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.
Obviously a typo; should read:
"CIA report concludes bin Laden most likely fled by seaplane to Pakistan" (;>)
...OBL in the Home of CLINTON's Heart =
...HANOI, Communist Vietnam...?
Al -Zawahiri!?! I thought the good Doctor was supposed to be DEAD already!!
If we are fortunate enough to get a fix on either one of these two again we need to take out whole grid squares (1km x 1km on military maps) and NO cease fires this time!!!
Always a viable option for those who can't spell.
Might take a while to find him.
Over 17,000. Fourth largest population in the world, and the country is 90% Muslim. You see the problem, unlike too many simpletons on this thread who imagine OBL is easy pickings.
Talk about stating the obvious...
For this we pay some $30 Billion per year?
We should disband the CIA White Elephant and rent the Mossad's services for a small fraction of what they eat up in there inept efforts.
My dream is:
We flatten The Taliban, and Osama "escapes"...
We hear that he is at the Madrass schools Pakistan. Flatten Madrass schools, Osama "escapes"...
We hear that he is in Indonesia. Flatten Indonesia, Osama "escapes"...
We hear he is in Somalia. Flatten Somalia, Osama "escapes"...
He becomes the "Flying Dutchman" of the Muslim world, where ever he is sighted, disaster follows.
It won't be too long before NOBODY wants him in their back yard. Pretty hard to be a martyr under those circumstances. Also we can have "reliable reports" from "secret sources" that he has been spotted anywhere we want him to have been spotted...
By having him hopscotch through the entire non-arab Muslim world first, we preserve the alliance.
By the time we get to Arab countries, they will have lost any moral standing they may have had in the Muslim world...
We keep this up until:
1) State sponsored terrorism stops.
2) The Mythical Moderate Muslism regain control of their religion, or
3) The Koran is read only in hell.
Pentagon warns of war lasting six years
By David Wastell in Washington (Filed: 13/01/2002)
AMERICAN military chiefs believe that the global war against terrorism will last at least six years.
Pentagon officials are being advised to draw up budgets and plans to buy new equipment on the assumption that the struggle against al-Qa'eda and other international terrorist groups will endure until 2008, and perhaps even longer.
Donald Rumsfeld, the defence secretary, has won President Bush's backing for a sharp increase in military spending.
Extra money will be allocated for more of the weapons that have proved useful in Afghanistan, such as unmanned surveillance and attack aircraft.
The increased spending will continue whether or not Osama bin Laden is found soon.
It follows signs that the Pentagon is wearying of the intense public interest in the hunt for the al-Qa'eda leader, and Mullah Omar, the Taliban leader.
John McCain, a senator and former chairman of the armed services committee, said on his return from a trip to the Afghan region that he felt frustrated that bin Laden was still at large.
He added, however: "He's on the run now. I think he's a threat so long as he's alive, but it's a far different scenario than the one where he had sanctuary and was able to operate with a financial network and a network of terrorists throughout the world."
After four weeks in which the Pentagon and the media were constantly on tenterhooks for the imminent capture of bin Laden, a change of tack ordered by Mr Rumsfeld has become evident.
Officials say that they will no longer even hint at where they think he might be.
There have also been reports of clashes between the Pentagon and the CIA over the quality of intelligence emanating from Afghanistan.
Some military officials feared there was a "missed opportunity" when the Pentagon ordered US Central Command to rely on local Afghan forces rather than US troops to try to intercept and capture bin Laden after the assault on al-Qa'eda's Tora Bora mountain hideouts.
Not only did bin Laden apparently escape, but so have a series of Taliban leaders over the past two weeks, almost certainly including Mullah Omar, raising questions about the competence or possible corruption of the Afghan forces.
Although no politician is yet prepared to risk publicly differing with Mr Bush over the administration's handling of the war, some advisers fear that public patience over the failure to catch bin Laden will evaporate if the hunt drags on too long - or if there is a fresh terrorist attack on the US.
1. Keeps him from becoming a martyr to his lemmings.
2. Gives us an excuse to "poke our noses" into other extremist nations.
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You may have ment this in humor, but it may be clise ti the truth. We needed a specific villain tnd blew bin Ladin way out of proportion to create one. The problem is not so much bin Ladenm but of the inherent nature of Islam, which we don't want to admit. The emphasis on bin Laden detours around that fact.
I am certain that the Bush Administration is secretly glad he got away. We need a personification of our war in order to keep the people behind the effort. If Bin Laden is dead then everyone (especially the Dassholes of the world) will cry for "peace". We don't need peace until the war is over. I hope Bin Laden is the last terrorist we catch.
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