How about a little hog with wings...
Posted on 04/18/2002 2:49:10 AM PDT by prisoner6
| The hunt for the world’s most wanted man goes on and it seems clues and speculations regarding his whereabouts still have not led the CIA to locate the Saudi fugitive and Al Qaeda leader. A self-described chef for Osama bin Laden, who has been captured by tribesmen in Afghanistan, says that his boss, after leaving Afghanistan for Pakistan, has since entered into Iran, according to a recent report in the Christian Science Monitor. Saudi Haji Mohamad Akram, suffering from torture by his captors, provided details regarding the battle at Tora Bora, of bin Laden's moves in November and December, and even of Osama’s favorite foods... "There isn't any doubt in my mind but that the porous border between Iran and Afghanistan has been used for Al Qaeda and Taliban to move into Iran," Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld recently told "ABC This Week". "We have any number of reports that Iran has been permissive and allowed transit through their country of Al Qaeda." The Saudi chef says he was betrayed by his aids and now says he is willing to provide investigators with leads as to the whereabouts of top Al Qaeda leaders. Meanwhile, he states, "Osama's favorite meal is fowl, anything with wings". "He likes quails, and if he can't get his hands on one, he will settle for a chicken. Most of the quails he ate, we hunted. Others were brought in by road from Iran. Osama often made special requests for the mutton and yogurt Mogul dish that I do best." Osama’s favorite chef added, regarding his former boss, "He is very loyal to his closest friends. He had some very good Pakistani friends, including those working in the field of atomic energy." In November, as US air raids were attacking the Taliban frontline positions, bin Laden was still in Jalalabad, Akram says. "Three days before we left Jalalabad for Tora Bora, bin Laden and his top aides met Pashtun tribal leaders, many of them from Pakistan," Akram adds. "The meeting was on Osama's invitation. I was out at the gate when the tribal chiefs arrived, and the sheikh [bin Laden] gave them money." "On the third night, we all left the city and traveled to Tora Bora. I was in the third to last car, and there was a storm of dust in front of us. All of the important leaders were in that convoy, including bin Laden and the Egyptian doctor, [Ayman] Al Zawahiri." "The plan had been to defend Tora Bora to our deaths. We had thousands of men there. The sheikh himself divided us into the caves and said, ‘This is your position, and that is your's.’ Then he went to his own big cave. He spoke on satellite phone to his friends in the first few days." Sometime near the end of November or the beginning of December, Akram says he was cooking in his cave while a bomb exploded at the base and blew him back. Two of his comrades were killed in the explosion. After that, he says, he decided to flee with two other survivors. "Osama had three offers of escape," he says. "One from Iraq, one from Iran, and another from some mafia types.... We received a lot of Iranian currency, and the commanders distributed it to the soldiers," he says, adding that he received 700,000 rials ($1,400) for his own personal use." The Saudi cook believes that bin Laden planned to go through Iran and then eventually end up in Azerbaijan or possibly Chechnya. A US State Department official said that he has not "seen any evidence that [bin Laden] is in Iran. I can't corroborate that." Akram says bin Laden left about the same time he did, and that several other Al Qaeda leaders said they were heading to Iran. "Our own Chechens were killing people who tried to leave, so we left at night and traveled into Paktia near to Gardez and onto Zarmat," he says. "Everybody said it was best to head to Iran, but I was not very keen on the idea”. "I got into an argument here around Ghazni," he says. "My comrades wanted to go to Iran, but I was in favor of hiding here. One day when I was praying, they drove off in the pickup truck and left me behind." |
Maybe several grains.
prisoner6
"OK Osama, time to kick it up a notch, "BAM""
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