Foro de Inteligencia, Espionaje y Servicios Secretos

Osama’s whereabouts known to many’

By Khalid Hasan

WASHINGTON: Many people, including some intelligence agencies’ officers, know the whereabouts of Osama Bin Laden. The fugitive Al Qaeda founder is protected by fiercely loyal tribal chiefs in the mountains of the Hindu Kush, claims veteran journalist Arnaud de Borchgrave in the Washington Times.

Borchgrave, who in the past has written that Osama Bin Laden is alive and well and living in the city of Peshawar, claims to have high-grade sources in both Pakistan and the United States. He writes that in his meeting with NWFP Chief Minister Akram Durrani, the MMA leader felt “no compunction” in recounting his “Taliban likes and American dislikes”. Borchgrave calls the North Waziristan peace deal “a sham from the get-go”. The paper signed by tribal chiefs was, in effect, a deal with the Taliban, whose guerrillas continued to cross the “mythical border” with impunity. General Musharraf’s perceived weakness was rewarded with the affair of Lal Masjid in Islamabad, he adds.

Borchgrave writes, “Musharraf has never seriously cracked down on religious zealots who want him dead for ‘capitulating’ to Bush. And he now finds himself on the horns of a painful dilemma. He can see what most of the world perceives as an inevitable humiliating US withdrawal from Iraq, followed by a collapse of the NATO consensus in Afghanistan...But Musharraf knows he cannot afford to ignore President Bush’s resolve in the light of a new National Intelligence Estimate, which said publicly and unequivocally that Al Qaeda and its Taliban allies are back in business in FATA — big time.””

The reporter, who was born in Rawalpindi and has visited Pakistan many times over the years, quotes a former unnamed CIA agent as telling him, “Bush will give him [Musharraf] a little more time to establish his bona fides against the terrorists in FATA” and if he fails to deliver, US Special Forces will have to move in, backed up by predators and other unmanned bombers. Borchgrave points out that this would be “easier said than done” as both the army and intelligence agencies are opposed to the operation now under way. Many junior officers, he claims, are sympathetic to the MMA’s religious zealots.

Updated at 2115 PST
WASHINGTON: Al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden is alive and sheltering in lawless parts of Pakistan on the border with Afghanistan, US intelligence chief Mike McConnell said Sunday.

McConnell blamed the Pakistani government of President Pervez Musharraf for allowing Al-Qaeda to regroup through a controversial peace pact last year with tribal leaders in the border areas. But Musharraf remains a key ally, he said.

"My personal view is that he's alive," the director of national intelligence said on a US television when asked about bin Laden. "I believe he is in the tribal region of Pakistan."

A new report by the US intelligence community last week said that Al-Qaeda had regrouped in its Pakistani "safe haven" and was determined to inflict mass casualties through new attacks on the United States.

McConnell said that had been possible owing to a September peace accord between the Pakistani government and pro-Taliban tribal leaders in the ill-governed region bordering Afghanistan.

Terrorista canta "Quiero ser como Osama" musical que promete polémica

Londres, 31 jul (EFE-TV).- Unas mujeres que lucen un burka rosa y que, armadas con una ametralladora, rodean a un terrorista que canta "Quiero ser como Osama". Toda esta locura histriónica es el plato fuerte del espectáculo "Yihad: el musical", que se estrena mańana en Edimburgo.

Arrested advisor bin Laden in Peshawar and Dalila in Lahore

Security forces in the Pakistani city of Lahore arrested an Al-Qaida member Mohammed Rahim, an adviser to the organization's leader, Osama bin Laden.

Also arrested in the city of Peshawar Al-Qaida member Sheikh Elias Gil, who was working as an interpreter of bin Laden, as evidence assisted to escape from one region to another because it knows the area and hideouts, and the cave.

Diplomatic sources said that the Pakistani authorities hoped to lead to the arrest of those hiding knowledge of the area by bin Laden and other dignitaries accompanying, before turning to the American Federal Bureau of Investigation located in various Pakistani cities.

New US threat to use force: Al Qaeda sheltering in Waziristan, Taliban in Balochistan: Burns

DAWN

By Anwar Iqbal

WASHINGTON, Aug 2: The United States wants Pakistan to defeat Al Qaeda in the battlefield and will not hesitate to use its own forces to achieve this objective, says Under-Secretary of State for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns.

In a detailed review of the US policy towards Pakistan, Mr Burns observed that Al Qaeda had built a safe haven in Pakistan, while the Taliban leadership operated from bases in and around Quetta.

The US policy, as explained by Mr Burns, favours a democratic change in Pakistan, which brings a government that is friendly to Washington and is a “judicious custodian of the country’s nuclear weapons”.

Mr Burns said linking US aid to Pakistan’s performance in the fight against terror was justified because as a friend Washington had the right to expect Islamabad to fight the terrorists who attacked the US on Sept 11, 2001.

He said Pakistani banks were involved in laundering money for Al Qaeda and other terrorist outfits.

There could be no talks with Al Qaeda, which had to be defeated militarily, he said.

The US respected Pakistan’s sovereignty but it would not hesitate to use its forces to target what he called Al Qaeda hideouts inside Pakistan.

“With Al Qaeda, we do not believe that there can be reasoned dialogue, so we would prefer the Pakistani government to take it to Al Qaeda and defeat them in the battlefield,” Mr Burns told C-Span television.

“The US has an enormous stake in what happens in Pakistan because that’s where Al Qaeda is, that’s where the Taliban leadership is, in Quetta,” he said.

He said that a new US law, which required the president to certify on a six-month basis that the Pakistani government was doing all it could and should be doing to fight terrorist groups, was necessary.

Mr Burns said the US did not question President Musharraf’s will to fight terrorists but it thought that the government of Pakistan could and should be more effective in fighting the terrorist groups.

“We share Congress’s concern, but we also want to make sure that we have a stable relationship with Pakistan, so that we retain our influence there,” he said.

Mr Burns claimed that the Taliban had always had refuge in parts of Pakistan. “We were very concerned about that and we still are,” he said. The Pakistani government, he said, had been a good partner, “but as a friend it is permissible to say in public that we hope they will do better because when Al Qaeda has refuge in Pakistan, as it clearly does, that simply is not acceptable.”

Mr Burns said Pakistan should take two immediate steps to fight terrorists: “First, they have got to take stronger military measure in Balochistan against the Taliban and in North and South Waziristan against Al Qaeda to defeat those groups inside Pakistan. Second, there is a lot of financing, of course, money that gets laundered through banks that support these terrorist groups. We have asked the Pakistani government to take stronger measures to try to interdict this kind of laundering of money which is vital to support the operations of these terrorist groups.”

He acknowledged that the Pakistani government has not taken kindly to some of the criticism from the US government over the past two weeks, but “we believe we have to speak plainly”.

The official disagreed with a caller who suggested that the US needed to take out Pakistan’s nuclear weapons to protect Israel and other US allies.

“We need to have stability in Pakistan because… that’s where the fight is, that’s ground zero in the fight against terror.”

Pakistan, he said, also had a nuclear weapons capability “so we hope very much that any future government in Pakistan is going to be stable, is going to be friendly to the US and a judicious custodian of its nuclear arsenal”.

The US had continued to support the Musharraf government “so that the situation that you described, this kind of worst case situation, does not materialise”, he told the caller.

Asked if the US could send its own troops to demolish Al Qaeda bases inside the Pakistani tribal belt, Mr Burns said: “We are going to deal respectfully and, hopefully, effectively with the Pakistani government. They should control what happens inside their own territory. And nearly on every occasion we do want to work with the Pakistani government to try to defeat the terrorist groups.

“But we also said if we had perfect knowledge about location of Al Qaeda, we felt that we could give Al Qaeda a severe blow by US military action; then of course, we wouldn’t hesitate.”

El ejército paquistaní es muy islamista, y aunque de momento sigue disciplinadamente las órdenes que le da Musharraf, el golpe a su orgullo nacional de ver a los americanos por ahí sería demasiado. Aunque antes de que se produzcan las elecciones en los EEUU, habrá elecciones en Paquistán, y quién sabe si ganará incluso Benazir Butto y su partido, el PPP en coalición con otros.

State Department Asks White House Candidates to Steer Clear of Sensitive Diplomatic Issues
Friday , August 03, 2007

WASHINGTON —

The State Department has a message for White House candidates wanting to expound on sensitive diplomatic issues: Shut up.

Traditionally silent during presidential campaigns filled with divisive foreign policy debates, the department on Friday delivered a rebuke to would-be nominees of both parties whose recent comments have complicated U.S. efforts to overcome deep suspicion about the war on terrorism in the Muslim world.

"Those who wish to hold office can speak for themselves and whoever is elected in 2008 and comes into office in 2009 will then be in a position to talk about what they intend or plan to do," said deputy spokesman Tom Casey, a career foreign service officer.

First it was Barack Obama's talk of dialogue with dictators and invading Pakistan to kill Islamist militants, then it was Hillary Rodham Clinton refusing to rule out the use of nuclear weapons to that end. Now, the Democratic front-runners have been joined by radical Republican Rep. Tom Tancredo, who threatened to bomb Muslim holy sites to stop terror attacks.

The State Department had hoped to steer clear of controversy, complaints and public protests sparked by Obama and Clinton, but Tancredo's comments bumped up against the limit of diplomatic patience.

Casey had unusually harsh words for Tancredo, R-Colo., who said this week that if elected he would threaten to bomb the Saudi cities of Mecca and Medina, Islam's two holiest sites, to deter attacks on the United States.

"It is absolutely outrageous and reprehensible for anyone to suggest attacks on holy sites, whether they are Muslim, Christian, Jewish or those of any other religion," a clearly agitated Casey told reporters, shaking his head in disgust.

"To somehow suggest that an appropriate response to terrorism would be to attack sites that are holy and sacred to more than a billion people throughout the world is just absolutely crazy," he said, denouncing "any suggestion that the defense of the American homeland or the defense of American interests would ever justify attacking holy sites."

Tancredo's suggestion to bomb Mecca and Medina came as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert Gates were on a sensitive mission to the Middle East that included a stop in Saudi Arabia.

Tancredo told about 30 people at a town hall meeting in Iowa on Tuesday that he believes a nuclear terrorist attack on the U.S. could be imminent and that the U.S. needs to hurry up and think of a way to stop it.
"If it is up to me, we are going to explain that an attack on this homeland of that nature would be followed by an attack on the holy sites in Mecca and Medina. Because that's the only thing I can think of that might deter somebody from doing what they otherwise might do," he said.

Despite his fringe status in the presidential race, Tancredo's statement prompted angry reactions among Muslims in countries deemed critical to the fight against Islamic extremism, notably Pakistan, where U.S. intelligence believes al-Qaida has regrouped.

In Pakistan, the country's Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Sher Afgan said Friday he would open debate next week on recent criticism of Pakistan from several quarters in the U.S., including remarks by Sens. Obama and Clinton and Tancredo.

It is a matter of "grave concern that U.S. presidential candidates are using unethical and immoral tactics against Islam and Pakistan to win their election," he said.

Obama, D-Ill., said last week he was willing to sit down with pariah leaders like North Korea's Kim Jong-il and Iran's Mahmoud Ahmedinejad and on Wednesday said he would send U.S. troops into Pakistan after Osama bin Laden and other extremists.

On Thursday, he ruled out the use of nuclear weapons in Afghanistan and Pakistan but was quickly derided by Clinton, D-N.Y., who signaled she would keep the option on the table.

At the State Department, diplomats fear that Tancredo's remarks, coupled with those of Obama and Clinton, will be seen as a broader trend of animosity by U.S. politicians to Muslims, especially in Pakistan, officials said.

In 1979, rumors that Israel was going to bomb Mecca and Medina led to the storming of the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad and the publication of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed in European publications prompted violent protests two years ago.