Where's Bin Ladin? - Page 5

RTK · 07-20-2007, 19:05

Interesting little article from Pakistan paraphrased by Fox.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,41576,00.html

Quote:

Usama bin Laden has died a peaceful death due to an untreated lung complication, the Pakistan Observer reported, citing a Taliban leader who allegedly attended the funeral of the Al Qaeda leader.

"The Coalition troops are engaged in a mad search operation but they would never be able to fulfill their cherished goal of getting Usama alive or dead," the source said.

Bin Laden, according to the source, was suffering from a serious lung complication and succumbed to the disease in mid-December, in the vicinity of the Tora Bora mountains. The source claimed that bin Laden was laid to rest honorably in his last abode and his grave was made as per his Wahabi belief.

About 30 close associates of bin Laden in Al Qaeda, including his most trusted and personal bodyguards, his family members and some "Taliban friends," attended the funeral rites. A volley of bullets was also fired to pay final tribute to the "great leader."

The Taliban source who claims to have seen bin Laden's face before burial said "he looked pale ... but calm, relaxed and confident."

Asked whether bin Laden had any feelings of remorse before death, the source vehemently said "no." Instead, he said, bin Laden was proud that he succeeded in his mission of igniting awareness amongst Muslims about hegemonistic designs and conspiracies of "pagans" against Islam. Bin Laden, he said, held the view that the sacrifice of a few hundred people in Afghanistan was nothing, as those who laid their lives in creating an atmosphere of resistance will be adequately rewarded by Almighty Allah.

When asked where bin Laden was buried, the source said, "I am sure that like other places in Tora Bora, that particular place too must have vanished."

**The Reaper** · 07-20-2007, 19:31

Good thing I wasn't there.

I would rat the location of his corpse out ASAP for $25,000,000.

Might give him a nice break from roasting on his spit in hell.

TR

x-factor · 07-20-2007, 21:04

The dateline on that article is December 26, 2001.

RTK · 07-21-2007, 07:02

Quote:

Originally Posted by x-factor

The dateline on that article is December 26, 2001.

I noticed that, but it popped on the headlines of Foxnews.com yesterday for some reason. I'm wondering if it was dated wrong or why else it would come out now.

x-factor · 07-21-2007, 10:43

Really? Thats odd. Maybe the FoxNews webmaster was reorganizing and just goofed a file move.

PiratesLife11 · 08-18-2007, 03:12

If Bin Laden is still alive—and we must assume that he is—he is holed up, along with his lieutenants, somewhere in the Hindu Kush mountains on the Pakistani border. The problem is that even with all of Musharraf's pledges of support, he has no control over the Waziristan region located between Afghanistan and Pakistan. Waziristan is rife with radical Islamists who support AQ and its leadership. Before and shortly after 9/11, Pakistan's ISI was actively funding and allowing radical madrassas to conscript youths and other muslim extremists and them send them to be trained and fight as mujahedeen in Afghanistan; first against the Soviets, then against the ethnic Tajik N. Alliance. Now, Musharraf is in a precarious position. Many of the ISI agents who operate (or are allowed to operate without being killed) in Waziristan are still sympathetic to the mujahedeen cause, and are easily assuaged. The most obvious solution is that the ISI needs to undergo a massive house cleaning; however, Musharraf already walks a tight line, having already survived numerous assassination attempts. So for him to stay in power (and continue to at least somewhat assist the U.S.) he has to play both sides. As long as Waziristan and the surrounding regions remain autonomous, both economically and militarily; there will never be a solution to the UBL or AQ leadership problem.

UBL and Zawahiri and al-Masri and whoever else don't mean shit anyway. The war on terror is a war of ideals. We must utilize our military, CIA and State Department to win the hearts and minds of the Islamic world, because the quandary isn't going anywhere soon. Putting 150,000 boots on the ground only pisses people off. We must find, fund, arm and educate opposition groups by way of ODA and CIA paramilitary insertions. Use the people within the country of interest to do their own laundry. That way it appears the change is occurring from within. After an interim gov't. is set up, the State Department smoothes out the rough edges and begins to orchestrate the erection of various bureaucracies and infrastructures. This the only way we are going to win this war of attrition, and it will take decades.

—E

InfantryPL · 08-18-2007, 17:46

Does anybody have a HO or validating argument on whether he perhaps relocated to the Sudan? I have a tentative PSYOP mission there "in the future" and wondered what the snake eaters among us might think.

82ndtrooper · 08-18-2007, 18:13

Quote:

Originally Posted by InfantryPL

Does anybody have a HO or validating argument on whether he perhaps relocated to the Sudan? I have a tentative PSYOP mission there "in the future" and wondered what the snake eaters among us might think.

Sir, do you really expect any of the SF Soldiers that may even be in the know to dislose that sort of intel on an open internet forum ?

x-factor · 08-26-2007, 16:59

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20430170...wsweek/page/0/

Long article recapping the hunt for UBL, including lots on SOF and some interesting comments by a SF ops sergeant named (in the article) Adam Rice.

**Roguish Lawyer** · 08-26-2007, 17:20

Rice's comments below. Let's not compound Newsweek's OPSEC violations with new ones here, please.

Quote:

Rice was not optimistic about getting timely permission. Whenever he and his men moved within five kilometers of the safe house, he says, they had to file a request form known as a 5-W, spelling out the who, what, when, where and why of the mission. Permission from headquarters took hours, and if shooting might be involved, it was often denied. To go beyond five kilometers required a CONOP (for "concept of operations") that was much more elaborate and required approval from two layers in the field, and finally the Joint Special Operations Task Force at Baghram air base near Kabul. To get into a fire fight, the permission of a three-star general was necessary. "That process could take days," Rice recalled to NEWSWEEK. He often typed forms while sitting on a 55-gallon drum his men had cut in half to make a toilet seat. "We'd be typing in 130-degree heat while we're crapping away with bacillary dysentery and sometimes the brass at Kandahar or Baghram would kick back and tell you the spelling was incorrect, that you weren't using the tab to delimit the form correctly."

**Roguish Lawyer** · 08-26-2007, 17:23

This part really cracked me up:

Quote:

To catch bin Laden, the CIA was left to lean on local tribesmen, a slender reed. NEWSWEEK recently interviewed two of the three tribal chiefs involved in the operation, Hajji Zahir and Hajji Zaman. They claimed that the CIA overly relied on the third chieftain, Hazrat Ali—and that Ali was paid off (to the tune of $6 million) by Al Qaeda to let bin Laden slip away. Ali could not be reached for comment.

Needle D · 08-26-2007, 21:50

Quote:

The Fifth Special Forces Group, including the best Arabic speakers, was sent home to retool for Iraq, replaced by the Seventh Special Forces Group—Spanish speakers with mostly Latin American experience.

Since when do they speak Arabic in Afghanistan or Pakistan?

hoot72 · 08-27-2007, 08:31

I am going to sound extremely biased when I say this but, the pakistani intelligence know alot more than they are inclined to admit to. The relationship between the Taliban and the Pakistani Intelligence dates back 20 plus years and if anyone had access to deep cover information on how and where OBL was or is, it would be them.

Having said that, Musharaaf, try as he may, doesnt control his entire army and there will always be those in the intelligence field who will always put Islam and morality ahead of the country's best interest to protect OBL.

The Pakistani army in general is weak when it comes to guerilla warfare; they were always trained in a straight forward fight on the punjab unlike the North where the enemy is rarely seen but ever present.

x-factor · 09-06-2007, 16:07

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070906/...in_laden_video

AP article says a new Bin Laden video is going to come out in the next 72 hours for the 6 year anniversary of 9/11.

**Roguish Lawyer** · 09-06-2007, 16:16

Quote:

Originally Posted by x-factor

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070906/...in_laden_video

AP article says a new Bin Laden video is going to come out in the next 72 hours for the 6 year anniversary of 9/11.

I call BS.