CIA: BIN LADEN ESCAPED

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.

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.

Bin Laden is in Beijing .....

According to Gordon Thomas in an exclusive interview by Jeff Rense last night. Thomas also said he was on the scene when Chinese tanks tolled into the square and simply crushed to death hundreds of people. He saw it happen.

Thomas' new book:

Seeds of Fire

China and the Story behind the Attack on America

by Gordon Thomas

In this first-hand account, Thomas reveals America’s and the West’s betrayal of the children of China, who, for a brief moment in history, brought democracy to their homeland. Thomas takes the reader into the inner sanctums of the Oval Office, the CIA headquarters at Langley, and the private compounds of the leaders of China as they debated and fought over the great revolt. And finally, it shows in dramatic detail how the supreme leader, Deng Xiaoping, gave orders for the execution of the students.

The inside story about China that no one can afford to ignore. Using his unsurpassed contacts in Israel, Washington, London and Europe, Gordon Thomas, internationally acclaimed best-selling author and investigative reporter for over a quarter-century, reveals information about China's intentions to use the current crisis to launch itself as a new Super-Power and become America's new major enemy.

On September 11, 2001, the same day the World Trade Center and Pentagon were hit by terrorists, a Chinese Peoples Liberation Army transport aircraft from Beijing landed in Kabul with the most important delegation the ruling Taliban had ever received. They had come to sign the contract with Afghanistan that Osama bin-Laden had asked for, that would provide the Taliban with missile-tracking, state of the art communications, and air defense systems in exchange for the Taliban's promise to end the attacks by Muslim extremists in China's north-western regions. Hours later, CIA Director George Tenet received a coded "red alert" message Mossad's Tel Aviv headquarters that presented what he called a "worst case scenario" - that China would use a ruthless surrogate, bin-Laden, to attack the United States.

By 2015 China will have deployed tens to several tens of missiles with nuclear warheads targeted against the United States, mostly more-survivable land and sea mobile missiles. It will also have hundred of shorter-range ballistic and cruise missiles for use in regional conflicts. Some of these shorter-range missiles will have nuclear warheads; most will be armed with conventional warheads.

That prediction is from a CIA briefing paper to the Bush Administration. It is one of almost 100 pages of never-before published official documents in Seeds of Fire that also include redacted documents concerning the Inslaw "largest global software theft in history," MK ULTRA, and the link between newspaper magnate, Robert Maxwell and Los Alamos.

GORDON THOMAS is the author of thirty-eight books. They have achieved total sales of 45 million copies in 36 countries. Seven of his books have been made into major motion pictures, including the five-times Academy Award-winning Voyage of the Damned. Currently his series of best-selling David Morton novels are being filmed by IAC International for a 22-hour television series to be screened internationally in 2002. Gideon's Spies is also in the process of being filmed by Helkon International Media. Gordon Thomas's next book, Mindfield, has already been pre-sold around the world. He is a daily commentator for TV-3 of Ireland and the UK and his up-to-the-minute reportage appears throughout Europe in major independent and syndicated newspapers. He lives in Ireland with his wife, an interior designer, and his two children.

I have to tell you, I would not trade one single mis-pronounced word by President Bush for a perfectly polished presentation if that presentation meant the deliver was of clinton 's ilk. There is brilliant and then there is brilliant. Some use their brilliance for good, others for evil.

President Bush, imho, packs more heart, and integrity, and dignity in his public appearances than slick orators of the clintonian ilk will ever meet. And better yet, you know he is a man of his word. Nothing better than that. Even perfectly phrased wordings which sound good, but in the end, carry no real meaning.

Eight years of that has taught all of us a little bit about what really matters. It all comes down to one word, a word our President actually owns, CHARACTER!

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.