Osama Bin Laden - top of America's "Most Wanted"
list |
The latest
videotape in which al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden threatened the United
States has renewed speculation as to where he could be hiding.
Since the 11 September attacks, a number of video tapes, audio
recordings, faxes and other statements have been attributed to Bin Laden.
The latest tape was aired on Friday on the Arabic television station
al-Jazeera in which Bin Laden says the reasons behind the 9/11 attacks
were still present.
It is Bin Laden's clearest claim of responsibility yet for the attacks
and US officials have said they believe the tape is genuine.
The tape was delivered to the office of the Islamabad bureau of
al-Jazeera - an action that is likely to have embarrassed Pakistan's
leader, General Pervez Musharraf, one of the US's closes ally in the war
against terror.
The US has also thrown some of its best resources into hunting the
al-Qaeda leader, using satellite tracking systems and sophisticated spying
systems.
He is believed to be hiding in the remote tribal region along the
Pakistan-Afghanistan border along with his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri.
Pakistan has deployed tens of thousands of troops in the area and US
forces regularly carry out raids on the Afghan side of the border.
However the last reliable intelligence on the al-Qaeda leader appears
to be from November or December 2001 during the US-led bombing of
Afghanistan, when US forces apparently intercepted radio messages in which
he was directing troops from the mountainous region of Tora Bora.
In January 2004 al-Jazeera released an audio tape in which Bin
Laden talks about the capture of Saddam Hussein and attacks Arab states
for backing the US-led war on Iraq.
In September-October 2003 audio tapes are released by
al-Jazeera. In the tapes, Bin Laden praises the 11 September hijackers and
call for new attacks on America. The CIA confirms the tapes are "probably"
genuine.
In April 2003 an audio recording said to be of Bin Laden, in
which he calls for attacks on the governments of the Gulf states, is
released by the Associated Press news agency.
In March 2003 senior al-Qaeda leader Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is
arrested in Pakistan. Investigators believe he kept in contact with Bin
Laden through e-mails and hand-delivered messages.
In February 2003 an audio tape purporting to be by Bin Laden in
which he called for attacks on US and British targets if Iraq was to be
attacked was broadcast.
In November 2002 a tape surfaced on Arabic TV station
al-Jazeera. A speaker, which voice experts identified as belonging to Bin
Laden, referred to attacks in Bali, Yemen and the Moscow siege last
November, indicating he was alive at least until the end of the siege.
However Bin Laden's network suffered a blow in September 2002
when an alleged planner of the 11 September attacks, Ramzi Binalshibh, was
captured in the Pakistani city of Karachi.
For much of 2002, information and intelligence on Bin Laden grew
sparse, and it emerged in May that troops from the US-led coalition in
Afghanistan had begun collecting human DNA samples in the Afghan mountains
of Tora Bora to establish whether he had died there.
In April 2002 old clips of Bin Laden and some of his top aides,
were aired on al-Jazeera, along with footage of an 11 September hijackers
reading what appeared to be his suicide note.
Frustrated with the lack of progress, US officials admitted in
December 2001, three months after the 11 September attacks, that
they had no information on the al-Qaeda leader's whereabouts.
Al-Jazeera released more footage of Bin Laden, in which he refers to
the 11 September attacks, and the US Government warns that any foreign
country found harbouring the wanted Saudi dissident would suffer the
consequences.
In November 2001 a letter, alleged to be from Bin Laden, calls
on Muslims in Pakistan to stand up for Islam as the country supports the
US-led campaign against Afghanistan.
And in October 2001, Bin Laden warns in a statement - broadcast
on al-Jazeera two hours after the US-led coalition begins military strikes
against Afghanistan - that it will have no rest until the Middle East
conflict is resolved and US military bases in the region are shut down.
