US sends spies into Pakistan to kill bin Laden
Pastor Dale Morgan
US sends spies into Pakistan to kill bin Laden*
By Toby Harnden in Washington and Thomas Coghlan in Helmand
Last Updated: 9:07am GMT 09/03/2007
America is stepping up its hunt for Osama bin Laden by dispatching
additional CIA operatives and paramilitary officers to Pakistan to kill
or capture the al-Qa'eda leader.
Osama Bin Laden has evaded capture and assassination
Osama bin Laden is believed to be hiding in the Pakistani region
bordering Afghanistan
US officials said that the mission is intended to intensify the pressure
on the terrorist leader, who turns 50 tomorrow, and perhaps force him
into making a mistake. He is widely believed to be hiding in the region
bordering Afghanistan.
Satellite photographs and details of communications intercepts were
given to President Musharraf of Pakistan last week by Stephen Kappes,
deputy director of the CIA, as part of a strategy to persuade him to
give US intelligence agencies more assistance.
Mr Kappes, a Middle East specialist who has served in Pakistan,
travelled to Islamabad to brief Gen Musharraf along with Vice President
Dick Cheney. His detailed presentation showed evidence of al-Qa'eda
building its strength on Pakistani soil.
"Reports that the trail has gone stone cold are not correct," an
American official said afterwards. "We are very much increasing our
efforts there."
Mr Kappes also met members of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence
agency (ISI) and operatives from the CIA's Islamabad station to discuss
co-ordinating efforts to track bin Laden.
The decision to send such a senior intelligence officer to brief Mr
Musharraf is an indication of the Bush administration's increasing
concern about the borderlands between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Last week, Adml Mike McConnell, the new US Director of National
Intelligence, told a Senate committee that bin Laden, who turns 50
tomorrow, is in Pakistan and actively re-establishing al-Qa'eda training
camps there.
It was the most specific information about bin Laden given by a US
official for several years and prompted speculation that surveillance
photographs of the al-Qa'eda leader or his deputy might have been obtained.
Adml McConnell said of the Pakistani tribal area that "to the best of
our knowledge the senior leadership, Number One and Number Two, are
there, and they are attempting to re-establish and rebuild and to
establish training camps."
Intelligence officials have indicated that bin Laden has previously
chosen March to switch locations, moving to hiding places in the
mountains once the snow cover begins to melt. He is likely to be at his
most vulnerable when on the move.
Adml McConnell said he would focus with "great intensity" on al-Qa'eda
in Pakistan. "There are a number of plans and activities that have been
shut down or disrupted. And the intent on our part is to do that more
and better, and hopefully at some point either killing or capturing the
senior leadership."
News of the operation came as a British soldier was killed in a grenade
attack on his base in southern Afghanistan - the 52nd to die in service
in the country since the US-led invasion in 2001.
The Ministry of Defence said that the serviceman, from 29 Commando
Regiment Royal Artillery, died from his wounds after being airlifted
from the town of Sangeen to the military hospital at Camp Bastion, the
main British base in Helmand province. His next of kin were notified but
he is yet to be named by the MoD.
Bin Laden has evaded capture and assassination ever since President Bill
Clinton signed a secret order authorising the CIA to kill him.
While President George W. Bush said after the September 11 attacks that
bin Laden was wanted "dead or alive", US military and intelligence might
have failed to carry out the order more than five years after the
terrorist leader fled for his life after the invasion of Afghanistan and
the collapse of his Taliban allies.
Now the Bush administration is redoubling its efforts.
"Reports that the trail has gone stone cold are not correct," an
American official said.
• Former US Navy sailor Hassan Abujihaad, formerly known as Paul R.
Hall, has been arrested for supplying a pro-al-Qa'eda website with
information on US ship movements and vulnerabilities, US justice
authorities said.