He's Dead, Jim.
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| Terror Networks |
| Binny may no longer be in operational control of al-Qaeda |
| 2005-12-13 |
| Osama bin Laden has been forced to "hide so deep" that he is no longer in direct operational control of al-Qaeda militants, the US ambassador to Pakistan said yesterday. The comments by Ryan C. Crocker coincided with continuing speculation among intelligence analysts over how close the US and Pakistan is to finding the Saudi-born militant, the target of an aggressive hunt for more than seven years. These speculations were fuelled last week when General Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan's president, said he was "200 per cent" certain that Abu Hamza Rabia, the third senior most al-Qaeda figure after Mr bin Laden and Ayman Al Zawahiri, had been killed in an attack in a region near Afghanistan. The news of Mr Rabia's killing led to claims by Pakistani officials that they might be nearer to finding Mr bin Laden dead or alive. US officials have long said they believe Mr bin Laden, mastermind of the September 11 2001 attacks, has been hiding along the rugged Pakistan-Afghanistan border since US forces failed to capture him after invading Afghanistan in late 2001. Mr Crocker refused to discuss the operational details of any specific operation, including the one surrounding claims of Mr Rabia's killing, but said: "I really don't think that Osama bin Laden is any longer in operational control of al-Qaeda. He has had to hide so deep that he has been operationally cut off from his organisation." Pakistani security officials said Mr Crocker's remarks confirmed their own assessment that al-Qaeda was in disarray and only capable of carrying out operations with its members banded together in small groups. But European diplomats who routinely track terrorist movements warned that it was wrong to assume that an al-Qaeda in disarray was any less lethal than the group centrally controlled. "For long, intelligence services have assumed that al-Qaeda has the capacity to operate in small cells which are independently motivated and capable of carrying out attacks. You could argue, bin Laden's value has been more symbolic than real for some time," said one. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #2 Yeah, but he'll soon appear in a feature length film "Weekend at Binny's". |
| Posted by: DMFD 2005-12-13 20:36 |
| #1 He's Dead, Jim. |
| Posted by: doc 2005-12-13 07:30 |