Licensed to shoot Osama bin Laden
Former bodyguard carried 2 bullets to kill leader if about to be captured

June 5, 2005
1:00 a.m. EST
© 2005 WorldNetDaily.com
( underlines mine )

Osama bin Laden doesn't plan to be taken alive, according to one of his former personal bodyguards who told a London-based Arabic newspaper he had been authorized to kill the al-Qaida leader if it ever appeared he was about to be captured.

"I was the only member of his bodyguard who was given this authority," Abu Jindal, a 35-year-old Yemeni, who served in bin Laden's security entourage from 1995 to 2000, told al-Quds al-Arabi.

Jindal, whose real name is Nasir Ahmad Nasir al-Bahri, said threats on bin Laden's life were an ongoing concern then, before he became the target of U.S. wrath following the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. At least 3 assassination attempts occurred during the period of Jindal's service in Afghanistan.

In 1998, an 18-year-old Uzbek youth was recruited – presumably by the Saudis – to kill bin Laden, motivated by a promised bounty of over a half-million dollars and Saudi citizenship.

"He was only 18 and had been deceived," said Jindal. "He was crying in a very pathetic manner and said, 'I made a mistake.' Bin Laden reportedly had the failed hitman set free.

After a second attempt in Jalalabad, bin Laden and his family moved to the safer area of Kandahar in the south at the urging of Mullah Omar, leader of the Taliban. Thereafter, his entourage always included 14-16 bodyguards for protection. Jindal was the only one licensed to kill the al-Qaida head.

"I took care to keep the two bullets in good condition and cleaned them every night," Jindal said. ... "If enemy forces surrounded Sheikh Osama and there was no possibility that he would escape, I was to kill him before they could catch him alive."

The Saudi government repeatedly sought bin Laden's return, once flying his mother and half-brother to the Kandahar airport to coax him home. But he stayed beyond their grasp.

Jindal, who served a brief prison sentence before returning to his home in Yemen, remains under surveillance by intelligence services, reports the London Times.


Source: WorldNetDaily news article at http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=44600

CIA 'knows Bin Laden whereabouts'  

Monday, 20 June, 2005, 11:20 GMT 12:20 UK
BBC News
( underlines mine )

The US has offered $25m for Bin Laden's capture. The head of the US Central Intelligence Agency has said he has an "excellent idea" where Osama Bin Laden is hiding.  But CIA director Porter Goss did not say when the world's most wanted man would be caught, nor his location.

He told Time magazine there were "weak links" in the US-led war on terror. His remarks follow recent US criticism of Pakistan's role in hunting suspects.

Bin Laden, wanted for the 9/11 attacks, is widely believed to be in Pakistan's tribal region bordering Afghanistan.

He has eluded capture ever since the 11 September, 2001 airliner attacks in the United States for which al-Qaeda is blamed.

Thousands of US-led troops have been deployed to find the Saudi-born billionaire, who has a $25m bounty on his head.

'Sanctuaries'

Mr Goss said it was unlikely Bin Laden would be brought to justice until "we strengthen all the links" in the chain in the US-led hunt for terror suspects.

Quote:
 

"When you go to the very difficult question of dealing with sanctuaries in sovereign states, you're dealing with a problem of our sense of international obligation, fair play.

"We have to find a way to work in a conventional world in unconventional ways that are acceptable to the international community."

Asked if he had a good idea where Bin Laden is, he said: "I have an excellent idea of where he is. What's the next question?"

'Irresponsible'

The CIA chief did not mention Pakistan by name in his interview with Time.

But his comments come after a row between Islamabad and the departing US ambassador to Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, who has frequently accused Pakistan of sheltering terror suspects.

The US envoy was angered last week after Pakistani television station Geo interviewed a senior Taleban commander in Afghanistan, who said both Bin Laden and Taleban leader Mullah Omar were alive and well.

"If a TV station can get in touch with them, how can the intelligence service of a country which has nuclear bombs and a lot of security and military forces not find them?" asked Mr Khalilzad in an interview with an Afghan television station.

Pakistan's Foreign Ministry spokesman called Mr Khalilzad's remarks "irresponsible".

Pakistan was the main backer of Afghanistan's hardline former Taleban rulers until President Musharraf joined the war on terror in late 2001.

Hundreds of terror suspects, including a string of men alleged to be senior al-Qaeda figures, have been arrested in Pakistan since then.

'Intent high'

Mr Goss, a critic of the CIA's former tactics, said he was giving the agency a thorough shake-up, and it was doing a "pretty good job" staying ahead of al-Qaeda's capability.

On the possibility of more al-Qaeda attacks on US targets, he said: "Certainly the intent is very high."


Source:  BBC news article at
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/4110786.stm

Saturday, November 5, 2005 · Last updated 12:13 a.m. PT

Bin Laden publicly quiet for long time

By KATHERINE SHRADER
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER


WASHINGTON -- Osama bin Laden, known for his fiery public statements, has been publicly mum for the longest stretch since the suicide hijackings on Sept. 11, 2001.

That leaves U.S. counterterrorism experts questioning what, if anything, his silence means.

The al-Qaida chief with a $25 million U.S. bounty on his head issued two audio statements in December, his last known public words.

He was last seen on a videotaped message to Americans on Oct. 29, 2004, saying the United States could avoid another Sept. 11 attack if it stopped threatening the security of Muslims.

"Any state that does not mess with our security has naturally guaranteed its own security," bin Laden said in a translation of an address aired on the Al-Jazeera network discussing the 2004 presidential elections.

Since the 9/11 attacks, the longest bin Laden had gone without issuing a new public statement - audio or video - was just over nine months. He has now let 10 months pass.

Two U.S. counterterrorism officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the subject's sensitivity, said there is no evidence to suggest bin Laden is dead. The working assumption is that he is alive, even if he isn't churning out tapes.

Ben Venzke, chief executive at the IntelCenter, a government contractor that does support work for the intelligence community, said terrorism analysts are paying attention.

"This is the first time things have changed in years. Messages have generally come in a consistent pattern, and now they are not," Venzke said. "It is likely that these changes in messaging by al-Qaida are the result of planning and a PR strategy, as opposed to their computer broke."

Venzke noted it was also the first October since 2002 that bin Laden had not delivered a message addressed specifically to Americans.

The terror leader is believed to be hiding in a rugged area along Afghanistan's border with Pakistan, where the Pakistani government has little control and tribal loyalties run deep.

Venzke notes there could be a number of factors contributing to bin Laden's public silence. He may have decided to change the messenger. His deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri, has been much more vocal, issuing seven messages this year. In years past, he and bin Laden delivered roughly the same number of messages.

Or the earthquake in Pakistan could have inhibited bin Laden's ability to transmit messages. Or a tape could have been destroyed in the rubble. Yet, al-Zawahri has managed to send out a message since the earthquake, calling on Muslims to provide aid.

Bin Laden also could be plotting an attack on the United States and has made a strategic messaging decision to keep quiet in the lead-up to the attack, Venzke said.

In a recent interview, the head of the National Counterterrorism Center, retired Vice Adm. Scott Redd, said bin Laden can't communicate with his followers the way he had in the past.

"The more you communicate, the more you try to directly run an organization, the more vulnerable you are," Redd said. "And he is pretty deep in hiding. We know he is not communicating very much."

President Bush rarely mentions bin Laden, who has eluded U.S. capture despite being the most-sought terrorist in the world. Bush did mention him by name in a series of speeches focused on the war in terror last month.

Half of Americans think it's likely that the United States will capture or kill bin Laden, a number that has moved little over the last three years, according to a CNN-USA Today-Gallup poll.

Associated Press writer Will Lester contributed to this report.


Source: Seattle Post-Intelligencer online news article at
Seattlehttp://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1152AP_Quiet_Bin_Laden.html

The trouble with the so-called 'hunt' for Bin Laden is there are a ton of "I think" and "We believe" and "Quite possibly" statements and scenarios coming out of the D.C. proaganda machine with no real evidence to speak of.

Bin Laden Vows Never to Be Captured Alive

By STEVEN R. HURST, Associated Press Writer
Mon Feb 20, 12:33 PM ET
[ underlines mine ]

CAIRO, Egypt - Osama bin Laden vowed never to be captured alive and said the U.S. military had become as "barbaric" as Saddam Hussein in an audiotape reposted on a militant Islamic Web site after first being broadcast last month.

In the tape posted to the Web site Monday, bin Laden offered the United States a long-term truce but also said his al-Qaida terror network would soon launch a fresh attack on American soil. The tape was initially broadcast Jan. 19 on Al-Jazeera, the pan-Arab satellite channel.

Islamic militant Web forums often repost messages from al-Qaida leaders to ensure sympathizers can see them. U.S. intelligence officials confirmed that last month's tape was of bin Laden — making it his first message in more than a year.

"I have sworn to only live free. Even if I find bitter the taste of death, I don't want to die humiliated or deceived," bin Laden said, in the 11-minute, 26-second tape.

In drawing the comparison to American military behavior in Iraq to that of Saddam, he said:

"The jihad (holy war) is ongoing, thank God, despite all the oppressive measures adopted by the U.S. Army and its agents (which has reached) a point where there is no difference between this criminality and Saddam's criminality."

Bin Laden also denied Bush administration assertions that it was better to fight terrorists in Iraq than on U.S. soil.

"The reality shows that the war against America and its allies has not been limited to Iraq as he (Bush) claims. Iraq has become a point of attraction and restorer of (our) energies," he said.

The last audiotape purported to be from bin Laden was broadcast in December 2004 by Al-Jazeera. In that recording, he endorsed Abu-Musab al-Zarqawi as his deputy in Iraq and called for a boycott of Iraqi elections.

___

Associated Press reporter Omar Sinan contributed to this report


Source:  Yahoo! news article at http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060220/ap_on_re_mi_ea/bin_laden_tape

He could have been dressed as a Vacquero and marching in an illegal Mexican parade  

Ok, seriously now. I think that with the kind of technology we use daily we have always had his wherabouts pinpointed but for some great reason we don't act. This is just my guess, not a conspiracy theory  

Quote:


What's he been doing for the last seven years?  The only time he seemed to talk about Bin Laden the whole time is when he was campaigning for reelection or wanted to get his anti-terrorist legislation passed in Congress.  I hope he does hit one out this time but more than likely he will strike out again.  Granted that all the liberals out in left field have been giving him a hard time but now, at least to me, it appears that he is grandstanding to make himself look good for the sake of his legacy.  I am not looking forward to the next presidency at all but I'm not sorry that President Bush is in the twilight of his career either.  If McCain happens to win the election in November maybe he will step up to the plate and get the job done.