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Bin Laden said to be in border region
Osama bin Laden is alive, in good health and living in the border region between Pakistan and Afghanistan, the suspected No. 3 al-Qaida leader told his interrogators after being captured last weekend, a Pakistani intelligence official said today. Khalid Shaikh Mohammed said he met with bin Laden in recent weeks using a complicated network of phone calls, runners and intermediaries to line up the visit. The meeting took place in Pakistan's southwestern Baluchistan province or in the rugged mountain peaks that run along the border with Afghanistan. Mohammed said he didn't know bin Laden's exact whereabouts now, but that he was in the region.I think we've been mostly looking for him in NWFP or in Kunar province in Afghanistan... In what appeared to corroborate Mohammed's information, the Associated Press received similar information on Monday from a former Taliban intelligence chief. In a telephone interview from Kandahar in southern Afghanistan, the former intelligence chief said bin Laden was seen in South Waziristan in Baluchistan province less than two months ago. Bin Laden was meeting with Taliban members, he said. His report could not be independently verified, but both U.S Special Forces and Pakistani soldiers are in South Waziristan trying to flush out fugitive Taliban and al-Qaida. Several sources say that bin Laden moves with only a small number of guards, changing his location nightly, never using satellite telephones. Instead he reportedly sends messages through intermediaries to a selected person who makes telephone calls on his behalf. Another intelligence official earlier told the AP that a raid was carried out on a house in Wana in South Waziristan earlier this year after a tip was received that bin Laden's top lieutenant, Ayman al-Zawahri, was there. The raid led to the arrest of some Afghan Taliban, but not al-Zawahri. I think that with evidence Binny is actually still alive, we'll be looking for him harder now, and maybe the Paks will, too... Posted by: Fred Pruitt 2003-03-06 |
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