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| Arabia |
| Bin Laden 'in Yemen' |
| 2002-11-16 |
| British special forces are searching for Osama bin Laden in Yemen after new intelligence has surfaced revealing that the al-Qa'eda leader fled Afghanistan last year and is being protected by tribesmen in his ancestral homeland. The Telegraph has learnt that the focus of the world's biggest manhunt has dramatically shifted over the past few weeks from Afghanistan and Pakistan's border areas to the lawless tribal region of Hadhra Maug in south-east Yemen, where bin Laden's father was born. American officials said on Friday that they had captured a high ranking al-Qa'eda official in the region whom they would not name but described as "among the top dozen", suggesting that the noose might be tightening around the al-Qa'eda leader. Six other al-Qa'eda members were killed in a rocket attack by an unmanned Predator drone two weeks ago. ...it is thought that he fled Afghanistan last November travelling along opium traffickers' routes through eastern Iran then down through the desert of Baluchistan in Pakistan to the port of Gwador, an area mostly off-limits to foreigners. He is then thought to have travelled by traditional dhow across the Arabian Sea to Oman and on to Yemen and the protection of the tribesmen of the Hadhra Maug, who are fiercely loyal to his family and have long waged war with the government in Sana'a. An American official admitted to The Telegraph, "we left too many windows. We could not seal the border with Pakistan and we failed to monitor shipping particularly in those early days". We can't seal the border with Pakistan now. The new evidence came to light among thousands of documents captured by Mossad, the Israeli intelligence service, during raids on buildings used by Hamas, the Islamic militants, and Yasser Arafat's compound in Ramallah, on the West Bank, in late March. We find Osama based on memos in Arafat's office. Well, blow me down!. Maybe the Israelis got their hands on a disgruntled office worker. "And another thing, Bob, lemme tell you something about TPS reports." |
| Posted by:Pete S. |
| #3 I saw the story, and Steve and, I think, Paul mailed it to me. I didn't use it because I thought it was just another rumor. Sure is hard to type with this bag over my head... |
| Posted by: Fred 2002-11-16 22:50:22 |
| #2 FWIW, Debka had a story on this on October 19. They claimed he was in Saudi Arabia, near the Yemeni border. |
| Posted by: Pete S. 2002-11-16 22:20:34 |
| #1 No problem. I fixed it. It's worth the work for the article. This is a story that seems to keep coming back. It's starting to ring true. There was the story about his favorite wife not two weeks ago, then the guys knocked off on their way to assassinate the American ambassador a day later. I said way back when that he'd cut and run to Yemen, but then he showed up all over the map, everywhere from Chechnya to Bali, and if you'd asked me two weeks ago I'd have said he was in Karachi or in Fazl's guest house, but more likely dead. Hope this recent spate of activity - starting with the Djibouti presence - means they're closing in on him. Sure will be neat if we get him because the IDF got the opportunity to root through Yasser's underwear drawer. |
| Posted by: Fred 2002-11-16 21:53:39 |