as a mission and that all the forces that are currently in Afghanistan or in any other country where we are pursuing the war on terrorism are focused on doing just that," said Adm. John Stufflebeen, deputy director of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Asked about bin Laden's whereabouts, Secretary of State Colin Powell told ABCNEWS he did not know where bin Laden was but said U.S. 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 today.
U.S., German, British and French forces have been searching dozens of ships in the Arabian Sea for the last two months and last week's CIA report concludes bin Laden most likely fled by sea to Pakistan.
"That is not good news for the U.S.," Cannistraro said. "Bin Laden and his top assistant [Ayman] Al-Zawahiri can reconstitute now in places where they have known bases, Southeast Asia or the east coast of Africa."
American intelligence authorities say that while al Qaeda has been disrupted, and a few leaders have been captured and killed, bin Laden himself remains one step ahead of the United States, with the central nervous system of his terror network still intact.
Talk about stating the obvious...
CIA: GENERALISSIMO FRANCISCO FRANCO REMAINS DEAD
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