Mid-East Realitieswww.middleeast.org

BIN LADEN LOCATED!?

September 22, 2001

MID-EAST REALITIES © - MER - www.MiddleEast.Org - Washington - 9/22: It's impossible to know what to believe at the moment. It's possible the U.S. and Britain have no real idea where bin Laden is but are leaking reports of this kind in papers tomorrow in Britain hoping to "smoke him out" from what could be a secretly secure location. It's also possible that someone somewhere is trying to collect a reward of $25 million, the highest in history. It's even possible the story is true (though not likely at this point we think). So many things are possible at the moment. The forces already unleashed in our world are going to be very difficult to predict and to control. Historical blowback with unforeseen consequences, indeed blowback of the kind that has already lead to recent events and to bin Laden himself, are sure to be ahead.

Whether or not they know where Osama bin Laden is, just what to do with him is not as simple a matter as it might seem. Taking him out might not be as easy, even for a superpower, as some might think. Of course they can do it - after all the Pentagon has already recommended tactical nukes might be needed to do the job. But at what cost now and in the future? Using brute force and creating a historic martyr for many in the Muslim and Arab worlds is also not such a simple matter. The legacy of Che Guevara remains alive in Cuba and Latin America. The legacy of Osama bin Laden will make Che pale in comparison. What is done, and how it is done, will have lasting historical consequences; and they may be more destructive and more odorous than anything we have yet experienced.

MI6 SPIES FIND EVIL BIN LADEN

By IAN KIRBY, Political Editor

[News of the World, UK, Sunday, 23 September 2001]: BRITISH intelligence agents have discovered the position of terror chief Osama bin Laden.

A specialist MI6 squad - some working undercover in Afghanistan - traced the Al-Queda leader to a desolate region close to the town of Jalalabad on the country's north-east border with Pakistan.

PM Tony Blair's official spokesman last night confirmed: "Bin Laden is in Afghanistan. We know he is there, put it that way."

When asked if Bin Laden's exact whereabouts had been identified, he insisted: "We know where he is."

A senior Ministry of Defence source confirmed that intelligence agents have been "actively pursuing" Osama bin Laden in the north of the country. He added: "They have been given good information and are following it up. I understand Britain is leading the search."

The vital new information was passed to Mr Blair by foreign policy adviser Sir David Manning and military adviser General Tony Piggott, as they flew to meet President George W Bush in Washington.

Sir David is chair of the Joint Intelligence Commitee, effectively head of MI5, MI6 and the other secret services. Mr Blair then passed on the information to Mr Bush as they dined in the White House on Thursday night.

The search for Bin Laden has been led by America's CIA using satellite technology.

But the remote passes of the Hindu Kush mountains, with their caves and underground passages, are almost impenetrable even to cameras in space.

The CIA have NO agents on the ground in Afghanistan. But MI6 HAS maintained a small but specialised team since 1999.

They are nicknamed The 'Golden Crescent Club' and work for the 'Global Issues Controllerate'. They are an elite unit of agents who usually investigate major drugs producers in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Turkey.

But immediately after the September 11 atrocity in New York they were contacted and given new orders. They are the closest thing the intelligence services have to James Bond. They are even licensed to kill - but only in self-defence.

Downing Street last night refused to deny that Bin Laden has been located.

But they said he is not yet under constant surveillance.

Armed with the news, Bush and Blair finalised the details of a search and destroy mission to take out Bin Laden and his terrorist organisation.

Meanwhile the US government has put an incredible £18 million reward on the head of Bin Laden and his gang - dead or alive.

Informants are even offered a place in the witness protection programme usually reserved for those who squeal on the Mafia and Cosa Nostra.
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Source: http://www.middleeast.org/articles/2001/9/402.htm