Saturday, March 06, 2004
More predictions from Pakistan of Bin Laden's imminent capture
According to this UPI account, "Pakistan's Interior Minister Faisal Hayat said Saturday he expects Osama bin Laden to be apprehended within days or weeks."
A lot of people are going out on a limb. Let's hope that we get what we've paid Musharraf for.
UPDATE: 'Bin Laden escaped Pakistani dragnet, living on Afghan border' - headline, Al-Jaz.
Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden recently escaped a sweep by Pakistani troops hunting for Taleban fighters and is hiding near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, an Afghan official told AFP on Saturday.
Haji Abdullah, head of the Pashir Wa Agam district, south of the Afghan town of Jalalabad said he had recently spoken to a former leader of the ousted Taleban regime who said bin Laden had made an appeal for a safe house.
UPDATE: From tomorrow's Sunday Telegraph: 'Hunt for bin Laden intensifies after top aide is captured' This is a good article summarizing all that we know about the manhunt and the deal with Musharraf, and worth reading in its entirety.
A couple of observations are in order.
First, this guy needs a witness protection program:
A son of Osama bin Laden's deputy has given crucial information on the whereabouts of al-Qa'eda leaders after being captured by Pakistani forces in a lawless frontier area close to Afghanistan, intelligence officials in Islamabad have revealed.
Second, there's more detail on the special forces deployments than I have seen elsewhere (recognizing I probably just missed it):
More than 1,600 American troops, including special forces units, are in place at Salerno base near Khost in eastern Afghanistan ready for an all-out spring offensive to capture bin Laden.
By next month, that figure will have more than doubled, bolstered by a heavy contingent of SAS soldiers who have been assigned a key role in the operation. American engineers are currently enlarging and upgrading a landing strip at Salerno so that large military planes can land there to support the mission.
STILL MORE (SUNDAY MORNING): Reuters reports that the local tribes have seen the light.
Armed bands of tribals will help Pakistani authorities search for al Qaeda and Taliban militants in remote western regions of the country, tribal elders assured the government Sunday.
A grand jirga, or council, of tribesmen decided that up to 2,000 armed tribal fighters would help the government search for foreign "terror" suspects believed to hiding there.
When they're on your side, those "tribal elders" can sure be useful. The question is whether the 2,000 armed tribal fighters will really be hunting for Bin Laden, or will they be helping him escape again? Seems petty of me to question their motives, but Bin Laden and crew have been sharing chapati with the tribes for the last two years so they may not actually have turned on him.
CWCID: Various posters at Lucianne.
A lot of people are going out on a limb. Let's hope that we get what we've paid Musharraf for.
UPDATE: 'Bin Laden escaped Pakistani dragnet, living on Afghan border' - headline, Al-Jaz.
Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden recently escaped a sweep by Pakistani troops hunting for Taleban fighters and is hiding near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, an Afghan official told AFP on Saturday.
Haji Abdullah, head of the Pashir Wa Agam district, south of the Afghan town of Jalalabad said he had recently spoken to a former leader of the ousted Taleban regime who said bin Laden had made an appeal for a safe house.
UPDATE: From tomorrow's Sunday Telegraph: 'Hunt for bin Laden intensifies after top aide is captured' This is a good article summarizing all that we know about the manhunt and the deal with Musharraf, and worth reading in its entirety.
A couple of observations are in order.
First, this guy needs a witness protection program:
A son of Osama bin Laden's deputy has given crucial information on the whereabouts of al-Qa'eda leaders after being captured by Pakistani forces in a lawless frontier area close to Afghanistan, intelligence officials in Islamabad have revealed.
Second, there's more detail on the special forces deployments than I have seen elsewhere (recognizing I probably just missed it):
More than 1,600 American troops, including special forces units, are in place at Salerno base near Khost in eastern Afghanistan ready for an all-out spring offensive to capture bin Laden.
By next month, that figure will have more than doubled, bolstered by a heavy contingent of SAS soldiers who have been assigned a key role in the operation. American engineers are currently enlarging and upgrading a landing strip at Salerno so that large military planes can land there to support the mission.
STILL MORE (SUNDAY MORNING): Reuters reports that the local tribes have seen the light.
Armed bands of tribals will help Pakistani authorities search for al Qaeda and Taliban militants in remote western regions of the country, tribal elders assured the government Sunday.
A grand jirga, or council, of tribesmen decided that up to 2,000 armed tribal fighters would help the government search for foreign "terror" suspects believed to hiding there.
When they're on your side, those "tribal elders" can sure be useful. The question is whether the 2,000 armed tribal fighters will really be hunting for Bin Laden, or will they be helping him escape again? Seems petty of me to question their motives, but Bin Laden and crew have been sharing chapati with the tribes for the last two years so they may not actually have turned on him.
CWCID: Various posters at Lucianne.
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