Posted on 02/05/2002 9:56:21 PM PST by duck soup
Bin Laden's cook spills the beans on 'escape to Chechnya'
By Philip Smucker in Ghazni
(Filed: 06/02/2002)
AN Arab prisoner who says he was Osama bin Laden's cook said yesterday his former leader was seeking refuge in Chechnya after fleeing the al-Qa'eda mountain base at Tora Bora.
Haji Mohamad Akram, a Saudi, said bin Laden first went to Pakistan, before returning to Afghanistan and travelling through the country to Iran on his way to the rebel Russian republic.
His account of bin Laden's movements, which cannot be confirmed, comes as officials in Washington concede that they have no idea where bin Laden is. It follows warnings from senior American officials that Iran has given refuge to al-Qa'eda and Taliban fighters.
Mr Akram, a waif of a man suffering from what he claimed were regular torture sessions from his Hazara captors, begged to be handed over to American investigators - even sent to Camp X-Ray in Cuba if possible - and promised to disclose important information.
US officials in Afghanistan yesterday expressed great interest in taking him into custody along with a Saudi financier who had been based in Ghazni and a Kurdish member of al-Qa'eda.
"Keep them right there," one official told the ethnic Hazara leader, Ali Akbar Qasmi, in a satellite telephone call. "We'll give you far more than anyone else is offering you for these people."
The other two captives have refused to divulge information about al-Qa'eda, have threatened suicide and attacked their captors twice, said Mr Qasmi.
But Mr Akram says he was betrayed by his associates and now appears ready to provide investigators with leads on the whereabouts of al-Qa'eda leaders.
"Osama's favourite meal is fowl - anything with wings," said the Saudi, who has spent the past 13 years in Afghanistan.
"He likes quails and if he cannot get his hands on one he will settle for a chicken. Most of the quails he ate we hunted. Others were brought in by road from Iran. Osama often made special requests for the mutton and yogurt Mogul dish that I do best."
Mr Akram was in Tora Bora when the complex was attacked by American aircraft and Afghan troops.
"Bin Laden had three offers of escape," he said. "One from Iraq, one from Iran and another from some mafia types. He chose the latter and moved from Afghanistan into Pakistan and then back into Afghanistan and on to Iran.
"The mafia types were working for money and Osama saw their offer as the most reliable. Now I understand from friends that he was headed to northern Iran." He believed bin Laden had then gone to Azerbaijan and into Chechnya.
no one in their right mind would wanna go to chechnya.
Exactly!
O K ,I'm ready now to be jumped on by all those who also thought Pearl Harbor was a surprise party.
complicity in the delivery of weapons from Iran to the Muslim government in Sarajevo.
I believe that the U.S. might be checking to see if the arms pipeline is still there. Something is not right between the U.S. and Russia. A conflict over oil rights? Man I hope not.
Don't worry, everythings going perfectly($).
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