Reports of OBL's capture has had my attention for some time. I started this research due to freeper Sean Osborne Lomax's insistant posts of the capture of OBL in Iran on or about 1/20-1/22/2004, and Mansoor Ijaz's constant reports of OBL sightings in Iran since 11/2004, and the almost non existence of American media reports prior to last Sunday of the joint US/Pakistan hunt for OBL and that he was cornered. When I did a google search for the Sunday Express article on last Sunday all foreign media was running with the story but hardly any American media reports. That caught my attention, so I decided to do some research. This researched is based on cities in Iran where Ijaz states that bin laden had been sited which are: Qazvin, Kermanshah, Karaj, Harmada, and individuals that were reported that were/are aware of OBLs presence/past in Iran which are: Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei, Ayatolla Rafsanjani, others (names not given), other players I found in my research Abdul Qadeer Khan, Jamaat-e-Islami and time period the nuclear blackmarket reports hit the media.
From (thread is locked, but is viewable) http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1072462/posts?q=1&&page=4701 post# 4709 and post 4914
US aware of Pak nuke scientists in Afghan during Taliban rule
Sunday February 8 2004 11:20 IST
PTI
NEW DELHI: With the US asking Pakistan to ensure that "private network and individuals" do not become a source of proliferation again, reports say that Washington was well aware of Pakistani nuclear scientists being based in Iran and Afghanistan during the Taliban rule.
Two former senior Pakistani nuclear scientists who were based in the Afghan town of Kandahar had also met Mullah Omar and Osama bin Laden several times.
They were later detained and questioned on their return to Pakistan, according to reports including in Pakistani dailies The News and Dawn.
Much before the proliferation issue bogged down Pakistan, there were reports about Pakistani scientists working at a nuclear research centre being developed by Iran at Qazvin near Moallem Kalleiah, 150 km West of Tehran in the El Burz mountains.
Khan was also reported to have secretly visited this facility on several occasions in 1980s and early 1990s.
The reports said in 2002, Iran was engaged in a secret nuclear project and as many as 30 Pakistani nuclear scientists were working on it. They had sought assistance from Shanghai Nuclear Engineering and Research Institute in China.
As late as on February 26 last year, 18 Pakistani scientists and engineers had reached Tehran to replace the experts working there, they said.
Earlier, American satellites had tracked a Pakistani plane as it picked up ballistic missile parts in North Korea in July 2002, US officials were quoted as having said.
The US intelligence officials also believed that Pakistani centrifuge designs helped Libya's nuclear programme.
In August 2000, Pakistani commerce ministry had published a full-page advertisement in major dailies containing an application form for the export of 11 radioactive substances, including depleted uranium, enriched uranium, plutonium and tritium, besides 17 types of equipment including nuclear power reactors, nuclear research reactors and reactor control systems, the reports said.
The would-be exporters, the advertisement had said, must have to declare that the sale would be for peaceful purposes only and the material will not be re-exported and pay a 1400-pound application fee.
The IAEA also continued to monitor proliferation activities in Iran, Libya and North Korea and submitted detailed reports through these years.
Since the days of President Gen Zia-ul Haq, when top Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan's underground proliferation activities were on, the Jamaat-e-Islami had developed very close relations with the general headquarters (GHQ) and the doors of GHQ were thrown open to the Jamaat teams giving them a chance to indoctrinate army officers.
In an interview to BBC quoted by the Pakistani press earlier this week, Jamaat chief Qazi Hussain Ahmed came out in Khan's support saying he had committed no crime.
He also claimed that Khan was "willing to attend any public meeting or a press conference to be called by Jamaat, to explain charges of his involvement in nuclear proliferation". But now he could not do so because of "intense pressure" and restrictions, Ahmed was quoted as saying.
The Jamaat and the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal have staged protest demonstrations in Pakistan against the "harassment" being caused to the scientists few days ago.
Also multiple links to news articles of Khamenei and his visits to Qazvin, Iran here: News for Qazvin, Iran
Jamaat-e-Islami
Scientist: Pakistan Didn't Know of Leaks
The government has insulted Abdul Qadeer Khan by forcing him to read out a statement on state television," said Shahid Shamsi, spokesman for Jamaat-e-Islami. ...
Police Arrest Mastermind of September 11, 2001 Attack on the United States
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - The suspected mastermind of the Sept. 11 terror attacks, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, has been arrested in one of the biggest catches yet in the war on terrorism, Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed told The Associated Press.
Mohammed, perhaps the most senior al-Qaida operative after Osama bin Laden and Egyptian Ayman al-Zawahiri, was one of three people arrested in Rawalpindi, near the Pakistani capital of Islamabad on Saturday, Ahmed said.
His arrest is a major coup in the effort to stifle al-Qaida. Mohammed, who is on the FBI most wanted list, had a hand in many of the terror organization's most notorious attacks in recent years.
In Washington, U.S. President George W. Bush exclaimed "That's fantastic!" after his national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, delivered the news.
CIA officers and Pakistani authorities carried out the operation that led to Mohammed's capture, according to American officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
The tip-off came about a week earlier following a raid in the southwestern town of Quetta and the arrest of a Middle Eastern man, possibly of Egyptian origin, according to a Pakistani government source who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity.
"At the time of that raid in Quetta the authorities were looking for Khalid Shaikh but he escaped and from there they followed him to Rawalpindi," said the official. "They got information from the man they picked up in Quetta and from phone calls until they tracked him down to Rawalpindi."
Mastermind of the September 11, 2001 Attacks Khalid Shaikh Mohammed U.S. officials regard Mohammed as a key al-Qaida lieutenant and organizer of the terror mission that sent hijacked passenger jets crashing into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and into a field in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania, killing more than 3,000 people.
Mohammed was arrested along with a second man of Middle Eastern origin and a Pakistani, Ahmed Abdul Qadoos, 42, a member of one of the country's best organized and well established religious parties, Jamaat-e-Islami. The identity of the Middle Eastern man has not been revealed.
JAMAAT-E-ISLAMI, HIZBUL MUJAHIDEEN & AL QAEDA
Paper no. 699
29. 05. 2003
If you have not ran across the following link, it is full of info. ITALIAN INTELLIGENCE REPORTS BIN LADEN IN IRAN
Several members of the Al-Qaeda terrorist organization are currently under arrest in Iran, Dubai's Al-Arabiyah television reported on 27 June. Among the detainees are Ayman Al-Zawahiri, Suleiman Abu-Ghayth, Osama Bin Laden's son, and several other Al-Qaeda associates. On the same day, Doha's Al-Jazeera television reported that Tehran and Cairo are discussing the extradition of some eight Egyptians who were arrested in Iran in the last two months.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Assefi on 28 February rejected the reports about the presence of al-Zawahiri and Bin Laden's son in Iran, IRNA reported.
A confidential Italian intelligence report submitted in early June asserts the Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was in Iran in May, Milan's "Corriere della Serra" reported on 25 June. In early May, bin Laden and seven Arab extremists met in Tehran to plan attacks in Italy, Pakistan, and Turkey. The extremists are using forged Iranian passports and traveling as businessmen, but they do not speak Persian. A later Italian intelligence report, according to the Milanese daily, describes an Al-Qaeda meeting in Jeddah at which the decision was made to attack U.K., U.S., and Israeli interests, as well as tourists, security personnel, and political and religious leaders in pro-Western Arab countries. (The Iranian Embassy in Rome rejected this report, baztab.org reported on 27 June.)
Iranian government spokesman Abdullah Ramezanzadeh had said on 23 June that Tehran has identified "many" Al-Qaeda suspects that it has in custody, IRNA reported. "If those identified turn out to be nationals of friendly countries, we will hand them over to their country of origin; but if they are found guilty of committing a crime in Iran, they will be tried here," he added. The courts will decide what to do with nationals of countries with which Tehran does not have diplomatic relations, he said. Ramezanzadeh refused to say how many Al-Qaeda members are in custody or whether they include any senior members, according to Reuters.
Iranian Foreign Ministry adviser Sabah Zanganeh told AP on 24 June that some of these individuals would be turned over to Saudi Arabia. "Some of the identified Al-Qaeda members are Saudi nationals. We will hand them over to our Saudi friends," he said. A date has not been set for the extraditions, according to Zanganeh. Saudi Interior Minister Prince Nayef Bin Abdul Aziz said on the same day that it is not known how many Saudis are being held in Iran or if they have any connection with the May 2003 bombing in Riyadh that killed 34 people, including eight Americans, Reuters reported the next day.
The Saudis' arrest of one of the suspects in the May 2003 bombing was announced on 26 June. Ali Abd al-Rahman al-Faqasi al-Ghamdi (a.k.a. Abu Bakr al-Azdi) was arrested after turning himself in to the authorities, "The New York Times" reported on 27 June. Saudi officials described al-Ghamdi as the most senior Al-Qaeda member in the country and said that he has close links with Al-Qaeda security chief Saif al-Adel and other leading members of the organization. According to "The New York Times" report, Al-Adel is believed to have spent time in Iran recently. (Bill Samii)
To Be Continued.