Posted on 12/07/2001 2:57:53 AM PST by Israel
Friday, December 7, 2001
FROM DEBKA INTELLIGENCE FILES
Two pieces of fresh and definitive nuclear intelligence have U.S. Special Forces frantically searching the Tora Bora cave complex of east Afghanistan and triggered a major terror alert inside the United States, the third since the attack on New York and the Pentagon. In Afghanistan, the U.S. military -- combing through the Tora Bora mountain cave complex 300 miles northeast of Kandahar for Osama bin Laden, his top lieutenant, Ayman al-Zawahiri, and 1,000 al-Qaida fighters -- were ordered to switch their priorities around. Their top objective now is to locate al-Qaida's weapons of mass destruction -- including nuclear devices -- in a desperate race against the clock. According to intelligence sources, some 3,000 special forces commandos from the United States, Britain, Germany and Russia are currently scouring the cave warren of Tora Bora -- which means black dust -- for suspected weapons stores. The special forces personnel operating in the region are attired in protective suits and carry equipment to counter threats from radiation and biological or chemical agents. It has been declared a no-go zone for journalists -- even those attached to the U.S. military. A senior U.S. intelligence source familiar with the Tora Bora operation said the target area from Jalalabad to the Marines' Reno base south of Kandahar, has been cleansed of all cameras and media correspondents. The images appearing on television screens of summer-like conditions at Tora Bora come from archived footage. At present, the edges of the area north of Kandahar are dusted with snow, and winter is raging in north, northwest and western Afghanistan, encumbering U.S. intelligence-gathering and air operations. The latest intelligence reports in U.S. hands claim that al-Qaida chiefs removed their nuclear, biological and chemical weapons arsenal from secret hideouts in Kabul to Tora Bora six days in advance of the Sept. 11 attacks in New York and Washington. That information persuaded Russian, Pakistani and Northern Alliance intelligence that bin Laden and al-Zawahiri went somewhere else, anxious to remove themselves from harm's way anywhere near a site where weapons of mass-destruction might explode. Military sources report that because of the bad weather, sorties by drones and B-52 bombers and F-18 warplanes over Tora Bora and territory south of Jalalabad are intermittent. U.S. air operations are also disrupted in such areas as Paktia and Lugar in the southeast. A further downturn is forecast by meteorologists in the days to come, with heavy snowstorms threatening Jalalabad in the east. Those forecasts persuaded President Bush, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and U.S. military chiefs that no time must be lost in the search for al-Qaida's nuclear weapons -- particularly in view of the second piece of alarming intelligence reaching Washington Nov. 27, primarily from Pakistan. Bin Laden and his partner, al-Zawahiri, are now reported to be planning to take advantage of the slowdown in U.S. air activity forced by the inclement weather to complete their preparations for massive pre-Christmas terrorist strikes in the United States, including a possible nuclear or radiological weapon attack. The target period referred to was between Dec. 5 and Dec. 20. Al-Qaida's operational teams were described as standing by at the various departure points, some waiting only for the delivery of explosives, others just for their last order to go. Bush dispatched CIA Chief George Tenet urgently to Islamabad to establish the credibility of this intelligence data with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and the heads of Pakistan's Inter-Service Intelligence service. According to sources, Musharraf showed Tenet documents and first-hand witness accounts collected in the past two weeks by Pakistani military intelligence officers who had discovered and entered underground stores around Kabul, in which high levels of nuclear radiation were detected. The Pakistani agents also spent large sums of money to buy from Kabul locals descriptions of the men in charge of the stores and anything they may have picked up about the type of goods cached there. They came up with a description of dark-colored, cone-shaped, ultra-heavy containers, about 4 feet long, which they were given to understand were radioactive. The guards, identified as a special al-Qaida unit of foreigners, Egyptians, Saudis and Chechens, spoke to no one. Their commanders communicated directly with bin Laden and al-Zawahiri. According to sources in Islamabad, Musharraf advised the CIA director to go to Kabul himself and verify the information firsthand. They report that Tenet took this advice and paid a secret visit to the Afghan capital Sunday, Dec. 2, under the protection of U.S. and Russian special forces units. With the help of interpreters, he and his assistants interrogated the Pakistani agents' sources directly. After six hours in Kabul, Tenet called the White House to confirm the Pakistan report, adding that it tied in with previous intelligence attesting to nuclear activity in the Tora Bora complex. Washington's order to switch the objectives of the Tora Bora offensive went out accordingly at the beginning of the week. A nuclear terror alert was declared in the United States Dec. 4. American armed forces in Afghanistan are in a race against the weather, too. The heavy snows expected around Dec. 10 to 12 will make their task almost impossible, forcing them to wait for the spring thaw. If Tora Bora is left in Taliban and al-Qaida hands, it would serve as a forward base for guerrilla forays to harass U.S. forces at Kandahar and Jalalabad and loosen their grip. Bin Laden and al-Zawahiri would win a breather of five long months safe from large-scale U.S. assault.
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Then why is Geraldo there? Another little detail that calls into question the veracity of the latest Debka article...
Shouldn't you have been a member for more than one whole day before you release such a diatribe against your fellow Freepers?
Civility and maturity are honored character traits for a reason.
Funny, the Weather Channel forecast for Kabul shows no inclement weather through December 13th. Granted, it can be different weather in the mountains, but one would expect at least some of the bad weather to drift into Kabul...
Gee, WeatherUnderground has a 2-day forecast for cities throughout Afghanistan, and I can't see a lick of winter weather anywhere. I call up a map of current conditions and all it shows is some rain in the far northeast part of the country. Herat and Farah, in the western part of the country where the winter weather is supposedly raging, show partly cloudy skies with projected highs from 55 to 65 degrees. So why is Debka lying about the weather?
Tigerclaw, you asked what qualifications I had to question Debka. You busted me, I guess - I an just a weather weenie who relies on the Weather Channel and WeatherUnderground websites to research Debka's claims. All I can do is call up a .pdf from WeatherUnderground that shows no sign of winter weather raging anywhere in the country, despite Debka's claims.
and here's the forecast map:
Where's the raging winter weather????
Note to people coming to this thread after 12/7 - these maps will change over time, as the link is to the Weather Channel site, which will update these maps. At the time I posted this, there was no winter weather present.
This should be the final nail in the coffin of Debka's credibility. THEY ARE FRIGGIN' LYING ABOUT THE WEATHER. A simple check of internet weather sites shows the current weather in Afghanistan is pretty good for this time of year, and there is little to no precipitation and little cloud cover. WHY ARE THEY LYING? WHY ARE THEY LYING?
Next DEBKA will say that they were talking about the other Afghanistan, you know, the one up where it's snowing.
Now, the scale of this map is much broader, but you can still see that the current snow showers in mountains my home state of Colorado show up as a light purple color. Purple indicates precipitation. Yet, on the Afghanistan map, which is zoomed in more that the United States map, we see very little purple, and none in the areas where Debka claims that winter weather is currently raging - so that indicates that there are no mountain snows going on there like we currently have in Colorado. Once again, why is Debka lying about something so simple as the weather? Could it be that the urgency of their story falls apart without bad weather?
You know where you are with a complete liar, but when a chap mixes some truth with his yarns, you can’t trust a word he says.
-- Joyce Cary, The Horse's Mouth.
Granted, it is cold in the mountains. But no colder than the Rockies or the White Mountains up in New Hampshire.
That's quite different from being hysterical and irrational.
To be hysterical and irrational, he would have to not offer any information, nor any rational objections or data, and rely instead on insults and wild eye'd frothing at the mouth.
Like you did in your post.
Please explain how posting weather maps of Afghanistan that show no winter weather is hysterical and irrational. By your asinine comments here, you reveal that you have no interest in the truth when it inconveniences your beliefs...
Actually, for the most part I find winter in the Colorado Rockies far more comfortable than winter in Philadelphia - and I live in the mountains. It can be 20 degrees but I'm running around in a flannel shirt because the air is dry - not that miserable dank cold one gets back east...
Look, DEBKA is lying. LYING. There is no winter weather raging in Afghanistan. Why do they need to lie? Do you think Debka has a shred of credibility left? If they lie about something as mundate as the weather, why should we believe anything else they say?
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