Now it is public
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/tm_objectid=15669538&method=full&siteid=94762&headline=sas-on-alert-for-osama-swoop--name_page.html
27 June 2005
SAS ON ALERT FOR OSAMA SWOOP
Exclusive By Chris Hughes
SAS troops were last night poised to storm into Afghanistan and capture Osama bin Laden.
Special forces have "good intelligence" the al-Qaeda boss or a senior henchman is holed up in a Taliban enclave.
Two squadrons are on stand-by waiting for the go-ahead from reconnaissance troops on the ground in Afghanistan.
Specialist counter-terrorist soldiers in the rapid-deployment group are on high alert at the SAS's Hereford base.
The other team consists of troops serving around the world.
Commanders have insisted on waiting for news on the ground because of the cost of the operation, which could run into hundreds of thousands of pounds and stretch vital SAS resources.
A senior MOD source said last night: "Although this would cost a lot of money, if the intelligence was good the resources would be made available."
It was previously believed the SAS would send a large deployment to spearhead a major British forces presence in Afghanistan next year.
But sources say that if the bin Laden operation comes off, it will be a "short-term project".
In 2001, bin Laden escaped as the SAS attacked 4,000 al-Qaeda fighters in Tora Bora caves.