Posted on 08/27/2002 8:16:53 AM PDT by B-bone
Bin Laden Reportedly Back at Helm of al Qaeda Tue Aug 27,10:12 AM ET
By Michael Georgy
LONDON (Reuters) - Osama bin Laden ( news - web sites) is firmly back in command of al Qaeda and the group is digging in for guerrilla attacks on U.S. troops in Afghanistan ( news - web sites), an Arab journalist with close ties to the militant's associates said on Tuesday.
Abdel-Bari Atwan, editor of the London-based daily al-Quds al-Arabi newspaper, said al Qaeda associates recently told him the network had regained confidence after facing intense U.S. bombing and was ready to fight U.S. troops over the long haul.
"Al Qaeda were shattered during the U.S. bombing so it was difficult for bin Laden to stay in control. Now they said he is fully in command again and they have regrouped and are organized again," Atwan told Reuters.
"Al Qaeda people say they are relaxed now and they will fight a war of attrition against U.S. soldiers," added Atwan, who interviewed bin Laden in 1996 and keeps in contact with his associates and followers.
Bin Laden was in good health and "safe" and was planning new attacks on the United States, he was told, but his whereabouts were not disclosed.
The United States launched strikes on Afghanistan last year to flush out al Qaeda and hunt down bin Laden, its prime suspect in the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington, and punish the Taliban regime that protected him.
But remnants of al Qaeda and their Taliban allies have continually frustrated the U.S.-led coalition by hiding in mountains, melting into the local population or fleeing into neighboring Pakistan or Iran.
Atwan said that the al Qaeda and Taliban had re-established links that were severed when the United States began its military campaign in Afghanistan.
"They are working together again. They are organizing," he said.
There is no trail, meanwhile, leading to bin Laden.
Bin Laden's associates told Atwan that the Saudi-born militant was well, "safe" and planning new attacks on the United States. They did not say where bin Laden was currently living.
"My sense is that he will time any new attack to coincide with a U.S. attack on Iraq. He would want to capitalize on this to appeal to the Arab street so he will probably delay any attacks until the United States moves on Iraq," said Atwan.
"He will probably want to be seen as the only Arab standing up to the United States when the United States attacks Iraq."
Bin Laden made a series of defiant videotapes broadcast on television as U.S. warplanes pounded Afghanistan. But he has recently stayed out of sight.
His associates said Bin Laden, who has a $25 million U.S. bounty on his head, was well protected but his entourage was small in order to avoid capture, said Atwan.
"He is the master of disguise and he is making sure that he is not giving anything away so he travels in a small group," he said.
Bin Laden's top aide Ayman al-Zawahri, the Egyptian-born chief strategist of al Qaeda, was with him along with a small group of militant bodyguards, Atwan was told.
When he no longer serves any purpose, the body will be found.
Bad analogy -- bin Laden was alive at one time.
Some specualate that the remaining losers did what these people do best, hand off the mantle to the boy heir. Syrians do it, Saudis do it, Jordanians do it, Libyans do it, and of course the Iraqis want to do it. About the only regimes over there that are even remotely non-imperial are Egypt, Iran, Pakistan, Turkey and interestingly enough, Palestinian Israel. And they seem to be the most open (if you can call it that). We need to be moving the imperialists off to the side and go about setting up more non-imperial regimes. I think that's the long term goal here.
In pieces in a cave in Tora Bora. We would have heard from him by now.
Welcome to Free Republic.
What purpose would it serve to scream that bin Laden is dead from the rooftops? All it would do is undermine the need to press forward against Al Qaeda, which was the real purpose of the Afghanistan segment of this war.
Personally I think the administration suspects he's dead, but doesn't know it for sure, and wisely isn't focusing on that issue (why declare it if it's possible you're wrong?). Even if he is dead, it's not like the problem or his group go away.
I ain't buying it ..... that 6'7" frame is tough to camouflage .... He's in pieces under a cave somewhere.
Yes! Everybody be on the look-out for a 6'5" walking burqa bag.
Let's not.
This is a man who loves attention. He thrives on it. He makes tapes of himself to show to the kiddies, and has them hand delivered to Al Jazeera so they can show his home movies.
We haven't had one in eight months. We've been promised one on multiple occasions in the interim. No dice.
For a man who loves that kind of attention, if he's not dead, this is surely killing him.
And if we had a body sure, the Administration would trumpet it from the rooftops. And not necessarily to take credit. Just the ol' "Ding dong the witch is dead" type of thing.
But without a body, it's like a bad soap opera or comic book to a lot of folks. Without a body, he's still alive.
So tell me, has he been holed up in Ra's Al Ghul's Lazarus Pit all this time recouperating? Is that why we haven't seen him, or what?
I mean we're not talking Victor VonDoom or Lex Luthor here!
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