Free Republic

CLAREMONT - The Pentagon knows exactly where Osama bin Laden is hiding in Pakistan, it just can't get to him, a member of the 9-11 Commission said Thursday. Commissioner John Lehman's remarks echoed those made Tuesday by Secretary of State Colin Powell, who asserted the al-Qaida terror kingpin was alive and operating in the western part of that country. Bin Laden is living in South Waziristan in the Baluchistan Mountains of the Baluchistan Region, Lehman said, after delivering a keynote speech on terrorism at Pitzer College in Claremont to kick off the university's three-day writer's festival. In the exclusive interview,...

Pentagon officials have described their planned spring offensive against Taliban and Al-Qaeda fighters as a "hammer and an anvil." The description suggests part of the operation will be aimed at capturing or killing Islamic militants along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, while other troops block their escape routes through the mountains. Kandahar, Afghanistan; 12 March 2004 (RFE/RL) -- According to some reports, the spring offensive in Afghanistan by U.S. forces will be the largest since Operation Anaconda two years ago near the southeastern border with Pakistan. "Our goal also is to defeat the Taliban if it decides to confront us, which it...