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Al Qaeda insider predicts U.S. hit
Claims bin Laden in Afghanistan Spent four years

as his bodyguard
Mar. 31, 2006. 01:00 AM
PHINJO GOMBU
STAFF REPORTER

The possibility exists that Canadian troops stationed in southern Afghanistan could come across the world's most well-known fugitive, Osama bin Laden, according to one of his former bodyguards.

Abu Jandal told the CBS newsmagazine 60 Minutes bin Laden is hiding in Afghanistan, where Canadian troops are currently stationed, not Pakistan, where he was reputedly being sheltered in the lawless tribal lands.

As part of Task Force Afghanistan, about 2,300 Canadian Forces personnel are deployed in Afghanistan — with the majority of them operating in the former Taliban stronghold of southern Afghanistan.

Jandal worked as bin Laden's personal bodyguard in Afghanistan between 1996 and 2000.

In the interview, which airs Sunday, Jandal dispels the commonly held notion that bin Laden has taken refuge in the tribal areas of northwestern Pakistan near the border with Afghanistan.

"Not Pakistan," Jandal told the newsmagazine. "I know the Pakistani tribes along the border very well. They can be very trustworthy and faithful to their religion and ideology, but they are also capable of selling information for nothing."

Bin Laden's last confirmed hiding place was in southeastern Afghanistan, when U.S. forces in 2001 intercepted radio messages of him directing troops in the mountainous region of Tora Bora.

Since then the trail has grown cold with the exception of the occasional statement by him condemning U.S. interventions in the Islamic world.

In the interview, Jandal, who now lives in Yemen and remains a fervent supporter of bin Laden, also said he is certain an attack on the U.S. is being planned.

Under a deal with the Yemeni government, which arrested him after the attack on the USS Cole, Jandal has promised the government there that he would remain in Yemen.

Jandal also told the show the closest the Americans ever came to killing bin Laden was before the 9/11 attacks.

That was when the Americans fired missiles at an Al Qaeda training camp near Khost, Afghanistan to retaliate against the bombing of two U.S. embassies in Africa.

According to Jandal, sheer luck saved bin Laden, because the night before the attack, at the very last minute, he decided at a fork in the road to go to Kabul rather than the training camp. The next day, the camp was flattened by U.S. missiles.

Jandal also dismissed as untrue reports that bin Laden was sick with a kidney problem that required dialysis. But he confirmed earlier reports that bin Laden had ordered his bodyguards to kill him rather than allow him to be captured alive.

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