Posted on 09/13/2001 10:39:47 AM PDT by HAL9000
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - Osama bin Laden, a key suspect in Tuesday's horrific terrorist attacks, was last seen in public in February at the wedding of his son in southern Kandahar, the headquarters of the hard-line Taliban who rule most of Afghanistan.That was his first public appearance since going underground in August 1998, when U.S. destroyers in the Arabian Sea fired 70 cruise missiles at eastern Afghanistan to retaliate for the bombing of two American embassies in Africa. The death toll in the embassies' bombing was 231, 219 Africans and 12 Americans.
Bin Laden, who escaped the missile assault, is known to travel in small convoys, often in a plain white jeep. Taliban commanders who know bin Laden say he keeps on the move, rarely staying in one place more than two days.
Sources in Pakistani intelligence told The Associated Press that they heard bin Laden changed locations in Afghanistan within minutes of Tuesday's attacks. He wouldn't tell anyone where he moved, or where he was when the attacks occurred, the sources said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
It could be hard to find bin Laden if U.S. forces try to retaliate for the destruction at the World Trade Center and damage to the Pentagon. Hiding is easy in this remote, backward country where warfare has caused widespread destruction.
Pakistan is one of only three countries to officially recognize Afghanistan's Taliban. In the 1980s, Pakistani intelligence was the leading conduit for U.S. aid to the Islamic resistance in Afghanistan that eventually defeated occupying Soviet troops.
As a key insurgent during that war, bin Laden was a recipient of U.S. assistance. Reportedly, some people in Pakistani intelligence still maintain regular contact with Arab veterans of the insurgency against the former Soviet Union, known as Afghan Arabs.
In his travels, bin Laden is usually accompanied by Ayman Al-Zawari, who was sentenced to death in absentia for the Oct. 6, 1981, assassination of Egypt's President Anwar Sadat.
Most often described by Afghans as a "simple man," bin Laden wears the traditional baggy pants and long tunic of Afghanistan.
In the last 24 hours, there have been several reports that Arabs are moving out of a housing complex built for them in southern Kandahar province to undisclosed locations, presumably to avoid a U.S. military attack.
The sprawling complex housing some 300 Arabs was built after the Taliban's reclusive leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar, ordered bin Laden to relocate to southern Kandahar in 1996. There, bin Laden, a millionaire Saudi Arabian whose family wealth is from the construction business, built a large home for Omar and housing for his followers.
In Kabul, the Afghan capital, where Arabs have become increasingly visible in recent months, several Arab families have been seen loading their belongings into vehicles and leaving, too.
Bin Laden is known to operate several training camps in Afghanistan's Paktia, Kunar, Nangarhar and Kandahar provinces.
Crisscrossed by mountain ranges, Afghanistan provides limitless hideouts. Invading Soviet soldiers learned that during their occupation between 1979 and 1989, when U.S.-backed Islamic insurgents carried out a hit-and-run guerrilla war.
One example is bin Laden's military base in Paktia province in eastern Afghanistan's Khost area, which he shares with Jalaluddin Haqqani, a former Islamic insurgent who received massive U.S. backing during the Soviet invasion.
At the time, U.S. money helped build the Khost bases in a complex of caves. Pakistani intelligence officials have described the bases as strong enough to withstand anything short of a nuclear bomb.
Bin Laden's known bases in eastern Nangarhar province are at Darunta, barely 20 kilometers (12 miles) east of Jalalabad, and at Farmada, where another U.S.-backed Islamic insurgent, Maulvi Younus Khalis, has a farm used by Arabs as a training center.
Earlier this year, Taliban guards said several hundred Arabs were living in Faramada. But they said the Arabs came and went, presumably depending upon their need at the front lines where the Taliban are fighting opposition forces.
The Taliban, who rule 95 percent of Afghanistan, have condemned this week's terrorist attacks, and ordinary Afghans have been outraged.
The Taliban's foreign minister, Wakil Ahmed Muttawakil, also said bin Laden, who is referred to as "the guest" in Afghanistan, has been denied communications equipment and does not have the facilities to have carried out any major assault.
However, the minister refused to say where bin Laden was in Afghanistan.
During an interview at a hotel in Kabul, when Muttawakil was asked where bin Laden might be, he would only say: "Well, he's not in this hotel."
Copyright 2001 Associated Press, All rights reserved
What the Taliban is saying today:
"If he is delegating, he isn't guilty." Ambassador to Pakistan for the Taliban Regime re.Osama
"Afghanistan's Formerly Rugged Mountain Terrain Used to Provide Countless Hideouts for Osama Bin Laden"
Cut off his money. Order Switzerland or any country that has banks that hold or transfer funds for terrorists to freeze those accounts. Do not allow any transfer of funds from his family or his families business. He can't carry millions around with him, he has to have some banking or holding setup for his money. Stop his cash flow.
In the words of my mama, "Do I have to think for EVERYBODY around here???"
The heat, shock wave, radiation goes everywhere. No problem.
We should make it a joint US/Russian effort - you know build down each other's aging arsenal together and each side gets to let off a little steam at a common thorn in our sides.
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