http://www.pakobserver.net/200912/05/news/topstories03.asp
Taliban detainee claims Bin Laden alive Islamabad-A Taliban detainee in Pakistan has claimed that Osama Bin Laden is alive and was seen in Afghanistan early this year. The detainee claims to have met Osama Bin Laden numerous times before 9/11, when the world's most wanted man had not achieved this status. The reported claim cold not be verified, but experts believe his account should be investigated, BBC reported Friday. The detainee, who is not named in the report "for legal reasons", said that earlier this year he met a trusted contact who had seen Bin Laden 15 to 20 days earlier across the border in Afghanistan. "In 2009, in January or February I met this friend of mine. He said he had come from meeting Sheikh Osama, and he could arrange for me to meet him," he said. According to the detainee, his contact is a Mehsud tribesman, responsible for getting al-Qaeda operatives based abroad to meetings with Bin Laden. "He helps al-Qaeda people coming from other countries to get to the Sheikh (OBL), so he can advise them on whatever they are planning for Europe or other places. "The sheikh doesn't stay in any one place. That guy came from Ghazni, so I think that's where the sheikh was." The province of Ghazni in eastern Afghanistan has an increasingly strong Taliban presence. Large parts of the province are no-go areas for coalition and Afghan forces. The detainee said that militants were avoiding Pakistani territory because of the risk of US drone attacks. "Pakistan at this time is not convenient for us to stay in because a lot of our senior people are being martyred in drone attacks," he said. According to a Pakistani security official he has close ties with leaders of the Taliban in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and was involved in kidnapping and fundraising operations. The report said, BBC was twice given access to OBL in the past month. "A Pakistani interrogator was listening in as he spoke," the report said. Though the US and Britain are stressing OBL is hiding somewhere at the western border between Pakistan and Afghanistan, and the detainee's claim suits Pakistan's position on the subject, a leading US expert, former CIA analyst Bruce Riedel, said "his story is plausible and should be investigated." "The entire Western intelligence community, CIA and M16, have been looking for Osama Bin Laden for the last seven years and haven't come upon a source of information like this," he said. "So if it's true - a big if - this is an extraordinary and important story. "We know Osama Bin Laden is alive. We know that he is living somewhere in the badlands along the border with Pakistan and Afghanistan. "What is extraordinary about this story is we have someone who has come forward and said, really for the first time, 'I met with Osama Bin Laden and I had the opportunity to met him again in the recent past'." Bruce Riedel said his story is a very important lead which ought to be tracked down.-INP [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
