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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Bin Laden's Iran alliance |
| 2004-10-27 |
| Osama Bin Laden fled Afghanistan following the battle of Tora Bora in December 2001. He briefly retreated into the Pakistan-controlled portion of Kashmir in January 2002. By June 2002, bin Laden had reportedly moved south into Baluchistan, a mountainous, autonomous tribal region in western Pakistan. It was a sensible place for him to hide. The Baluch are a nation without a country; their ancestral homeland straddles Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Iran. It is likely that his confederates have family and friends among the Baluch. A number of high-ranking al Qaeda operatives are ethnic Baluch, including Ramzi Yousef, the mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, and Yousef's uncle, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the operational planner of the September 11 attacks. The Baluch have a long history of harboring terrorists. Saddam Hussein financed Baluch terrorists against Pakistan as far back as 1969, Iraq expert Laurie Mylroie told me. In July 2002, Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf announced that he was sending commandos into the tribal areas of Pakistan to flush out bin Laden. If Pakistani troops were quick and thorough, bin Laden would find himself surrounded—and perhaps even betrayed for the $25 million price on his head. Relying on the goodwill of Baluch cutthroats, he must have known, was not a viable long-term strategy. Seemingly desperate, bin Laden recorded an extraordinary audiotape and sent it via courier to Ali Khomenei, the grand ayatollah of Iran's Supreme Council. On that tape, according to a former Iranian intelligence officer I interviewed in Europe, bin Laden asked for Iran's help. In exchange for safe harbor and funding, he pledged to put al Qaeda at the service of Iran to combat American forces in Afghanistan and in Iraq, where al Qaeda leaders believed American intervention was inevitable. Bin Laden reportedly pledged, "If I die, my followers will be told to follow you [Khomenei]." |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #5 Miniter is an excellent writer, but I believe he as well as this author are wrong about Binny's status. Binny is wormdirt in a collapsed cave in Tora Bora. No TV since then and Binny woulda shoved even Joe Biden away from the cam to show his all-powerful, caliph-like face. Bought the farm. Bloomin' daisies. No real and identified proof of his existence. No tape to "show-up" W before the election. No other rational reason for Binny to hide. Ayman tells everyone he is in touch wtih Binny on the sly and they all believe, cause, you know, we're talkin' BINNY here. Caliph-to-be, the Potential Potentate, the ayatollah of rock-and-rolla! They can't admit his death-by-JDAM. Sheesh. |
| Posted by: Brett_the_Quarkian 2004-10-27 10:50:30 PM |
| #4 I read Miniter's book Losing Bin Laden, and I thought it was excellent. It's well worth reading. . |
| Posted by: Mike Sylwester 2004-10-27 10:33:15 PM |
| #3 This fits in with what I have been hearing from my Jordanian grocer who has lots of interesting things to say about Zarqawi as well. I would rate it a distinct possibility. |
| Posted by: DanNY 2004-10-27 9:20:23 PM |
| #2 But ... but ... but they couldn't be allied. OBL was a Wahabi Sunni and the Iranian regime is Shiite. They would no more ally themselves than they would with a secular state like Saddam's Iraq. Oh. |
| Posted by: jackal 2004-10-27 4:59:10 PM |
| #1 This seems to be based on the work of an Iranian intel turncoat who could be a plant. I have no doubt Iran and Qaeda are allies of convenience. But the reason Iran won't let Binny make any more videos is... I suspect every one would prefer Binny to be alive, but where's the pic? Dan has assembled the circumstantial evidence, in his usual and incredible comprehensive fashion, that he is with us still. But I can't imagine that he has really been cured of his video addiction. |
| Posted by: Mrs. Davis 2004-10-27 9:56:06 AM |