-Caveat Lector- http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,2001570010-2001582540,00.html
WJPBR Email News List [EMAIL PROTECTED] Peace at any cost is a Prelude to War! Radio silence in bin Laden hunt BY DAMIAN WHITWORTH IN WASHINGTON AND RICHARD BEESTON DIPLOMATIC EDITOR THE United States admitted last night that the trail had gone cold in the hunt for Osama bin Laden and that it was unclear even if he was dead or alive. After pounding the mountains of Tora Bora for days in the belief that the terrorist mastermind was hiding there, the Pentagon said that intelligence “chatter” had gone quiet and that he may have escaped the area. A senior Pentagon official said that “anybody’s guess is the latest thinking” on bin Laden’s location. As the air assault on the area was scaled back and special forces joined Afghan fighters in moving from cave to cave in the White Mountains in search of final pockets of resistance, the fear was that bin Laden had escaped, possibly to Pakistan. “Indicators were there, and now indicators are not there. So maybe he still is here, maybe he was killed, or maybe he’s left,” Rear-Admiral John Stufflebeem, deputy director of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said. “A few days ago we believed that he was in that area. And now we’re not as sure. I’m not sure how close we ever really have been.” He likened the pursuit of fleeing al-Qaeda forces to “searching for fleas on a dog. If you see one and you focus on the one, you don’t know how many others are getting away.” Admiral Stufflebeem said that the US had received reports of al-Qaeda troops fleeing across the border into Pakistan and that while some had been detained by the Pakistani authorities, it was believed that others were “hiding out” in the area. There are concerns that elements in Pakistan sympathetic to bin Laden could provide him with shelter. Western intelligence sources are worried that he may try to escape from Pakistan back to Saudi Arabia, posing as one of the tens of thousands of pilgrims who begin the haj to Mecca next month. Although the pilgrimage does not begin until the end of February, the first of hundreds of charter flights carrying some 120,000 people will start leaving six cities in Pakistan in the middle of January. Security is generally lax and identifying bin Laden could be harder as pilgrims look much the same during the huge annual religious migration. Men usually wear identical white gowns and shave their heads. Bin Laden was stripped of his Saudi nationality a decade ago, but his extended family still lives in Jedda. Many of his al-Qaeda fighters come from Saudi Arabia, where some regard him as a national hero. In Afghanistan, coalition forces are preparing for a possible assault on mountains northwest of Kandahar, where Mullah Muhammad Omar, the Taleban’s spiritual leader, is thought to be hiding. *COPYRIGHT NOTICE** In accordance with Title 17 U. S. C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for nonprofit research and educational purposes only.[Ref. http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ] Want to be on our lists? Write at [EMAIL PROTECTED] for a menu of our lists! Write to same address to be off lists! <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substancenot soap-boxingplease! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright fraudsis used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html <A HREF="http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html";>Archives of [EMAIL PROTECTED]</A> http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ <A HREF="http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/";>ctrl</A> ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
