Posted on 08/13/2004 12:40:09 PM PDT by QQQQQ
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat said on Friday that al-Qaeda had been seriously weakened by the current roundup of arrests of key operatives and was "in the process of dismantling."
"The noose around Al-Qaeda is tightening. But it does not mean we are close to capturing Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri," Hayat was quoted as saying in an interview.
"We have no accurate information on the location of bin Laden. No one knows with any sort of accuracy about the whereabouts of Osama or al-Zawahiri."
He said none of the intelligence gathered in the current crackdown pointed to any particular location of the elusive terror network chief.
"He could be anywhere," the minister said.
Bin Laden and Zawahiri, his Egyptian deputy, are believed to be hiding in the mountains straddling the porous 2,450 km border between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
There has been no confirmed sighting of them since the December 2001 US-led assault on the Tora Bora mountains on the Afghan side of the border.
Intelligence officials in Pakistan believe bin Laden is still alive, but say they have no clear information on his whereabouts.
In the past month, Pakistani agencies have penetrated a major Al-Qaeda wing, capturing more than 20 al-Qaeda suspects, including a gallery of top operatives who were in the throes of plotting fresh terror strikes in Britain, Pakistan and the United States. "We have been able to arrest quite a number of them, around two dozen since July," Hayat said.
"We have captured some key figures who have a wealth of information. As a result of that our security forces are going after the others."
US press would never use this title, because it would show Bush is succeeding in the War on Terror.
Thanks for posting this...the relief should be temporary I think...I would not sit back and think that the aggressive violent branch oif Islam will be going away soon.
Islam's aka Al Quaeda long range plan is to take over the "non believers" one way or another.
Bin Laden is in Florida... And one of Bush's hurricanes is coming to get him.
You're right.
But just wait. If by some stroke of luck Kerry becomes president (shudder), EVERY little story about Al Qaeda captures and intelligence with give Kerry the credit.
And the mainstream press will be falling all over itself with praise for Kerry's FOREIGN policy!
LOL!
Good point, it should have been reported by the US media. But please note that the countries making these representations do not have freedom of expression and have a history of making overstatements. And that given their own instability, they have a vested interest in making the reports sound very successful.
I'd laugh with you if it were not the truth, that's the sad thing.
"I'd laugh with you if it were not the truth, that's the sad thing."
Believe me. It's a 'nervous' laugh!
Good news...man, it would sure be grrrrrrrrate if we could catch OBL! Now that would make W's year...and everybody else's LOL! That and a nice fat cache of WMD before November...
Pakistan will never willingly capture bin Laden. The minute we get him, our interest in Pakistan evaporates, and they lose the gravy train.
India is a democracy and not too friendly to Pakistan, and they are reporting on the Pakistani successes.
If it weren't for President Bush, Pakistan would be supporting the Taliban, not hunting down Al Qaeda, as they are doing it now.
...until the next Al Qaeda attack on American soil (shudder!). THAT the mainstream media will blame on Bush (even after he leaves office, whenever that is).
The number of publicly available stories I come across (from the wide variety of public press) almost every day, have the same information. More Al Quaeda personnel killed or captured, etcetera, etcetera. I don't post these every day for the Freepers out there because there are way too many and it would become extremely monotonous. We are in the process of hunting down and crushing this organization. It is being melted down and torn apart (new "copy cat" impossible to trace organizations excepted).
Bush is doing an excellent job and terrorists clearly want Kerry to win. For that reason, I never really believed that the Democratic convention would be threatened by Al Qaeda. I do have a hunch they are working over time to get Bush and try to make a point with the Republican convention. The security situation in New York should be multiplied by a factor of ten thousand, due to the incontrovertible fact that Bush is hitting these terrorists extremely hard and they want to make a point by trying to disrupt/harm the Republicans. I have a hunch they will try to go after the Republicans at the convention in new York. I don't think that the security was necessary in Boston, as the liberal Democrats are the # 1 people of choice for the terrorists (They have no reason at all to target most Democrats, honestly).
I think we are going to need about 100,000 well-trained men on the security detachment in New York and have the situation under complete lock down with every square inch of territory, every building, every floor, every garage, covered by bomb-sniffing dogs, x-ray truck scanners, sniper/observer teams, special ops teams, the works, before during and immediately after the convention.
The terrorists want Bush and all the pro-American patriots to die, Kerry and the liberal Democrats to win the elections and ultimately for the liberals to cave in to terrorism.
I am voting for Bush, and I hope we keep the terrorists very much off balance and eventually annihilated to the last man.
Now is not the time for us to have a "softer, gentler" approach to terrorism. Bush is on the right track, and he needs to be kept safe and sound. The bad guys are on the run, but lurking also. Need to keep our guard up, there's no predicting what a desperate terrorist will do.
I agree with you completely.
I hope we will be vigilant and lucky and pre-empt any attack.
I did read that AQ wants to assassinate President Bush, also that they are preparing for a September attack -- and I also read that Bush is giving his speech at the RNC on Sept. 2, at Madison Square Gardens.
He can use all our prayers. I also hope that all law enforcement and everyone else will indeed be extremely vigilant.
Yes. The U.S. press doesn't like the Musharref/U.S. alliance and they especially don't want them to succeed.
What? Pakistan has been doing a good job against Al Qaeda, yet they don't want to catch OBL??
The minute we get him, our interest in Pakistan evaporates, and they lose the gravy train.
What? We would have no interest in Pakistan once OBL is captured?
A stabilized Pakistan is once of our most important concerns, OBL or no OBL. It is 97% Muslim. It's a nuclear power.
Pakistan will be an interest of ours for along time even after OBL is captured.
The correct translation is "CONVERT or DIE".
Yes, Pakistan will remain a vital strategic interest indefinitely.
1) We will need their sustained, follow-on support for the long haul (50-100+ years) in denying terrorists territory ("terrortory"?) in which to operate, recruit, plan, resupply, etc;
2) we can not tolerate their nuclear weapons falling into the hands of terrorists via legal means (a change in government to a pro-Al Qaeda government, this is not far-fetched and will always be a possibility) or illegal means (theft, etc);
3) We can not allow for Pakistan and India to ever have a nuclear exchange. There are some underlying issues that need to be resolved, or kept a tight lid on, to prevent a wider conventional or nuclear exchange. So far, so good.
We have an interest in the political and military stability in that region, and will continue to do so indefinitely.
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