CIA Chief Visited Pakistan This Month to Discuss Nuclear ...

[Snazzy]

CIA Chief Visited Pakistan This Month to Discuss Nuclear Black Market, Al-Qaida

By Munir Ahmad Associated Press Writer
Published: Feb 23, 2004

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) - CIA Director George Tenet visited Pakistan earlier this month to share information on Osama bin Laden and discuss ways to combat nuclear proliferation, senior government officials said Monday.

The visit came more than a week before Pakistan began pouring troops into its remote tribal regions in an operation to round up al-Qaida suspects. It has long been believed that bin Laden, the prime suspect in the Sept. 11 terror attacks, is hiding in the region along Pakistan's border with Afghanistan.

"Both sides shared views and information," an intelligence official familiar with the agenda of the meeting told The Associated Press. He spoke on condition of anonymity.

The U.S. Embassy in Islamabad declined to comment and the Foreign Ministry refused to confirm the visit.

Tenet visited just days after the father of Pakistan's nuclear program, Abdul Qadeer Khan, acknowledged leaking nuclear technology to Libya, North Korea and Iran. News of the scope of Khan's activities has caused worldwide alarm and embarrassed this South Asian country.

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http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGA1TI3B0RD.html

Sneaky guy: headline: "this month." No turkey dinner for you, but maybe this fueled the Osama rumors, or lends credence that something is up on that front.

See, for example, Pakistan's Dawn:

Big operation against Al Qaeda in offing: Osama cornered - UK paper


By Arshad Sharif and Syed Irfan Raza

ISLAMABAD, Feb 22: Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat said on Sunday that Pakistan's para-military troops had been deployed on Pakistan-Afghan border to nab Osama bin Laden who, he said, was reported to be in the vicinity of north-south Waziristan.

Meanwhile, armed forces spokesman Maj-Gen Shaukat Sultan dismissed as 'ridiculous' and 'totally baseless' reports that Osama had been 'cornered' in Toba Kakar mountains north of Quetta or any additional troops were being deployed for a hot operation against Taliban or Bin Laden in north-western Pakistan.

Responding to a question about location of Osama bin Ladin in an area north of Quetta, Maj-Gen Shaukat Sultan said a foreign newspaper had reported it but these were merely media reports.

The British newspaper, the Sunday Express, reported that US and British special forces had cornered Osama bin Ladin inside an area of 16 kilometres North of the town of Khanozai and the city of Quetta.

"No foreign troops are in that area," Maj-Gen Shaukat Sultan said. The interior minister, on the other hand, said that Frontier Conbstabulary with back-up from a brigade of army would conduct the search operation to apprehend Bin Laden and other Al Qaeda elements. The operation, he said, would be kicked off "within the next 24 hours".

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http://www.dawn.com/2004/02/23/top1.htm

Worth a read, they are not just re-reporting the UK Tabloid. Pak has operations going on, they seem keyed up.

[xchrom]

1. must make bush

look good...