Glass
27th April 2011, 03:45 AM
I'm pleased to see the overall tone of the comments following this article. Basically most people commenting don't believe the offixial (c) story. I wonder what percentage of the general population these comment type of things represent. Assuming it could be measured I guess.
OSAMA BIN LADEN escaped US and British special forces closing in on his refuge in December 2001 with the help of a minor local warlord who provided fighters to guide him to safety in the north-east of Afghanistan, a secret intelligence report compiled by officials at Guantanamo Bay says.
The al-Qaeda leader's successful flight from Tora Bora has long been seen as one of the key early lapses of the international military effort in Afghanistan. Though various theories have been floated, no firm account of how Bin Laden evaded the coalition forces and their Afghan auxiliaries has yet emerged. However, the documents give new details about the escape of the world's most wanted man.
One document, an assessment compiled in August 2007 of a prisoner at the Guantanamo Bay jail called Harun Shirzad al-Afghani, says bin Laden escaped the dragnet around his mountain stronghold with the help of a local Pakistani militant commander and cleric called Maulawi Nur Muhammad.
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The document says Maulawi Nur Muhammad provided 40 or 50 fighters to escort bin Laden and his close associate Ayman al-Zawahiri to safety following a meeting with a senior al-Qaeda military field commander known as Abu Turab in mid-December 2001.
United States forces began their operation to capture or kill the mastermind of the September 11 attacks at the beginning of December 2001, about three weeks after capturing Kabul, the Afghan capital. More than 100 Western special forces soldiers backed by thousands of Afghans had closed in on their target after about 10 days of fighting.
Previously it had been thought that bin Laden escaped south from Tora Bora into Pakistan, evading a blocking force of Pakistani troops and paramilitaries sent to secure the frontier. However, at least two accounts from detainees and other intelligence collated by US officials appear to indicate that in fact the al-Qaeda leader and Zawahiri headed north, slipping through the lines of the coalition forces and their Afghan auxiliaries to the house of an Afghan sympathiser called Awal Malim Gul in or near the city of Jalalabad. They ''rested'' there before travelling further on horseback into the remote province of Kunar, where they were to remain for 10 months.
If true, the account is one of the most detailed to emerge so far of the movements of the al-Qaeda leadership in the aftermath of the 2001 campaign in Afghanistan.
Bin Laden appears to have left Tora Bora before this exodus in some haste. ''UBL [bin Laden] left his bodyguards in Tora Bora,'' one report says drily. Another says: ''UBL suddenly departed Tora Bora with a few individuals UBL selected.'' The al-Qaeda leader's family, based in Kandahar throughout the fighting in 2001, also escaped.
As with all the claims in the documents, independent corroboration is extremely difficult. Many appear highly speculative or based on hearsay.
Guardian News & Media
Read more and comments (http://www.theage.com.au/world/inmates-tell-how-bin-laden-escaped-dragnet-20110426-1dv5y.html#ixzz1Kid0KWoJ)
OSAMA BIN LADEN escaped US and British special forces closing in on his refuge in December 2001 with the help of a minor local warlord who provided fighters to guide him to safety in the north-east of Afghanistan, a secret intelligence report compiled by officials at Guantanamo Bay says.
The al-Qaeda leader's successful flight from Tora Bora has long been seen as one of the key early lapses of the international military effort in Afghanistan. Though various theories have been floated, no firm account of how Bin Laden evaded the coalition forces and their Afghan auxiliaries has yet emerged. However, the documents give new details about the escape of the world's most wanted man.
One document, an assessment compiled in August 2007 of a prisoner at the Guantanamo Bay jail called Harun Shirzad al-Afghani, says bin Laden escaped the dragnet around his mountain stronghold with the help of a local Pakistani militant commander and cleric called Maulawi Nur Muhammad.
Advertisement: Story continues below
The document says Maulawi Nur Muhammad provided 40 or 50 fighters to escort bin Laden and his close associate Ayman al-Zawahiri to safety following a meeting with a senior al-Qaeda military field commander known as Abu Turab in mid-December 2001.
United States forces began their operation to capture or kill the mastermind of the September 11 attacks at the beginning of December 2001, about three weeks after capturing Kabul, the Afghan capital. More than 100 Western special forces soldiers backed by thousands of Afghans had closed in on their target after about 10 days of fighting.
Previously it had been thought that bin Laden escaped south from Tora Bora into Pakistan, evading a blocking force of Pakistani troops and paramilitaries sent to secure the frontier. However, at least two accounts from detainees and other intelligence collated by US officials appear to indicate that in fact the al-Qaeda leader and Zawahiri headed north, slipping through the lines of the coalition forces and their Afghan auxiliaries to the house of an Afghan sympathiser called Awal Malim Gul in or near the city of Jalalabad. They ''rested'' there before travelling further on horseback into the remote province of Kunar, where they were to remain for 10 months.
If true, the account is one of the most detailed to emerge so far of the movements of the al-Qaeda leadership in the aftermath of the 2001 campaign in Afghanistan.
Bin Laden appears to have left Tora Bora before this exodus in some haste. ''UBL [bin Laden] left his bodyguards in Tora Bora,'' one report says drily. Another says: ''UBL suddenly departed Tora Bora with a few individuals UBL selected.'' The al-Qaeda leader's family, based in Kandahar throughout the fighting in 2001, also escaped.
As with all the claims in the documents, independent corroboration is extremely difficult. Many appear highly speculative or based on hearsay.
Guardian News & Media
Read more and comments (http://www.theage.com.au/world/inmates-tell-how-bin-laden-escaped-dragnet-20110426-1dv5y.html#ixzz1Kid0KWoJ)