Posted on 08/11/2004 8:05:36 AM PDT by TexKat
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Osama bin Laden has called for attacks on targets in the United States and Britain, Pakistani intelligence sources said on Wednesday, but it was not clear if his appeal was accompanied by more detailed orders.
The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the subject, played down a report on Wednesday in the Washington Times that a tape from bin Laden may surface soon that would act as a signal for planned attacks to be launched.
The newspaper, citing U.S. intelligence officials, said al Qaeda would target an American or foreign leader either within the United States or abroad.
Pakistani intelligence agencies have been questioning key al Qaeda figures captured in the last month in a crackdown that has yielded a wealth of information about the network's personnel and plots to strike targets inside the country and abroad.
They include Tanzanian Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, wanted for the attacks on U.S. embassies in east Africa in 1998, Qari Saifullah Akhtar, a key al Qaeda operational chief in Pakistan, and computer engineer Mohammad Naeem Noor Khan.
"Osama has given the go ahead to target important places and personalities in the U.S., U.K. and Pakistan," one Pakistani intelligence source said.
Khan's laptop computer has proved a treasure trove of information on al Qaeda's plans to launch attacks, including in the United States and on Heathrow airport in London.
He was believed to have acted as a communications middleman between operatives in remote areas of Pakistan and those in Europe and the United States.
HIGH SECURITY
Despite claiming a major breakthrough in its war on al Qaeda and allied local militant groups, Pakistan is concerned that the crackdown resulting in the arrests of around 20 of the network's operatives will trigger a violent backlash.
Extra checkpoints have been set up in the capital Islamabad and several cabinet ministers have been told to restrict their movements. Pakistan celebrates independence day on Saturday.
Further details emerged on alleged contacts between Ghailani and bin Laden, believed by U.S. officials to be hiding somewhere along the rugged and porous Afghan-Pakistan frontier.
Some experts question how able bin Laden is to coordinate live operations, since he is unlikely to be using satellite communications and is on the run from tens of thousands of U.S. and Pakistan troops in the region.
Pakistani intelligence officials say Ghailani admits he saw bin Laden in 2002 and last had contact with him in June, 2003.
Ghailani was in Pakistan's South Waziristan tribal area in June, when Pakistani forces launched a major offensive on foreign militants and local tribal allies and he was forced to flee.
He went to Gujarat, a city 110 miles southeast of Islamabad, where he was captured by authorities last month after a fierce gunbattle.
The officials said Pakistan has learned Ghailani had been training suicide bombers in Gujarat for several weeks with a view to attacking the military airbase at Chaklala, near the capital, and Islamabad airport.
Khan has revealed that Abu Musa al-Hindi, known as Abu Eisa al-Hindi, an al Qaeda suspect seized by police in Britain earlier this month, was in charge of carrying out attacks on the United States and Britain.
"They selected many targets in these countries," said an intelligence official.
"They wanted to create chaotic conditions in the U.S. during the elections. They had planned a series of terrorist activities in the United States."
Acting on information gleaned from Khan and his computer, the United States issued a security warning of an al Qaeda attack on financial institutions.
The Washington Times said today that new al-Queda attacks starting with assinations would be triggered by an OBL statement.
I worrry that AQ, feeling the pressure from all the recent arrests and good intel on our part, may decide to go ahead with whatever plans they have beforre the whole house of cards comes tumbling down.
It is September 10th again...
Hopefully we will be prepared.
And if they do get through, God have mercy on them, because we won't.
We won't even if their attacks fail. It's the attempt that counts.
Hmmmm.
I call for an attack on Osama bin Laden.
My words are just as relevant as his, if not more, because he is nothing more than a terrified cockroach hiding under a rock these days.
Binny won't see the panic this time around no matter what he tries. Americans are way past that stage.
The jihadists have such nostalgia for the 7th century, cooking their food over camel shi'ite; I suggest that their societies be technologically reduced all the way back to the 7th century, though I would prefer the Azoic Era for them. If that is done, it will take centuries for them to get across the ocean again.
Rummy wanted to do that on Sept 12th.
We still haven't seen his smiling face for almost three years now.
I would love to believe that you're right on this!! BUT, I think that the traitorous libs will panic and blame it all on Bush. America has changed but the Dem leaders and media have made sure that it's for the worse.
Too bad he was on a tight leash. Rummy has great instincts.
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