Osama Trapped Like A Rat

[Ray]

From the Times of India Monday February 22, 2004


Osama 'trapped like a rat' in Pakistan
By Rashmee Z Mined
TIMES NEWS NETWEORK


London: Osama bin Laden is 'boxed in" and "trapped like a rat" in a desolate patch of tribal Pakistan 16km wide and almost as long, a London tabloid has quoted American and British intelligence as saying
The Sunday Ex press says Britain's elite SAS commandos have linked up with their brothers-in-arms to seal all Laden's escape routes.
The world's most wanted man has just 50 of his most loyal supporters holed-up with him, all preparing to make their last stand, the paper quotes intelligence officials as saying. Mullah Omar, the one-eyed cleric who styled himself Taliban supreme leader, is said to be with him.
The report comes just three weeks after the US commander of coalition forces in Afghanistan, David Barno, declared he expected to bring Laden and Omar to justice this year and "the sands in the hourglass of all of the A1-Qaida senior leadership is running out".
Barrio confirmed that 11,000 coalition soldiers were on the search for the ultimate high value target. Pakistan press reports have been rife with rumours for weeks about an impending "big strike" for the "big fish".
Laden's last hideout is described as "north of the town of Khanozai and the city of Quetta'. He is alleged to have moved into the area "in the desolate Toba Kakar mountains" in the lawless NWFP tribal area of Waziristan about a month ago.
A US-UK offensive to comb Pakistan's badlands for Laden, Qaida and Taliban operatives would be the fourth of its kind since 9/11.
Commentators said it was significant that Laden was described as "trapped like a rat", a phrase familiar from December's capture of Saddam Hussein. President Bush had contemptuously dismissed the dictator as trapped like a rat in a hole.
Laden's last public appearance was in Jalalabad on November 10, 2001. After fierce fighting at his Tora Bora cave complex, he was reported to have slipped into Waziristan.
On Sunday defence commentators described the tabloid speculation as "logical and predictable". Saddam's capture left the West's most-hated ideologue at large and, they said, it was only natural for the US - UK to redouble efforts on the hunt for Laden -

[Officer of Engineers]

US cautious on reports bin Laden 'boxed in'
By Los Angeles correspondent Robert Lusetich
23feb04

THE US and Pakistan have cast doubts on a report that terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden was "boxed in" by US and British special forces troops in the mountainous border region between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

"I do not have any such information," Pakistan Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said yesterday.
British newspaper the Sunday Express reported that bin Laden and a small band of bodyguards had been pinned down in a 15sqkm area of the inhospitable border region. The paper, quoting two US sources -- one intelligence and the other a senior Republican -- said US spy satellites were monitoring the area.

Another Pakistani official confirmed that the Pakistani army was renewing operations in the area where bin Laden was reported to be hiding.

"Right now, we are not chasing bin Laden," the intelligence official told reporters. "But the purpose of all past efforts was to capture him. We are now tracking al-Qa'ida fugitives to get clues from them about him."

Earlier, White House spokesman Scott McClellan reacted to reports that bin Laden's capture was imminent by saying "that would be news to everybody in this room".

"No, I haven't heard anything ... like that," he said.

Three weeks ago, Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai said he believed bin Laden, who orchestrated the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the US, was "somewhere in the area in the borders between Afghanistan and Pakistan".

In January, Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf predicted bin Laden would be captured by year's end.

Last week, the top US soldier in Afghanistan, Lieutenant-General David Barno, said a new push by Pakistani troops and a sustained offensive from US and British forces in Afghanistan would create a "hammer and anvil" effect on al-Qa'ida fighters, sandwiching them.

Under pressure from the White House, which yearns to have bin Laden captured before November's presidential election, President Musharraf has authorised his generals to pressure tribal chieftains in the largely autonomous border region into revealing information about al-Qa'ida and, ultimately, bin Laden.

US intelligence agents believe bin Laden has escaped capture largely because of the help afforded by these tribes, whose loyalty to the deposed Taliban regime remains strong. General Barno said Pakistani soldiers and paramilitaries had been meeting with the tribal leaders for the past six weeks and threatening them with "destruction of homes and things of that nature" unless they co-operated.



privacy © The Australian

[Ray]

Interesting!

As you like it. Typical of the intelligence agencies the world over.

[Officer of Engineers]

Sir,

There's a reason why we call them spooks.

[Ray]

:LOL

[smilingassassin]

I hope they do have ol Bin-Laden trapped like a rat.....nothing would boost Bushs popularity over Kerry more then a dead or captured Osama. I suppose Dean would be the first in line to shout his protest's, while Kerry would attempt to use Osama's military service to discredit Osama.

[Ray]

:LOL

[Ray]

I have no personal agenda. It matter not whether Bush or someone else wins the election.

What matters to me is that another 'wind from the rear end of the anatomy' has been booked, cooked and had and the world is a safer place. That's all. Out of sight and out of mind. A vermin and a maggot out of the way no longer gnawing at the innards of the world.
Osama (PBUH). Not Peace Be Upon Him as they say of their Prophet, but PESTILENCE BE UPON HIM.

[Confed999]

Originally posted by Ray
I have no personal agenda.

If you don't, you're the only one. ;)

[Ray]

Confed,

I can't vote in the US elections. I am not a US citizen. So it is of no use to either root for Bush, Kerry or even Nadar.

So, no agenda.

[visioninthedark]

Finally they are going to get these arab scum out of my fatherland!

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,112284,00.html

Pakistan Launches Fresh Al Qaeda, Taliban Hunt

Tuesday, February 24, 2004

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Pakistani forces backed by helicopters and paramilitary troops launched an operation to capture fugitive Al Qaeda and Taliban suspects in remote border areas Tuesday, sweeping through villages in a region where Usama bin Laden is believed to be hiding.

Two intelligence officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that at least two homes were leveled and as many as 20 people had been taken into custody, including three foreign women. Authorities were not immediately available to confirm the reports.

The searches near the town of Wana, just a few miles from the border with Afghanistan, began after dawn, as paramilitary and army troops moved into areas where the fugitives are believed to have taken refuge among local tribes.

"An operation has begun near Wana," said Pakistan's Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed. "That's all that I can tell you."

Paramilitary forces in recent days have boosted security in the lawless border region in Pakistan's ultraconservative North West Frontier Province. Authorities insist bin Laden is not the military's immediate target.

On Monday, senior government officials said that the head of the CIA visited Pakistan last month to discuss the hunt for bin Laden as well as ways to fight nuclear proliferation.

"Both sides shared views and information," an intelligence official, familiar with the talks between CIA Director George Tenet (search) and Pakistani intelligence officials, told The Associated Press. He spoke on condition of anonymity.

The U.S. Embassy in Islamabad declined to comment and the Foreign Ministry refused to confirm that Tenet had visited.

The meetings came just days after the father of Pakistan's nuclear program, Abdul Qadeer Khan, acknowledged leaking nuclear technology to Libya, North Korea and Iran. News of the scope of Khan's activities has caused worldwide alarm and embarrassed this South Asian country.

Tenet discussed the implications of the nuclear black market with Pakistani intelligence officials, the official said.

President Gen. Pervez Musharraf pardoned Khan on Feb. 5, following his confession. Washington has said the pardon was an internal Pakistani decision, and that it was most concerned with shutting down Khan's network.

Troops have stepped up patrols in the rugged area border area, placing heavy guns on key roads and taking positions in sandbagged bunkers in the key town of Wana in tribal South Waziristan.

Local government official Mohammed Azam Khan said those suspected of being "foreign terrorists" will be arrested.

"Tribal elders have given us an assurances that no foreign national is now living in their areas, but still we want to satisfy ourselves," he said. "A house-to-house search will be conducted."

Pakistan has been a key ally of the United States in its war on terror, and Pakistani security forces have captured more than 500 suspected Al Qaeda and Taliban fugitives since the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Among the captured are key figures in bin Laden's terrorist network.

Musharraf escaped two assassination attempts in December which he blamed on Al Qaeda. The government has provided no evidence to support his claim

[visioninthedark]

The days of the perverted arabs who exploited the innocence of village folk are over!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/3513209.stm

Pakistan launches al-Qaeda sweep

Tens of thousands of troops are stationed along the border.

Pakistani forces have begun a fresh operation along the Afghan border against al-Qaeda and Taleban suspects.
"We have launched an operation against foreign terrorists," said Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed.

But he would not say whether Osama Bin Laden or the Taleban leader Mullah Omar were the targets.

US forces in Afghanistan have said they are stepping up the hunt for the al-Qaeda leader who is believed to be in the border area.

Over the past few weeks, the Pakistani authorities have tried to persuade tribal leaders to hand over foreign fighters, most of whom fled into Pakistan's tribal belt during the US-led military operation in Afghanistan in 2001.

Some were handed over, but others were allowed to escape by hosts believed to be sympathetic to the Taleban and al-Qaeda.

Pakistani intelligence officials say Bin Laden is not the immediate target of the current operation in the semi-autonomous South Waziristan region of North West Frontier Province.

But they hope to glean clues leading to his ultimate capture.

'Hammer and anvil'

On Monday, troops stepped up patrols in the area, and heavy guns and sandbagged bunkers were put in place on key roads in and around the town of Wana, according to reports.

Last week, the commander of US-led coalition forces in Afghanistan said an operation was being launched on both sides of the border.

Lieutenant General David Barno referred to a two-pronged "hammer and anvil approach".

However, Pakistan's Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri denied American and British forces were closing in on Osama Bin Laden.

He dismissed reports in a British Sunday newspaper that the al-Qaeda leader was "boxed in" and said no such information had been passed on to Pakistan.

And in Afghanistan a US military spokesman said that if either Pakistani or American forces knew Bin Laden's whereabouts they would go and get him.

Porous border

Pakistan has been a key ally of the United States since it launched its war on terror after devastating attacks on New York and Washington in 2001, for which Bin Laden is blamed.

About 500 suspects have been detained in Pakistan, and many sent for interrogation by the US military at Guantanamo Bay.

Earlier this month, CIA chief George Tenet paid a secret visit to the country to share information on the al-Qaeda leader, reports say.

Islamabad has stationed tens of thousands of troops along the porous Afghan border to hunt al-Qaeda and Taleban suspects.

Government officials vigorously deny that US troops operate on Pakistani soil.

The last time Pakistani forces were involved in a major crackdown in Waziristan, in October 2003, US helicopters patrolled the Afghan side of the border to stop suspects escaping.

[tomas]

good to see that they will finally track him down dead or alive
i would prefer dead :Beer

:sniper :RW

[Ray]

The Indian TV networks today indicate that the Pakistani Army and the British SAS has narrowed down the search.

[Confed999]

I hope they get him, and all come home safe.