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| Afghanistan/South Asia |
| Bin Laden is located, says 9/11 panelist |
| 2004-10-22 |
| The Pentagon knows exactly where Osama bin Laden is hiding in Pakistan, it just can't get to him, John Lehman, a member of the 9/11 Commission, said Thursday. Lehman's remarks echoed those made Tuesday by Secretary of State Colin Powell, who said the al-Qaida leader was alive and operating in the western part of Pakistan. Bin Laden is living in South Waziristan in the Baluchistan Mountains of the Baluchistan region, Lehman told the San Bernardino Sun after delivering a keynote speech on terrorism at Pitzer College in Claremont. In the interview, Lehman noted, "There is an American presence in the area, but we can't just send in troops. If we did, we could have another Vietnam, and the United States cannot afford that right now." When pressed on why the United States couldn't send troops into the region to capture the world's No. 1 terrorist, Lehman said the Baluchistan region of the country is filled with militant fundamentalists who do not recognize the legitimacy of Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, a close ally of the United States. "That is a region filled with Taliban and al-Qaida members," he said, acknowledging that Pakistan's security services also are filled with many who agree with bin Laden's beliefs and would aid him if U.S. Special Forces entered the region. "Look," he said, "Musharraf already has had three assassination attempts on his life. He is trying to comply, but he is surrounded by people who do not agree with him. This is not like Afghanistan, where there was no compliance, and we had to go in. "We'll get (bin Laden) eventually, just not now." Asked how bin Laden was surviving, Lehman said he was getting money from outside countries, such as the United Arab Emirates, and high-ranking ministers inside Saudi Arabia. "He is not a wealthy man," Lehman said. "We ran that information into the ground, and discovered he only receives about $1 million a year from his family's fortune. The rest of what he gets comes from radical sympathizers." Department of Defense spokeswoman Capt. Ronnie Merritt confirmed the U.S. military believes bin Laden is in Pakistan. However, she would not comment on Lehman's remarks, except to say that he normally didn't speak about these issues, and she was surprised he had. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #20 "He is not a wealthy man," Lehman said. "We ran that information into the ground, and discovered he only receives about $1 million a year from his family's fortune. The rest of what he gets comes from radical sympathizers." you mean the joint family business Bush - Bin laden? The Carlise Corporation? I knew bush is a crook |
| Posted by: Syaifullah 2004-10-22 6:17:14 PM |
| #19 Old Patriot..."If you want your guy to win,you'll do anything..." Let's not pretend that BOTH parties don't live by that credo. |
| Posted by: WhiteHouseDetox 2004-10-22 11:27:27 PM |
| #18 O.P. The only problem with your approach is that the squirrels will begin to demand peanut-butter covered traitors all the time. Hmmm... is that bad? |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2004-10-22 10:17:18 PM |
| #17 Baluchistan and South Waziristan are two seperate regions. This is a bunch of crap. If we KNEW where Osama was we have all the authorities to get him. |
| Posted by: no_name_who_knows 2004-10-22 10:05:32 PM |
| #16 It's election time. If you want your guy to win, you'll do anything, even betray your oath to God or to the nation, to see that it happens. Such people should be nailed to a redwood - about 20 feet up - and covered with peanut butter, so the squirrels will gnaw them to death. |
| Posted by: Old Patriot 2004-10-22 8:41:01 PM |
| #15 A.P., RWV. You got it right. |
| Posted by: crazyhorse 2004-10-22 8:25:34 PM |
| #14 For the record, if this were true, I can't imagine the democrat mouthpieces on the 9-11 commitee not spreading it all over the NYT months ago. Lehman knows better than to give code word information to the press, so unless he has an axe to grind, this was either deliberate or the onset of senility. |
| Posted by: RWV 2004-10-22 6:26:11 PM |
| #13 [Off-topic or abusive comments deleted] |
| Posted by: syaifullah TROLL 2004-10-22 6:17:14 PM |
| #12 I believe Lehman bases his argument on a AP article published in October 2002 in which it was claimed Bin Laden was sighted in June 2002 in South Waziristan. Ostensibly, he was being chased by a combined team of US Special Forces and Pakistani troops. The claim was made by a mysterious Rehmat Shah, reportedly an Afghan Intel officer. I do not believe that Rehmat Shah has repeated the claim, and he seems to have dropped off the face of the earth. |
| Posted by: Tancred 2004-10-22 6:15:19 PM |
| #11 Lehmen should watch his mouth unless they are using him to bait a trap. |
| Posted by: OldSpook 2004-10-22 6:09:26 PM |
| #10 Apparently, Binny's corpse was carried out of Tora Bora (in pieces, probably) and ferried to Wazoo-istan somehow. |
| Posted by: Bomb-a-rama 2004-10-22 5:55:30 PM |
| #9 Really, it's par-tay? I am so out of it. |
| Posted by: Matt 2004-10-22 5:24:49 PM |
| #8 "we're gonna par-tay like it's 9-11-2001!" |
| Posted by: Frank G 2004-10-22 5:19:54 PM |
| #7 No, no. It's par-tay. |
| Posted by: BH 2004-10-22 5:15:44 PM |
| #6 I still say Lyndde England has him in her basement. "Yo, Binny! Guess where I been! That's right, dude, Victoria's Secret, and we are gonna par-tee" "Nooooh! Not beige! I look so fat in beige!" |
| Posted by: Matt 2004-10-22 5:11:07 PM |
| #5 peanuts? I thought it was pork rinds |
| Posted by: Frank G 2004-10-22 4:44:09 PM |
| #4 He's in the cellar at the White House. Bush goes down there every night to feed him peanuts. I thought everybody knew that. |
| Posted by: tu3031 2004-10-22 4:43:16 PM |
| #3 Shoulda been more hardass with Pakistan from the get go? |
| Posted by: Jules 187 2004-10-22 4:40:45 PM |
| #2 Capture? Was wrong with dropping 50 daisy cutters and incinerating the whole area? |
| Posted by: John Simmins 2004-10-22 4:39:12 PM |
| #1 I cannot believe that this stuff is true because a person like John Lehman shoots off his mouth. This, in my uneducated humble opinion is partly or fully disinformation..................Then again...........it could be true...........and then again................. |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2004-10-22 4:36:02 PM |