Bin Laden 'back in control' of terror blitz
Pastor Dale Morgan
Bin Laden 'back in control' of terror blitz*
By Isambard Wilkinson in Islamabad
Last Updated: 2:12am GMT 20/02/2007
Osama bin Laden has re-established control over a terrorist network
along the Pakistan and Afghan border, according to US sources.
American security officials claim that bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman
al-Zawahiri, have rebuilt an operations hub in the mountainous Pakistani
tribal area of North Waziristan.
"The chain of command has been re-established," The New York Times
reported one US government official as saying. The official added that
the al-Qa'eda "leadership command and control is robust".
Until recently, the US government had maintained that bin Laden and
Zawahiri were effectively cut off from operational control of al-Qa'eda.
However, officials say that new intelligence points to the terrorist
network gaining strength despite more than five years of a sustained
US-led campaign against it.
The US has also identified several new al-Qa'eda training compounds in
North Waziristan, including one that officials said may be training
operatives for strikes on targets beyond Afghanistan.
"A particular concern is that the camps are frequented by British
citizens of Pakistani descent," stated one US report, which noted
terrorist trials in Britain had revealed several with links to Pakistan.
The claim of an al-Qa'eda revival has been the subject of intensive
discussion in the Bush government. It has also reignited debate about
how to confront Pakistan's role as a haven for militants, without
undermining the government of General Pervez Musharraf.
Gen Musharraf has had to strike a balance between placating the US,
which has bankrolled his regime, and living with Pakistan's powerful
pro-jihad Islamic groups, who have tried three times to kill him and
only just failed.
Pakistan's strategy in North Waziristan has come under scrutiny since it
signed a peace deal with militants in September, which critics say has
effectively ceded control of the area.