Osama fled Pakistan through port

Daily Times (Pakistan) ^ | April 11 2004 | Amir Rana

[Dog]

Osama fled Pakistan through port

LAHORE: Al Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden might have escaped from Pakistan through Karachi or Gwadar.

Sources have told Daily Times that US and Pakistani intelligence agencies were investigating a suspect believed to be Bin Laden who travelled from Dera Ismail Khan to Karachi in a truck. “He might have escaped on a private ferry through Karachi or Gwadar port,” the sources said. “Investigations are also underway about his destination. There are equal chances that either he left Pakistan or entered Balochistan. He could have moved into Afghanistan through Balochistan,” the sources added. Sources said that US intelligence received reports some months ago that Bin Laden was staying in Dera Ismail Khan. They said a tall and slim man along with two men with small beards travelled by truck to Karachi.

The sources said Bin Laden and his deputy Ayman Al-Zawahiri lived in Shawal in North Waziristan after they escaped from Afghanistan. Shawal is not very far from Dera Ismail Khan. “Intelligence agencies had proof that Osama was in Shawal till June 2003,” the sources said. “The Osama and Al-Zawahiri videotapes, which were released by Al-Jazeera channel, were also shot in Shawal,” the sources said. The North West Frontier Province governor banned weapons in Shawal in August 2003. Bin Laden left the valley and was reportedly seen in the Pakistani-Afghan border area in the mid-2003, the sources said. —Amir Rana

[Dog]

Interesting if true..

[Dog]

Boot can you please post a map .....when you get a chance.

[M Kehoe]

I'm posting the following just to bump this...(you've heard it before ;^)...

I would like to see a picture of bin Laden holding a current edition of the NYT please.

Happy Easter guy.

5.56mm

[OneTimeLurker]

A week or 2 ago there was a story about him leaving or trying to leave on a ship for Yemen. I wonder if this is based on the same info. If I recall, the source of the original article wasn't especially credible, but I could be wrong.

[Capt. Tom]

LAHORE: Al Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden might have escaped from Pakistan through Karachi or Gwadar.

[ASA Vet]

About time for a new cycle of Elvis sightings?

[DainBramage]

[FA14]

My gut continues to tell me UBL is dead. Has been since late 2001. However, the question then becomes....does the release of his death come before November? (I'm not sure on this, not sure if the WH even knows if he is dead....I doubt they do....for sure (though, I think some in the "black-side" of the military "know" he is dead).

With that said (that is my gut instinct")....Obviously my intellectual side says UBL could possibly still be alive....we know Ayman al-Zawahri is alive.....I really believe he "needs" to be killed before November....We should put an all out offensive into getting him....

[samadams2000]

Agree hes dead. If alive he would have filmed a video by now. He's dead.

[Dog Gone]

A report of where he might have been a year ago isn't terribly useful. I hope American intelligence has something more current, like where his rotting body is buried!

[AntiGuv]

I've thought for a while that he probably "pilgrimaged" to Mecca in a burqa during the Hajj and is safely hidden away by his benefactors..

[nuconvert]

LOL

[First_Salute]

Beekeepers?

[Libertarianize the GOP]

I think I read almost the same story two years ago after we finished taking Afghanistan.

[sheik yerbouty]

Musharaf must answer for this...

[kcvl]

Apr 8, 1:26 PM EDT

Pakistan Prepares New Anti-Terror Move

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) -- Pakistani forces have drawn a bead on a cluster of remote hideouts along the Afghan border and promised Thursday to send thousands of soldiers in a fierce crackdown if tribesmen there do not hand over al-Qaida terrorists by April 20.

snip


This time, Pakistani forces have shifted their focus to North Waziristan, and more specifically to a group of mud compounds along a forbidding mountain range straddling the Afghan border in the forested area of Shawal.

"There are possibilities of an operation in Shawal," Brig. Mahmood Shah, chief of security for the tribal regions, told The Associated Press on Thursday from the northwestern city of Peshawar. He said some militants in Shawal appear to have escaped the earlier operation, 25 miles to the south. He gave no specifics.

"We have thousands of troops, not hundreds, but I can't give operational details," he said. Shah said intelligence indicated foreign terrorists had used Shawal in the past, and that troops also were concerned about militant activity in two other North Waziristan towns - Shakai and Hamrang, and the village of Makin in South Waziristan.

The government assault in March on al-Qaida suspects holed up in South Waziristan was costly, and failed to net any major terrorists. The military acknowledged it lost at least 50 men, and officials say privately the casualty toll might have been twice that. At least a dozen civilians were killed.

The government says a top al-Qaida militant, the Uzbek terror leader Tahir Yuldash, was injured but managed to escape, possibly through a 1.5-mile-long tunnel that led out of the siege site to a dry riverbed near the frontier. About 160 militants were arrested, and 63 killed. Hundreds escaped.

North and South Waziristan have long been suspected hideouts for al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden and his No. 2, Ayman al-Zawahri. Senior Pakistani officials initially thought they had al-Zawahri surrounded in March.

On Monday, more than 100 tribal elders met in Peshawar with the local governor, who set the April 20 deadline for turning over the militants to avoid military action. One tribe has formed a 600-member military unit to round up terrorists, though it is not clear how vigorously they will support the military.

Army spokesman Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan said Pakistani forces had given tribal elders a small window to cooperate, though he did not say specifically whether the army would wait until the deadline expired before taking action.

"At this moment we are focusing on the political process," Sultan told AP.

Some questioned the government's decision to set a deadline, saying it removed the element of surprise.

"Perhaps those who are handling operations against these terrorists are under the impression that they have encircled them and they have no way to escape," said Talat Masood, a Pakistani military analyst. "It may be true, but I think they are relying on a false presumption."

Shah said military action before the deadline was unlikely, but not out of the question.

"If we have credible intelligence (that terrorists are fleeing), we will go in," he told AP.

snip

Lt. Col. Michele DeWerth, a U.S. military spokesman in the Afghan capital, said U.S.-led troops were patrolling the border closely and would continue to conduct "parallel and complementary" operations on the Afghan side. She declined to give details.

The U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, caused an uproar this week when he said the American military would move forces into Pakistan if it failed to oust the terrorists itself.

Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf is a key U.S. ally, but he has refused to allow U.S. military forces to operate on his soil. Khalilzad later backed off the comments.

[marron]

I've thought for a while that he probably "pilgrimaged" to Mecca in a burqa during the Hajj and is safely hidden away by his benefactors..

This has been my half-serious prediction since 01, that he is sitting on his couch in a family villa overlooking the Red Sea, just over the border from Yemen. Watching egyptian soap operas, and boring the household staff with his war stories, and pronouncing daily fatwas against whoever annoys him lately, which his family's security staff make sure don't go anywhere.

[kcvl]

April 05, 2004


Pakistani troops close in on Osama?

Islamabad, April 5: Pakistani forces are closing in on a remote corner of rugged mountains and forest-clad gorges on the Afghan frontier where some people believe Osama bin Laden could be hiding.



The Shawal valley on the border in Pakistan's North Waziristan tribal area has long been a no-go area for Pakistani troops, where Pashtun tribes have ruled without interference for generations and fugitives have long found refuge.


A TRAP?

A government convoy was ambushed there last month, and two government men were killed, as troops battled up to 500 al-Qaeda fighters and their Pakistani tribal allies in South Waziristan, 50 km to the south.

Another Pakistani convoy moving towards Shawal was attacked at the weekend, apparently by Pakistani tribal fighters. There were no casualties.

As Pakistani forces hunt on their side of the border, US forces have mounted an operation on the Afghan side in what the Pentagon has called a "hammer and anvil" trap to catch bin Laden and his men.

Support from local tribespeople is likely to be as important as geography for anyone evading the sweeps, another Afghan expert said.

"There is another offensive on the way and it's a place that some of these people could have retreated to," said author Ahmad Rashid.

"They have clearly considerable support there among the tribesmen, despite government claims of having won over the maliks," he said, referring to tribal elders.

But there are doubts bin Laden and other al-Qaeda leaders such as his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri, would ever be caught in a trap in Shawal.

"They are not crazy, to stay there for so long. If they were there, they've gone since the start of these operations," said one journalist based in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar.

Yusufzai agrees that bin Laden and his men would probably slip out of any closing net.

"If they are there, they're going to keep ahead of those trying to catch them. I don't think they'll stay in a place that is the focus of some big manhunt," he said.

[milestogo]

The Gwadar port is financed by the PRC.

Foundation Stone of Pakistan's Gwadar Deep Sea Port Project Laid

[Montaignes Cat]

If he is alive and on the run, he is enjoying himself and living an enjoyable and fulfilling life. As a nomad he loves traveling in the dark of night. He only wishes it were by camel. All their fighters love what they are doing. Jihad is the only thing that gives their lives meaning.