Posted on 09/14/2002 4:06:10 PM PDT by Ranger
OSAMA bin Laden's supporters say the al-Qaeda leader is dead.
Shahid Ayan, who was hiding in Afghanistan's Tora Bora mountains with bin Laden during United States air raids in December, said the terrorist chief died 10 months ago.
"Yes, Osama bin Laden is dead, but the jihad will continue until Judgment Day," he told United Arab Emirates newspaper Al Bayan.
Shahid said that late on December 10 – "the 24th night of Ramadan" – there were "some scary explosions" in the area where bin Laden's cave was located.
"The cave was completely erased from the ground and became nothing," he said.
"This was the only cave of the 15 that was destroyed by an enormous 52ft (16m) missile and there is no doubt that bin Laden died."
Shahid said bin Laden had taken refuge in the caves on November 15 with about 320 fighters.
US forces bombarded the area with laser-guided bombs and AGM-142s – television-guided missiles with earth-shattering warheads.
Pakistani intelligence sources last placed bin Laden in a 25-vehicle convoy travelling from Jalalabad in Afghanistan to Tora Bora in November.
Bin Laden then appeared on a video released in December, when he appeared ill and had trouble using his left arm – prompting speculation he had been wounded in the bombing.
Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai, the subject of a recent al-Qaeda assassination attempt, was yesterday quoted as saying he believed bin Laden was dead.
"The more we do not hear or him or see any signal of his whereabouts or survival, (the more) we are likely to believe he is not alive," Mr Karzai said.
But US intelligence officers are sceptical of the reports, which were also carried on al-Jazeera television, which bin Laden frequently uses to address his followers.
The station yesterday carried a statement from Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar who pledged Islamic rule would return to Afghanistan.
"America won't enjoy Afghanistan or find comfort in it until it leaves ashamed," he said. "We reassure Muslims everywhere that we are abiding by the pledge and that victory is coming."
We'll never see him again.
Like I've said for some time - Osama been Nada is pink mist somewhere in Tora Bora. Any remaining doubts were removed when Osama neglected to make an appearance on the anniversary on 9/11 holding a week-old copy of the Karachi Times and decrying the Great Satan. Guess bin Laden is no longer talking about the Great Satan and now has made his aquaintence instead...
I remember the night the reports of that HUGE blast was heard. It seems to me it hit near the top of a mountain and the shockwave was felt MILES away. I think there were pictures - from a distance - of the smoke rising from the rubble.
Another newsperson and I debated over whether such a massive blast would have only been used if we were pretty sure OBL was there. It was, and still is, my opinion that was when OBL met his 72 year old virgin in Hell.
Sadly I doubt we'll ever be able to totally prove it. After that blast the military declined comment on just what was hit, only saying a massive cave complex was destroyed.
prisoner6
We are not stopping till we see the body. America will not stop till we have hard evidence. Don't care if this goes on for years.
We aren't out of the woods yet of course. It >may< be that OBL really is a clever fellow. If I were in OBL's turban, I would have made plans for more attacks way ahead of time. My top aides, hiding in foriegn countries, would be charged with making sure they were acrried out.
The attacks would come as they have til now, about every 18 months. Meanwhile I'd go into deep hiding for the duration until after the next attack, and only THEN surface. It would show my followers - many of whom along with my enemy would have assumed I was dead - I was continuing the campaign.
But we all know OBL wasn't that smart. He was a fanatic who along with the Taliban truely believed Allah would come down from the heavens to punish and destroy the infidels, and hearld an Islamic world takeover.
We'll have to wait another year. Only after the next 9/11 aniversary can we be positive OBL is gone. that is unless we find what's left of his body.
prisoner6
I am shocked, shocked.
Why, only last night a '60 Chevy went by and Osama leaned out, gave a big wolf whistle, banged the fender, and shouted:
"You ain' nuthin' but a heathen dog! Sinnin' all the time!"
Actually, as Osama bin Laden has not held up today's New York Times ("All Is Skewed To Fit Our Bent"), he's fighting Jimmy Hoffa over the sturgeons.
Has there ever been any question that the sole reason traitorrapist42 and the Senate's pet dwarf with the Napoleanic complex have insisted that the train has to run through the Osama Station is that the station has been removed from the map?
The tracks have been ripped up and melted into BLU-118's of the Mother-of-All-Bunker-Buster variety:
Specially designed at Los Alamos National Laboratories and tested at White Sands to penetrate 150 feet of reinforced Saddam look-alikes.
Saddam, Jimi Hendrix is comin' t' gitcha, Baby. . . .
Outstanding analysis, Phil. Outstanding.
I have it on good authority that he was taken out by the Queen's Own MacKamikaze Highlander Regiment.
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