Bin Laden Hideout Revealed By Man Who Delivered Groceries- Promised Al-Qa'ida's Wives If They Die

Times UK ^ | 11/29/01

[11th Earl of Mar]

From NICK PARKER
on the Afghanistan border

THE secret of Osama bin Laden's mountain hideout was revealed yesterday — by the man who delivers his groceries.

Trader Haji Jamal saw the terror chief last week when he delivered food to the remote cave complex by mule convoy.

He said bin Laden and his fanatical 400-strong bodyguard had set up an intricate supply-chain at the al-Qa'ida fortress village of Tora Bora, close to the Khyber Pass and the Pakistan border.

He told an undercover Afghan reporter: "I saw the sheik (bin Laden) after he returned from a short run to the Pakistani border."

Jamal would not say what was on the monster's shopping list, but said he took the order from military commander Anwar Gul. Gul is answerable to ageing warlord Younis Khalis, who first invited bin Laden into the area in 1996.

Grinning Jamal then admitted he would be delighted if the al-Qa'ida fighters kept their pledge to defend their master "to the last breath". He chuckled: "They have advised me that if they are killed I am authorised to take their wives. The ones I do not want I must give to my fellow tribesmen."

Sources in Jalalabad said yesterday that bin Laden led his men out of the city about two weeks ago to take refuge in the caves 35 miles south west. His retreat was said to have been so hurried that he left behind a fleet of trucks.

Tora Bora is made up of bunkers and ammunition depots surrounded by dense forests in the shadow of cave-riddled 13,000ft peaks.

With US help, the caves were expanded and cut more than 1,000ft into mountainsides at angles in the 1980s during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. They are now believed to have running water, electricity, and heating and ventilation systems — and have been described as "the last word in Nato engineering".

Years of blistering Soviet barages failed to smash the network of tunnels, and military strategists believe a bloody ground assault or a long siege may be needed to clear them now.

American bombers have already dropped GBU 28 "bunker-buster" bombs which burrow into rock before detonating a warhead packed with 1,000lbs of high explosive.

But Allied commanders fear they have only wrecked cave entrances, allowing bin Laden and his cronies to scurry from other exits.

The terrorists are also thought to have regularly set up decoy encampments to draw US fire.

Washington is now considering using giant "daisy cutter" bombs which ignite a cloud of fuel vapour, creating a fireball to suck oxygen from the caves — and suffocate anyone caught inside.

US General Tommy Franks, leading the Afghan operation, confirmed the search for bin Laden and Taliban chief Mullah Mohammed Omar was now centering on Tora Bora. Anti-Taliban leader Mohammed Zeman said he too was "90 per cent" sure bin Laden was there, riding horses in the mountains at night and sleeping during the day.

He said he met US officials to talk about bin Laden and al-Qa'ida — and added: "The only decision we made was to eliminate them."

Last night Pentagon spokesman Rear Admiral John Stufflebeem said bin Laden and the Taliban were losing control of their troops because of US attacks on communication systems.

He added: "In some cases they are severed from communicating by any means whatsoever. The effect of reducing and isolating the leadership is that troops under their control are not going to know what it is they should be doing."

[weikel]

We got the bastard now yes!!!

[wattsmag2]

Don't forget the pig's knuckles

[EggsAckley]

"They have advised me that if they are killed I am
authorised to take their wives. The ones I do not want
I must give to my fellow tribesmen."

Yeah, sure. LOL!

[Tai_Chung]

Click Here for graphic of hideout.

Notice they even have the secret door listed. Don't tell anyone about the secret door. It's a secret.

[oc-flyfish]

I would suspect that the ventilation shafts would be apparent in the evening with thermal detection. That would be the best method of "smoking them out" if you get my drift.

[Tai_Chung]

The whole complex is powered by hydroelectric power which apparently even works during a 5-year drought.

[coloradan]

Washington is now considering using giant "daisy cutter" bombs which ignite a cloud of fuel vapour, creating a fireball to suck oxygen from the caves — and suffocate anyone caught inside.

Daisy cutters are conventionally explosive, not fuel-air.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Khyber Pass ?

[MaxwellWolf]

A neutron bomb of course can clean out all cockroaches very easily.

[NeoCaveman]

You get wives for delivering groceries, I wonder what they guy who mows the lawn gets. LOL

[TheUglyAmerican]

NOW - LET'S ROLL!

[babygene]

That's not necessarly so. With a properly designed counter-flow heat exchanger, the exit air tem. could be controled.

[ppaul]

.....bombs which ignite a cloud of fuel vapour, creating a fireball to suck oxygen from the caves — and suffocate anyone caught inside.

Send 'em up in a fireball of flaming bacon grease!
(fuel-air mixture exploding missile packed with lard and bacon drippings)

Fatwaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh!

"The Taliban are about to take a pounding" - Britain's Tony Blair

:

[Vinomori]

Why don't we just cut off the groceries?

[NewAmsterdam]

Ever heard of desinformation and propaganda? This is a classic British secret service planted story. In fact, it was published yesterday in The Telegraph as an 'exclusive' story; an Afghan journalist had risked his life and went up to Tora Bora where he gathered all this 'information' only to return unharmed to tell the Telegraph journo. And now this: it appears in The Times as well. Same story, same bollocks. Don't believe a word of it.

[GraniteStateConservative]

This all sounds like something from a Bond-send-up like Austin Powers. Maybe bin Laden has a "Mini-Me", too, and he strokes a cat or small dog in his lap while he plots in his evil lair...

[Kozak]

Why not just pump bacon grease and pig Sh#t down the ventilation shafts? That would get them out into the open.

[I got the rope]

I was thinking the same thing. I think our government was also thinking that we would starve them out when Rumsfeld said it might take years to get him.

[11th Earl of Mar]

My mistake. The source is The Sun, not the Times. Oops.

[1Old Pro]

Don't believe a word of it.

I don't.

[cake_crumb]

"This all sounds like something from a Bond-send-up like Austin Powers. Maybe bin Laden has a "Mini-Me", too, and he strokes a cat or small dog in his lap while he plots in his evil lair..."

Will my comment offend anyone if I suggest that a cat or a dog on his lap is not the thing bin Laden is stroking while plotting?

Seriously, I really doubt that this story is true. I don't doubt that bin Laden could be hiding there, but...c'mon...the guy who delivers his groceries can see bin Laden when we can't?

Hey, it'd cost a lot, but I have an idea for a fuel-air explosive with poetic justice to boot: fully feuled drone rammed down a vent.

[blastdad51]

It occurs to me that if we helped build these caves , we should know exactly where they are! We should also have a pretty good idea where the inlets for the ventilation systems are and the water supply for the hydro-electric power. Surround them, cut off air,water and food and it won't be too long before thier ugly heads are popping up, then smoke-em. The media has fed us steady tale of woe about how tough this war is going to be with these stone-age bastards. It hasn't played out and I can't see getting them out of these caves should be all that hard either.

[Lady Jag]

I'm sorry, but if I had a top secret hide-out, I would NOT be having groceries delivered.

[rushtafarian]

New wrote:

"...Don't believe a word of it...."

I tend to agree with you. They can have all the underground power generation they want. The heat has to go somewhere. The air has to vent somewhere. I don't believe they can be so self-contained that they don't vent something somewhere. If we can see golfball lying on the ground from space and read the brand name on it, don't tell me we can't find the vent pipes, heat signature, or the trace odor of a f#rt from space.

I could be wrong!

God bless the true patriot.

rushtafarian

[jrlc]

Did the Journalist see Chubbie Chelsea among the wives. Little Katie Communist on the NBC Today show interviewed Hillary this morning and mom is worried sick about Chelsea. She was last seen in Kandahar at a Starbucks. But now, as Little Katie Communist sighed, "Who Knows?" Even British disinformation planted reports such as this grocery crap will be useful. Anyone with information about Chubbie Chelsea's whereabouts should post it now. Mom wants to know her daughter is out of harms way. Mom also wants to be at the center of the story.

[FReepaholic]

Surround the place and STARVE THEM OUT!!!

[Hildy]

What an odd Taliban tradition...GIVING YOUR WIFE AS A TIP. Yikes.

[Marysecretary]

Gee, why don't we tell bin Laden EVERYTHING? Seems to me that telling bin Laden we know where he is is NOT the smartest thing we could do. Cheez.

[Alas]

Washington is now considering using giant "daisy cutter" bombs which ignite a cloud of fuel vapour, creating a fireball to suck oxygen from the caves — and suffocate anyone caught inside.

Drop the bomb and send them straight to allah.

Nukem

[AppyPappy]

I wonder if a herd of pigs would fit down that shaft.

[concerned about politics]

Your picture looks like Reno after the Branch Dividians.

[TADSLOS]

Forget the wives and go for the 25 million.

[tom paine 2]

bump

[steve-b]

Jamal would not say what was on the monster's shopping list

If he's holed up in a cave, I'd recommend plenty of Beano.

[Maceman]

I'm sorry, but if I had a top secret hide-out, I would NOT be having groceries delivered.

What WOULD you do? Bin Laden is not calling up his local Stop & Shop and placing phone orders. He is not buying on-line from Peapod.com (if they're still around).

He has (correction, had) close relationships with local people who either grow or sell food and who would bring it to the complex. Obviously, the food needs to be physically brought in to the complex somehow. I don't think bin Laden has transporter-beam technology that could just zap the food into his lair a la Star Trek.

[Texas Mom]

Washington is now considering using giant "daisy cutter" bombs which ignite a cloud of fuel vapour, creating a fireball to suck oxygen from the caves — and suffocate anyone caught inside.

This works for me.

[Question_Assumptions]

Send a little herd of Vietnamese pot-bellied pigs into the cave network. They are fast, smart, omnivorous, and unclean even if they are killed. And I'm sure that Al Qa'ida guys won't want to die in a cave full of pigs, dead or alive.