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| Terror Networks |
| German Intelligence: Bin Laden Alive |
| 2002-07-13 |
| The head of Germany's foreign intelligence agency said in an interview published Saturday that he believes Osama bin Laden is still alive and hiding along the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan. There's a vote in the "alive" column. There haven't been that many of them lately... August Hanning, the head of the Federal Intelligence Service, also estimated that more than 5,000 supporters of Al Qaeda and Afghanistan's ousted Taliban militia remain in Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan, while many others have returned to their homelands. "They are preparing attacks from their new locations — they will try everything to strike again,'' he was quoted as saying in the Welt am Sonntag newspaper. "We must be prepared for that.'' He referred to no specific plans. Only to the fact that they've got to do something, if only to keep their morale from splashing into the toilet. "As our knowledge stands, we are convinced that bin Laden is still alive, in the border region of Afghanistan and Pakistan,'' Hanning was quoted as saying. "He is still the symbolic figurehead of Al Qaeda, but apparently moves around little and when he does, in a very secretive manner,'' Hanning added, without elaborating. He means at night, by ambulance... Last Monday, President Bush said he does not know whether bin Laden is dead or alive. That's a pretty good indication he just doesn't know. If he did know he was dead, he'd say so if only for the propaganda value at this point. If he knew he was alive he'd have an idea where, and we'd be very busy there. |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |