MSNBC / Newsweek: "Is the hunt for bin Laden grinding to a halt?"

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

A Troubled Hunt
Many Qaeda bigwigs have been caught, so how does bin Laden manage to survive?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7937013/site/newsweek/



May 30 issue - He was a legendary jihadi leader who preached holy war, took on the greatest power of his day and caused thousands of deaths in terror strikes. But as British imperial forces hunted for him year after year in the 1930s and '40s, Mirza Ali Khan simply disappeared into the folds of what are now the Pakistani tribal regions. The search for Khan, who was better known to his British pursuers as the Fakir of Ipi, petered out as the decades passed and people lost interest. "The fakir was never captured," says Pakistani scholar Husain Haqqani. "People say he died of natural causes in 1960."

Is this to be Osama bin Laden's fate as well—an enduring case of justice denied? As the fourth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks draws closer, some critics fear that bin Laden too could slip into the mists of history unless U.S. policy—and luck—changes. "Our teams are getting nowhere," says Gary Schroen, a highly decorated former CIA officer who oversaw CIA operations in the region until August 2001 and still works on contract for the agency (he was in Pakistan in March). As the British found out, the steep, cave-pocked mountains of Waziristan, where many believe bin Laden to be, make up the most difficult military terrain imaginable. "That is an area where, if the people don't want you to be caught, you can stay for a very long time," says Haqqani, a former diplomat now at the Carnegie Endowment in Washington. "Even with modern surveillance technology, bin Laden could end up being like the Fakir of Ipi."

Pakistani Foreign Minister Khursheed Kasuri told reporters last week that he believed bin Laden has been on the run since the capture earlier this month of Abu Faraj al-Libbi, the latest culprit to be identified as Al Qaeda's "No. 3." But Schroen says that both the Pakistanis and the Bush administration have expressed too much confidence that al-Libbi's arrest could lead the hundreds of Special Forces, CIA, FBI and other counterterror officials in Pakistan and Afghanistan to the Qaeda chieftain.

There is no evidence that bin Laden's entourage reacted in panic to the al-Libbi news. According to two Taliban operatives interviewed by NEWSWEEK, whose accounts could not be independently verified, bin Laden has been safely ensconced in a secret, well-protected base along the northern Afghanistan-Pakistan border for more than a year. One source cites bin Laden's security guards, and another cites people in contact with them, as saying that most of the leader's meetings with even trusted aides take place outside the base. "The point is to keep everyone, even his most trusted people, confused as to his real whereabouts," says one of these Taliban officials, whose nom de guerre is Ali Khail. And al-Libbi's proximity to bin Laden was hyped, he says. (Khail, a mujahedin commander during the Soviet war who is now a Taliban propaganda and intel operative, claims to have contacts in bin Laden's camp.) A former senior Taliban intelligence officer who today remains part of the ousted fundamentalist regime's intelligence network concurs: "Libbi doesn't know that much to endanger the sheik (bin Laden)," he says.

[Skidmore]

1. That whole question should have been asked in

past tense.

[rodeodance]

2. is this revenge!!

[TreasonousBastard]

3. About time they noticed....

'specially after the President-like-object already said this pig was of no more interest to him.

[Drifter]

4. Nope - that happened ....

on Jan 21, 2001.

That of course set the ball rolling for the greatest intelligence failure, and most spectacular attack on US soil.

Cheers
Drifter

[carnie_sf]

5. The hunt ground to a halt a while ago

[MsUnderstood]

6. great here comes another retratction

The death of 15 soldiers is attributed to the demoralization of the troops caused by newsweek discussing the lack of leadership by the current administration.

"We think Newsweek should be more Supportive of the empire. . .er. . .Administration "stated Dooluk. . .Er. . .McClellan in a press conference, "The Emperoror. . .er . . .President and Darth Vadar. . .er. . . Secretary of State thinks talking about how we have failed does not benefit anyone in this galaxy."

[xultar]

7. Well, last week the Conservative News Network was saying the hunt

was heatin up.

Now, which one is it mutherfuckers? :rofl:

[killbotfactory]

8. Al Qaeda was never the big bad terruh network it was made out to be

Bin Laden just funded whichever Islamic terrorist group came up to him and asked for support. It's not an organized structure like BushCo makes it out to be with enough "Number 3" men to fill gitmo. They just used the threat of hyped up vision of Al Qaeda to pass a slew of invasive laws and to grab more political power. Scaring the crap out of your own citizens and then claiming you are their only protector does wonders for your popularity ratings.

I think they realized this early on and just keep up the show and stop committing resources to the hunt, snatching random people affiliated with terrorist movements to pretend they are "winning the war on terruh", after they effectively smashed whatever Al Qaeda had going on in Afghanistan.

[Old and In the Way]

9. Remember Osama's "appearance" just before the 2004 Election?

Check out this morphing comparison of "Osama" in this thread-

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=1491922&mesg_id=1491962&page=

I'm back to thinking either OBL died at Tora Bora or he's safely at home somewhere in Saudi Arabia.

[leftofthedial]

10. hunt? for who?

capitalists need the eternal boogeyman to extort our cooperation in keeping the whole corrupt system afloat.

[Mike L]

11. capture him? they need him on the loose. Tera, Tera, Tera. em

[Roland99]

12. the latest culprit to be identified as Al Qaeda's "No. 3."

heh heh


"And al-Libbi's proximity to bin Laden was hyped"

Really? You don't say?!

[Avalux]

13. I posted on this earlier over in GD -

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=3709755&mesg_id=3709755

It's all bullshit.