By Sarmad Qazi, Gulf Times Newspaper,
Monday, 17 March, 2008
Osama bin Laden is most likely alive and in the custody of intelligence agencies in the border areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan, said Pakistani Islamic scholar Maulana Sami ul-Haq, who is often referred to as the "Father of Taliban".
I don’t think Osama is on the run anymore or hiding anywhere in the region,”  said Maulana ul-Haq.
Haq runs the Dar Uloom Haqqania madrassa (religious school) which produced most of the Taliban fighters in Afghanistan, including their leader, Mullah Omar.
Haq is chancellor of Dar Uloom Haqqani school located in Akhor Khattak. The school, on Pakistan’s border with  Afghanistan, is thought to have sent thousands of Mujahideen (fighters) during the Afghan War.
The Maulana challenged this charge. “More people from non-madrassa institutions and from abroad went to fight the Russian invasion, than madrassa students,” he said.
After the Russian withdrawal, Afghanistan was mired in factional feuds. The Taliban movement gained strength because they filled the vacuum and cleansed the country of warlords, restored order, and eradicated the narcotics trade to unite the country,” he said. 
I think the movement aimed to end the chaos in Afghanistan after the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the Taliban was similar to other student-backed movements around the world - save for the violence,” added Maulana ul-Haq, who is also chairman, Standing Committee on Religious Affairs and Minorities Affairs in Pakistan’s Senate (upper house).
Yes, the Taliban movement was violent and used force to capture much of Afghanistan, but do you think any other way was possible in a country marred by decades of wars,” he asked.
Explaining the role of madrassas and their operations, Maulana ul-Haq said: “A madrassa offers education, clothing, food and accommodation, all for free to its students, regardless of where they come from, and compared to the class-oriented commercial education system that the colonialists left behind in the region, madrassas remain a welfare institution.”
According to the Maulana, madrassas for hundreds of years, had been at the forefront of preserving the religious values and ethics of the Muslims of the region. “In fact if it weren’t up to them, the present-day Muslim countries of the Indian sub-continent might as well have been another Spain,” he said.
Some 5,000 students continue to study at the school, which according to Haq “is purely an education centre, with no active involvement in politics. Terrorism is a far-fetched allegation. We don’t even allow a knife on the premises”.
Madrassas are religious institutions where knowledge is imparted over a period of 12-16 years. Most of the madrassas in Pakistan do not have English or Science on their curriculum.
Ul-Haq did not comment on why his son, Maulana Hamid ul-Haq, went on to become a politician though he claims he is not actively involved in politics.
They (madrassas) became a point of contention to the West, because of the realisation of the real power of these institutions. They found out that if these (schools) can cause the downfall of one superpower, they might just as well be the cause for another’s. Their presumption, to me, is absolutely right,” said ul-Haq.
Speaking about the Pak-Afghan border, he said: “People should realise that there are hundreds of ways to land in these mountains, but no way out except death.”
When asked about the perceived Talibanisation of his own country (Pakistan), by madrassa students, he said: “There is no such thing as Taliban in Pakistan. You can’t call any Pashtun with family ties in Afghanistan, a Pakistani Taliban. These incidents of suicide bombings are a direct reaction to air strikes on their homes in the border areas.”
When asked if he or his school endorsed suicide bombings, the Maulana said : “We should look into why they (bombers) are ready to do it. If Bush’s war in Iraq and killing of innocent people there is ‘Halal’ then yes, suicide bombings are ‘Halal’ too. And if he (Bush) is against the killings and illegal wars, then we are against suicide bombings as well.”
On why he was denied entry into the EU, as member of a Senate Committee team, Ul-Haq said: “I was told the EU parliament won’t allow me to enter or speak to its members. Anti-western statements made by me were shown to me. The whole delegation had to come back.”
Asked if he did really give those statements, ul-Haq said: “Look, I was addressing a huge election rally, and in the heat of the moment and to impress the voters, I said those things. Which politician does not resort to rhetoric?”
Maulana Sami ul-Haq was part of a Senate Foreign Committee team that visited Doha last week. 

December 29, 2007: New Bin Laden message released
A new message from Al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden, announced yesterday on jihadist websites, has been released on the internet. The message is 56 minutes long and is in the form of a video tape showing a still image of Bin Laden from an older video, with the audio message playing in the background. The message, as promised in the banner ads announcing it, deals with the situation in Iraq. References to the September 2007 death of Abu Risha date the message to post-September 2007.
New Osama Bin Laden Message(Real Video) can be downloaded
from Laura Mansfield website
Benazir Bhutto said
Osama bin Laden was dead
Jazz from hell, 27. December, 2007
And right on cue, shortly after former Pakistani premier Bhutto's own slaying, two key al-Qaeda news items appear. First, "senior US officials" are checking into an al-Qaeda claim of responsibility for the assassination, and - lo and behold - "Osama" himself will soon release a message regarding Iraq.
Bhutto asserted to David Frost less than two months ago that bin Laden had been murdered by Omar Sheikh, whom the Sunday Times once described as "no ordinary terrorist but a man who has connections that reach high into Pakistan's military and intelligence elite and into the innermost circles" of bin Laden and al-Qaeda. (Watch video starting at 5:33 for mentioned part.)
Read comments at Jazz from hell !
BBC version of the same interview
published without this claim related to bin Laden

GIMF Video: The Attacks
on New York and Washington
Global Islamic Media Front
9 min 6 sec - Sep 13, 2007
The audio on the video matches that from the "preview" an announcement of the upcoming release called it The Blessed Invasion of Manhattan and promised a "special gift" for 9/11. That announcement lead the FBI to investigate the possibility that it was a warning of an upcoming attack on 9/11.
While the video has not yet been officially released, it was intercepted by Laura Mansfield. When two new bin Laden videos were released after that--one of them on 9/11--every one assumed that the "special gift" was the video. But it appears that this is the "special gift" that was announced. Frankly the video isn't all that interesting.
A lot of footage of Osama bin Laden, but none of it new. They actually sample the sound the Tardus makes from Doctor Who, which is kind of funny. GIMF also sports a shiny new logo. What is interesting is the timing of the video's upcoming release. Yesterday three members of GIMF were arrested in Austria. GIMF is the European arm of al Qaeda's online jihad. They tend to produce videos and magazines using preexisting material from al Qaeda in Afghanistan/Pakistan's as Sahab or al Qaeda in Iraq's al Furqan.
Source: The Jawa Report

Scary Osama bin Laden
911 2007 video

Totaly crazy conspiracy teorists might say this was a fake video and even a fake beard!




   First Glimpse of
   New bin Laden
   Video

Video tape transcript
(800 kb)

Bin Laden Predicts
U.S. Failure in Iraq
Bin Laden tape:
timing over substance
By Paul Haven, AP Writer, Sep. 9, 2007

A testimony to the Truth
by Usama Mohammad bin Laden

Osama bin laden is likely dead if he is not alive

Osama alive? Analysts react
(Times Now, September 28, 2006)
`I don't know where Osama is. Do you?'
Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf on America's `Daily Show'
General Pervez Musharraf does appear to have a short term memory - a day after feigning ignorance on the whereabouts of Al-Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden to 'Daily Show' host Jon Stewart, he tells the Times of London, exactly where President Bush can hope to find the elusive terror master mind: "It's not a hunch. We know there are some pockets of Al-Qaeda in Bajaur Agency. We have set a good intelligence organisation. We have moved some army elements. We did strike them twice there. We located and killed a number of them."
Mir dismisses Musharraf's claim  So is Musharraf plugging his memoirs? Or are his revelations aimed at Afghan President Hamid Karzai, a man who has accused the Pakistani general of sheltering the Taliban and Al-Qaeda? We put that question to Hamid Mir, an authority of Osama Bin Laden and a journalist who has met Laden three times. Mir dismissed Pervez Musharraf's claim. Drawing attention to the fact that the Pakistani President's comments to the Times, a London daily, come after what the American press have called a `contentious meeting' with the Afghan President Karzai at the White house on Wednesday, Mir suggested that President Musharraf was merely trying to get back at Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai.
"Like George Bush and Hamid Karzai, Musharraf does not have any exact information about the location of Osama Bin Laden," said Mir, adding that the reason the general had made such a comment could perhaps be because "he is trying to taunt Mr Hamid Karzai – President Karzai has claimed many times that Bin Laden in hiding in Pakistan".
Critical information  With reference to Musharraf's claim that Osama was hiding in Aghanistan's Kunar province, Mir said such information could not be ignored by serious analysts, coming from a head of state such as Musharraf. However, Mir expressed skepticism that the general could so easily have made public, facts about Osama's location – were they indeed true. "It is like providing an alert to Bin Laden that `we have come to know you are hiding in Kumar', which would prompt him to change his position," said Mir.
Whatever Musharraf's motivations, he might just be on to something, however - reports of Osama Bin Laden sightings have come from areas adjoining the Afghanistan-Pakistan border regions. This is an area that includes the provinces of Khost, Waziristan, Paktika and the Kunar province.
Osama's recent hideouts  The Bajaur Agency, where Musharraf insists Osama is hiding at present, is very close to the above four provinces. If Osama is holed up with the Afghan war lord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, it will be very difficult to get to him. The ravines provide for safe havens and easy escape routes that go undetected even under the gaze of spy satellites.
The trail of video tapes  At present, the US and its allies can only rely on a video trail - from 2001 to 2004, a number of videos have been released by the Al-Qaeda showing Osama Bin Laden at different points in time talking of different events. These at most, provide an inaccurate picture of the man and his whereabouts.
Osama dead?  The speculation over Osama's whereabouts hit fever pitch after a French Journalist Lad Sammari said last week that Osama had died. He said that he had acquired French Intelligence top secret reports that claimed as much. Sammari writing in a French newspaper said: "I think we can't contest that these documents of the DGSE (French foreign intelligence service), which are classified "defence confidential" are authentic. It's dated from September 21 and it's so authentic that the French president announced today that he must open an investigation to discover how they were leaked. It's the first time it made a report that is so precise and in which a source is noted, which is quite rare. And it says too that Saudi services will probably confirm the statement that Osama bin Laden has died." More ...

Osama is alive and safe: top Taliban Commander
(PTI, September 27, 2006)

Confusion about the fate of Usama bin Laden following the leak of a document of the DGSE (ESISC, September 23, 2006) The French daily newspaper l'Est Republicainpublishes this morning the facsimile of a note of the DGSE (Direction Générale de la Sécurité extérieure, the French special services) mentioning the possible death of Usama bin Laden. This information is impossible to confirm today and would not make the terrorist threat decrease in any case. In addition this leak is worrying because it highlights the laxness of the entourage of Jacques Chirac regarding the classification of intelligence. [...] Today, at 12 o'clock (Paris time), no confirmation of the death of bin Laden could be obtained from our usual contacts within the Intelligence community in Europe or in the Middle-East.

Islamabad, Sept 27. (PTI): A top Taliban military commander has claimed that al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden is alive and hinted that an audio tape may be circulated to prove the same.
"There is no truth in reports in the French media that bin Laden died from typhoid in Pakistan in August. Shaikh Osama is alright. He is safe," Mulla Dadullah Akhund said. Dadullah has also issued statements in the past to the effect that bin Laden and Taliban leader Mullah Muhammad Omar are alive.
When pressed for evidence which may indicate that bin Laden is alive, Dadullah hinted that a tape may be sent to media organizations to prove that the al-Qaeda leader is not dead.
Bin Laden's audiotape was last circulated in July. In it, he had eulogised the sacrifices of al-Qaeda leader in Iraq Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and described him as a martyr. He demanded that Zarqawi's body be handed over to his family for burial in Jordan.
The renewed interest in bin Laden's fate has been triggered by a report in a French regional newspaper that the al-Qaeda leader had died from a serious bout of typhoid in Pakistan on August 23.
President Pervez Musharraf in his just released book 'In the Line of Fire' has suggested that the most likely place for bin Laden to hide would be Afghanistan's eastern Kunar province but was quick to add that "we cannot be sure."

Rumors Swirl About Bin Laden's Health
CBS, September 23, 2006
CBS News: Arab Diplomats Discuss Reports Of Bin Laden's Death
Karachi, Pakistan, Sept. 23, 2006 - (CBS) Osama bin Laden's health has deteriorated in the past year, forcing him to curtail his movements, according to Arab diplomats in Pakistan who routinely track reports of his movements. A senior source with an intelligence service friendly to the United States told CBS News that Saudi Intelligence has collected what it considers to be "very credible information" that bin Laden has been very seriously ill, and that the Saudi services are now suggesting, though not confirming, that they "have a pretty high certainty" that he is dead. The source added that if he has died as a result of typhoid fever, which comes from exposure to contaminated water and food, it would confirm reports that he has been hiding in a remote area, under very harsh conditions with limited access to medical care.
While Pakistani officials and diplomats stationed in the country on Saturday did not confirm a report in a French regional newspaper that claimed the world's most wanted terrorist had died of typhoid earlier this month, some spoke of reports in the past year suggesting that bin Laden's health had rapidly deteriorated, prompting speculation over his remaining life expectancy.
Time Magazine also reported that bin Laden "has become seriously ill and may have already died" from a "water-borne illness." But U.S. sources are skeptical of the reports. A senior White house official tells CBS News White House correspondent Jim Axelrod, "I wouldn't hold your breath."

When asked at the Saudi Day reception in Washington about reports that Bin Laden had died, the Saudi ambassador to the United States Prince Turki al-Faisal said, "Don't believe everything you hear on the news ... Osama Bin Laden is alive and well."
French President Jacques Chirac said, "The information is in no way whatsoever confirmed and therefore I have no comment on it."
"You should never say 'never,' but the source of the intelligence is not a very good one – Saudi intelligence can sometimes be an oxymoron," Michael Scheuer, who ran the CIA's bin Laden unit, said on the Saturday Early Show. "It almost sounds like between the French and the Saudis are trying to goad bin Laden into saying something to prove he is still alive."
Sources in the region near the Afghan-Pakistan border tell CBS News analyst Jere Van Dyk that if bin Laden were dead the West would never know it. They want to preserve the idea that Osama is alive because he is a mythical figure, as much as anything else.
One Arab diplomat who spoke to CBS News on the condition that his identity would not be revealed said there were fewer reports in 2006 of bin Laden's possible sightings around the border region between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
"In the past, sometimes with a delay of two to three days, you would see reports which suggested he may be on the move somewhere, there have been fewer such reports this year," he said. "Does this mean, he is acutely ill, dying or has in fact died? There is no credible answer to that question. Unless there is a body, how can anyone say for sure that bin Laden is dead?"
The same diplomat said, bin Laden has had a history of illnesses that were first reported while the Taliban regime still ruled Afghanistan in 2000. One such report seen by the diplomat a year before the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, reported that bin Laden had to be hospitalized briefly in Kabul before he was brought to Pakistan for medical treatment, then believed to be a kidney-related ailment.
"If it is true that bin Laden had to have dialysis for his kidneys then — which is six years ago — his health must be far worse now. Especially the conditions that he lived in, being on the run from U.S. forces must also take its toll on him. I wouldn't be surprised if he is dead. Nobody is immortal," concluded the diplomat.
Over the past 12 months, according to security and diplomatic sources in Pakistan and elsewhere, the Saudi services have greatly improved their intelligence gathering capacity, especially in southern Afghanistan, and the Pakistan border region.
The intelligence service source told CBS News that over the past weeks, a number of al Qaeda-linked figures left the Pakistan-Afghanistan region and returned to countries in the Arabian Gulf. Some of the returnees have been interrogated and provided important intelligence.
Another Arab diplomat said reports of bin Laden's death would have to be either confirmed if his body was found or through an official statement for there to be confirmation. "But if you look at just the history of the man, the probability of his survival for long is not that great," the second Arab diplomat said on similar condition of anonymity.
"At the end of the day, if bin Laden is dead, al Qaeda will announce it," Scheuer said on the Saturday Early Show.
CBS News has been told the Saudis themselves have been very careful to say that while they believe the intelligence they have is credible, it will be impossible to confirm bin Laden's death without either recovery of a body, or the arrests of al Qaeda figures and others who are known to have been with him.
One former Pakistani official with prior responsibility for security affairs said there was speculation among Pakistani intelligence officials that al Qaeda had already undergone a leadership transition which has seen Ayman Al-Zawahiri, the group's second highest ranking leader, emerge as the key decision maker.
"If you just track the number of al Qaeda videos which have come out in the public, you see Ayman Al-Zawahiri in there mostly. Does this mean, Osama bin Laden has been in semi-retirement for a while because of his deteriorating health? That's a question which is worth asking" he said.
Pakistani officials expressed complete ignorance of the classified memo published by the French newspaper, L'Est Republicain, circulated to the French President and other senior figures. Written on Sept. 21 by the DGSE, the French exterior intelligence service, the memo reports intelligence gathered by the Saudi services, under the headline "Saudis Moving Towards Conclusion Bin Laden is Dead."
The French government has declined to comment on the contents of the document, but the Minister of Defense has ordered an investigation into the leaking of classified documents.
The newspaper that ran the story is a well-respected regional daily, but the journalist who wrote it, however, is a crime reporter rather than a specialist in intelligence matters, reports CBS News correspondent Elaine Cobbe from Paris.

French Want Probe Into Bin Laden Leak
CBS/AP, September 23, 2006
Paris, Sept. 23, 2006(CBS/AP) - French President Jacques Chirac said Saturday that information contained in a leaked intelligence document raising the possibility that Osama bin Laden may have died of typhoid in Pakistan last month is "in no way whatsoever confirmed." Chirac said he was "a bit surprised" at the leak and has asked Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie to investigate how a document from a French foreign intelligence service was published in the French press. The regional newspaper L'Est Republicain on Saturday printed what it described as a copy of a confidential document from the DGSE intelligence service citing an uncorroborated report from a "usually reliable source" saying that Saudi secret services are convinced the leader of the al Qaeda terror network had died. The DGSE sent the document, dated Sept. 21 or Thursday, to Chirac and other top French officials, the newspaper said.
"This information is in no way whatsoever confirmed," Chirac said Saturday when asked about the document. "I have no comment."
Officials from Afghanistan to Washington expressed doubts about the report and a Saudi Interior Ministry official refused comment.
"We have no response to the question of whether bin Laden is dead or alive," the Interior Ministry official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media. A senior White house official says of the information, "I wouldn't hold your breath," reports CBS News White House correspondent Jim Axelrod. A senior official in Afghanistan's Foreign Ministry said he is "very skeptical of the truthfulness" of the document, noting past false reports of the death of bin Laden. He was not authorized to address the issue and asked that his name not be used. Pakistan's Foreign Ministry spokesman, Tasnim Aslam, called the information "speculative," saying that Pakistan like other countries was "clueless about him."
CIA duty officer Paul Gimigliano said he could not confirm the DGSE report.
The Washington-based IntelCenter, which monitors terrorism communications, said it was not aware of any similar reports on the Internet.
"We've seen nothing from any al Qaeda messaging or other indicators that would point to the death of Osama bin Laden," IntelCenter director Ben N. Venzke told The Associated Press. Al Qaeda would likely release information of his death fairly quickly if it were true, said Venzke, whose organization also provides counterterrorism intelligence services for the American government. "They would want to release that to sort of control the way that it unfolds. If they wait too long, they could lose the initiative on it," he said.
The last time the IntelCenter says it could be sure bin Laden was alive was June 29, when al Qaeda released an audiotape in which the terror leader eulogized al Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was killed in a U.S. airstrike in Iraq earlier that month.
Chirac spoke at a news conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Compiegne, France, where the leaders were holding a summit.
Putin suggested that leaks can be manipulated. "When there are leaks ... one can say that (they) were done especially."
Earlier the French defense ministry said it was opening an investigation into the leak.
"The information published this morning by the L'Est Republicain newspaper concerning the possible death of Osama bin Laden cannot be confirmed," a Defense Ministry statement said.
The DGSE spy agency, or Direction Generale de la Securite Exterieure, indicated that its information came from a single source.
"According to a usually reliable source, Saudi security services are now convinced that Osama bin Laden is dead," the intelligence report said.
There have been periodic reports of bin Laden's illness or death in recent years but none has been proven accurate.
According to this report, Saudi security services were pursuing further details, notably the place of his burial.
"The chief of al Qaeda was a victim of a severe typhoid crisis while in Pakistan on Aug. 23, 2006," the document says. His geographic isolation meant that medical assistance was impossible, the French report said, adding that his lower limbs were allegedly paralyzed.
The report further said Saudi security services had their first information on bin Laden's alleged death on September 4.
In Pakistan, a senior official of that country's top spy agency, the ISI or Directorate of Inter-Service Intelligence, said he had no information to confirm bin Laden's whereabouts or that he might be dead. The official said he believed the report could be fabricated. The official was not authorized to speak publicly on the topic and spoke on condition of anonymity.
U.S. Embassy officials in Pakistan and Afghanistan also said they could not confirm the French report.
Gen. Henri Bentegeat, the French army chief of staff, said in a radio debate last Sunday that bin Laden's fate remained a mystery.
"Today, bin Laden is certainly not in Afghanistan," Bentegeat said. "No one is completely certain that he is even alive."
©MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta: Bin Laden would need help if on dialysis (CNN, January 21, 2002) Speculation about the whereabouts and health of Osama bin Laden picked up over the weekend when Pakistan's president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, said he thought bin Laden had likely died of kidney failure. CNN medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta spoke Monday with CNN's Paula Zahn about bin Laden's appearance in recently released videotapes and the possibility that the accused terrorist leader was undergoing kidney treatment.  More ...

Musharraf: bin Laden likely dead
(CNN, January 19, 2002)
Excerpts: Islamabad, Pakistan (CNN) --Pakistan's president says he thinks Osama bin Laden is most likely dead because the suspected terrorist has been unable to get treatment for his kidney disease.
"I think now, frankly, he is dead for the reason he is a ...
kidney patient," Gen. Pervez Musharraf said on Friday in an interview with CNN. Musharraf said Pakistan knew bin Laden took two dialysis machines into Afghanistan. "One was specifically for his own personal use," he said.
"I don't know if he has been getting all that treatment in Afghanistan now. And the photographs that have been shown of him on television show him extremely weak. ... I would give the first priority that he is dead and the second priority that he is alive somewhere in Afghanistan."  More ...

Osama bin Laden Dead?
(Lindqvist.com, September 9, 2002)

09/13 2002 - Rumour Alert! The Norwegian tabloid Aftenposten today reports that what is supposed to be an official Al-Quaida web site has an article written by Osama bin Laden's closest associate Abu Jafar al Kuwaiti, claiming that
bin Laden died during the bombings of Tora Bora.

The Al-Quaida web site is now dead. It used to be found at 66.197.181.234/index.php, but has now moved on elsewhere. The site was however located with a US based ISP and the IP number is registered at stragateinc.com.

Translation of Funeral Article in Egyptian Paper
(al-Wafd, December 26, 2001 Vol 15 No 4633 )

News of Bin Laden's Death and Funeral 10 days ago
Islamabad - A prominent official in the Afghan Taleban movement announced yesterday the death of Osama bin Laden, the chief of al-Qa'da organization, stating that binLaden suffered serious complications in the lungs and died a natural and quiet death. The official, who asked to remain anonymous, stated to The Observer of Pakistan that he had himself attended the funeral of bin Laden and saw his face prior to burial in Tora Bora 10 days ago. He mentioned that 30 of al-Qa'da fighters attended the burial as well as members of his family and some friends from the Taleban. In the farewell ceremony to his final rest guns were fired in the air. The official stated that it is difficult to pinpoint the burial location of bin Laden because according to the Wahhabi tradition no mark is left by the grave. He stressed that it is unlikely that the American forces would ever uncover any traces of bin Laden.

Al-Jazeera airs bin Laden September 11 video
AFP, September 7, 2006

TV grab taken September 7 from a video produced by al-Qaeda-linked media group As-Sahab and broadcast by the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera news network shows al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden (C) at an undisclosed time and place in Afghanistan. The video reportedly showed leaders and members of the al-Qaeda terror group preparing the September 11, 2001 attacks against the United States. (AFP) Shehits

DUBAI (AFP) - Al-Jazeera broadcast previously unseen footage of terror mastermind Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda suicide hijackers said to be preparing for the September 11 attacks against the United States.
The Arabic television station said the video, aired late Thursday just days before the fifth anniversary of 2001 atrocities, "included scenes showing for the first time al-Qaeda leaders preparing the September 11 attacks and practising for their execution."
The al-Qaeda chief, wearing a white turban and white and brown robes, is shown in the company of several dozen men, walking in a barren, rocky area that was not identified. Al-Jazeera also showed images of two of the 19 Islamist militants who died in the attacks, Saudi nationals Hamza el-Ramdi and Wael el-Shehri.
According to Al-Jazeera, the footage showed suspected September 11 coordinator Ramzi bin al-Shaiba with Bin Laden who was telling his men "Prepare for the invasion, America is going to invade Afghanistan."
The Qatar-based station said it only aired a small part of the full video which lasted about an hour and a half and was made by a group called As-Sahab which specialises in recordings of al-Qaeda and other Islamist militant groups.
Bin Laden, the Western world's most wanted man who has a 25 million US dollar bounty on his head but has eluded a vast manhunt and his whereabouts are still unknown.
Almost 3,000 people died on September 11, 2001 when suicide hijackers took control of US airliners, slamming two into the twin towers of the World Trade Centre in New York, causing them to collapse.
Another plane hit the Pentagon, the US military headquarters building near Washington, and the fourth crashed in a field in Pennsylvania.
Fifteen of the 19 hijackers on September 11 were Saudi nationals.
The footage aired by Al-Jazeera showed hand-to-hand combat training between people who wore masks over their heads, and one of whom was armed with a knife.
Later Thursday, the US Senate unanimously approved an additional 200 million dollars to this year's defence budget to fund an intelligence unit that would seek to hunt down bin Laden.
"Osama bin Laden, the head of al-Qaeda, planned, financed and organised a terrorist operation that killed thousands of Americans. It has now been more than 1,800 days since those attacks, and this man is still on the loose," said Democrat Kent Conrad.
Al-Jazeera also broadcast a recording attributed to the shadowy head of al-Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Hamza al-Muhajer, in which he forecast victory against US-led forces in the country. The recording, the first time Muhajer has spoken publicly since taking over as head of the group, was also posted on an Islamist Internet site, but its authenticity could not be established. Muhajer, who succeeded slain al-Qaeda frontman Abu Musab al-Zarqawi after he was killed in a US air strike in Iraq in June, urged Sunni Muslims to kill at least one US citizen within the next two weeks.
"Oh followers of (Taleban leader) Mullah Mohammed Omar, oh sons of Osama bin Laden, oh disciples of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi ... I urge each of you to kill at least one American within a period not exceeding 15 days," Muhajer said.

When Osama Bin Ladin Was Tim Osman
By J. Orlin Grabbe, November 8, 2001
The two men headed to the Hilton Hotel in Sherman Oaks, California in the late Spring of 1986 were on their way to meet representatives of the mujahadeen, the Afghan fighters resisting the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
One of the two, Ted Gunderson, had had a distinguished career in the FBI, serving as some sort of supervisor over Special Agents in the early 60s, as head of the Dallas field office from 1973-75, and as head of the Los Angeles field office from 1977-1979. He retired to become an investigator for, among others, well-known attorney F. Lee Bailey. And all along the way, Gunderson, whether or not actually a CIA contract agent, had been around to provide services to various CIA and National Security Council operations, as he was doing now.

In more recent years Gunderson was to become controversial for his investigations into child prostitution rings, after he became convinced of the innocence of an Army medical doctor named Jeffrey McDonald, who had been convicted of the murder of his wife and three young children in the 1970s. This has led to various attempts by the patrons and operators of the child prostitution industry to smear Gunderson's reputation.

Michael Riconosciuto was there to discuss assisting the mujahadeen with MANPADs—Man Portable Air Defense Systems. Stinger missiles were one possibility. If the U.S. would permit their export, Riconosciuto could modify the Stinger's electronics, so the guided missile would still be effective against Soviet aircraft, but would not be a threat to U.S. or NATO forces.
But Riconosciuto had another idea. Through his connections with the Chinese industrial and military group Norinco, he could obtain the basic components for the unassembled Chinese 107 MM rocket system. These could be reconfigured into a man-portable, shoulder-fired, anti-aircraft guided missile sytem, and produced in Pakistan at a facility called the Pakistan Ordinance Works. The mujahadeen would then have a lethal weapon against Soviet helicopter, observation, and transport aircraft.
Riconosciuto was more than just an expert on missile electronics; he was also an expert on electronic computers and associated subjects such as cryptology (see "Michael Riconosciuto on Encryption").

* * * * *



What is most important for world history? The Taliban or the fall of the Soviet Empire? Some Islamic hotheads or the liberation of Central Europe and the end of the cold war?
Ex-Security Chief Brzezinski's Interview makes clear:
The Muslim Terrorist Apparatus was Created by US Intelligence as a Geopolitical Weapon
Le Nouvel Observateur's Interview with Zbigniew Brzezinski, President Jimmy Carter's National Security Adviser
Published 15-21 January 1998,
Translated by Jean Martineau
Le Nouvel Observateur: Former CIA director Robert Gates states in his memoirs: The American secret services began six months before the Soviet intervention to support the Mujahideen [in Afghanistan]. At that time you were president Carters security advisor; thus you played a key role in this affair. Do you confirm this statement?
Zbigniew Brzezinski: Yes. According to the official version, the CIA's support for the Mujahideen began in 1980, i.e. after the Soviet army's invasion of Afghanistan on 24 December 1979. But the reality, which was kept secret until today, is completely different: Actually it was on 3 July 1979 that president Carter signed the first directive for the secret support of the opposition against the pro-Soviet regime in Kabul. And on the same day I wrote a note, in which I explained to the president that this support would in my opinion lead to a military intervention by the Soviets.
Le Nouvel Observateur: Despite this risk you were a supporter of this covert action? But perhaps you expected the Soviets to enter this war and tried to provoke it?
Zbigniew Brzezinski: It's not exactly like that. We didn't push the Russians to intervene but we knowingly increased the probability that they would do it.
Le Nouvel Observateur: When the Soviets justified their intervention with the statement that they were fighting against a secret US interference in Afghanistan, nobody believed them. Nevertheless there was a core of truth to this...Do you regret nothing today?
Zbigniew Brzezinski: Regret what? This secret operation was an excellent idea. It lured the Russians into the Afghan trap, and you would like me to regret that? On the day when the Soviets officially crossed the border, I wrote president Carter, in essence: "We now have the opportunity to provide the USSR with their Viet Nam war." Indeed for ten years Moscow had to conduct a war that was intolerable for the regime, a conflict which involved the demoralization and finally the breakup of the Soviet Empire.
Le Nouvel Observateur: And also, don't you regret having helped future terrorists, having given them weapons and advice?
Zbigniew Brzezinski: What is most important for world history? The Taliban or the fall of the Soviet Empire? Some Islamic hotheads or the liberation of Central Europe and the end of the cold war?
Le Nouvel Observateur: "Some hotheads?" But it has been said time and time again: today Islamic fundamentalism represents a world-wide threat...
Zbigniew Brzezinski: Rubbish! It's said that the West has a global policy regarding Islam. That's hogwash: there is no global Islam. Let's look at Islam in a rational and not a demagogic or emotional way. It is the first world religion with 1.5 billion adherents. But what is there in common between fundamentalist Saudi Arabia, moderate Morocco, militaristic Pakistan, pro-Western Egypt and secularized Central Asia? Nothing more than that which connects the Christian countries...

Bin Laden's Speeches 2003-2006
MEMRI, September 8, 2006
This summer Islamic websites posted audio recordings of two speeches by Osama bin Laden given three days apart. In the first speech, from June 30, 2006, bin Laden eulogizes Abu Mus'ab Al-Zarqawi; in the second, from July 2, 2006, he addresses the Muslim nation, and in particular jihad fighters in Iraq and Somalia, and calls on them to continue their jihad since it is the only possible way. The following are translations of these speeches as well as links to other statements made by bin Laden from the MEMRI Jihad and Terrorism Studies Project archives.
Al-Qaeda Leader Osama bin Laden Threatens New Attacks in the U.S. (January 19, 2006)
Archival Footage of Osama bin Laden in Sudan (January 2006)
Osama bin Laden: 'Today There is a Conflict Between World Heresy Under the Leadership of America on the One Hand and the Islamic Nation With the Mujahideen in its Vanguard on the Other (December 30, 2004)
Osama bin Laden to the Iraqi People: It is Forbidden to Participate in Iraqi & PA Elections; Jihad in Palestine and Iraq is Incumbent Upon Residents of All Muslim Countries, Not Just Iraqis and Palestinians; Zarqawi is the Commander of Al-Qa'ida in Iraq (December 30, 2004 )
Osama bin Laden in a New Audio Tape: Saudi Arabia Government Responsible for Lack of Security and Peace (December, 16, 2004)
Osama bin Laden Tape Threatens U.S. States (November 1, 2004)
Osama bin Laden's Speech on the Eve of the 2004 U.S. Elections (October 29, 2004)
Osama bin Laden Speech Offers Peace Treaty With Europe, Says Al-Qa'ida 'Will Persist in Fighting' the U.S. (April 14, 2004)
A New bin Laden Speech (July 18, 2003)
Message From bin Laden (March 17, 2003)
Bin Laden's Sermon for the Feast of the Sacrifice (March 5, 2003)

'Pak hiding Osama to bargain with US'
Associated Press, September 01, 2006
The al-Qaeda terror camps are gone from Afghanistan, but the enigma of Osama bin Laden still hangs over these lawless borderlands where tens of thousands of US and Pakistani troops have spent nearly five years searching for him.

Ambassador Durrani Wants Osama 'Strung up' on Pole Associated Press, September 01, 2006 Washington, DC: Reaffirming Pakistan's commitment to the war on terrorism, Ambassador Mahmud Durrani has said that his government was not only pursuing Osama bin Laden, but all his associates. "Our commitment is total and absolute," Durrani said in a telephone interview with CNN, the international network which carried a two-hour documentary "In the Footsteps of bin Laden," last Wednesday night. "This is in our national interest. We want to get rid of extremism and terrorism," Ambassador Durrani said while responding to questions from CNN. The two-hour special, reported by CNN's correspondent Christiane Amanpour, was based on terrorism expert Peter Bergen's book, "The Osama bin Laden I know." Would he like Osama bin Laden captured or killed? "I would like to see bin Laden strung up from the tallest pole," Durrani said. "He is no friend of Pakistan." He added that he believes bin Laden is "somewhere in Afghanistan." But some of the US intelligence officials and experts, who appeared in the documentary, said Osama bin Laden is likely hiding in Chitral area, bounded by Afghanistan to the west and China to the north. Contrary to popular belief, the officials said, bin Laden most likely isn't living in a cave but in a house, possibly with a family and no more than two bodyguards. However, the Pakistan ambassador said Chitral is "the last place Osama bin Laden would be," citing both cultural and religious differences. "They don't like him," he said. "In Chitral, he would stand out like a sore thumb." Durrani said Pakistan and the United States are working cooperatively to share intelligence. The belief that Osama bin Laden is in Pakistan is also based in part on common sense, the CNN report said. Every senior al Qaeda leader who has been captured since September 11, 2001 has been run to the ground in Pakistan. Also, the al-Qaeda has deep roots in the country, where it was founded by bin Laden in 1988, the network said. "Bin Laden started visiting Pakistan in the early 1980s and is comfortable there. He enjoys a degree of safety there because while there are some 20,000 US troops and 15,000 NATO troops inside neighboring Afghanistan, none are able to go into Pakistan because no Pakistani government will allow foreign troops on its territory," the report said. "And despite what the Pakistan ambassador says, some believe the Pakistani government has had little appetite for hunting down bin Laden as he arguably enjoys more popularity in Pakistan than any Pakistani politician". Gary Berntsen, who led a CIA paramilitary unit pursuing bin Laden shortly after the September 11, 2001 attacks, said Pakistan is a country bin Laden knows well. He feels at home there and enjoys popular support. It's also a country where the US military is not welcome. "It's likely that he's in Pakistan," he told CNN as part of the documentary. Berntsen said there are Pakistanis who remember bin Laden's work from the 1980s, when he set up what is known as the Services Bureau in Peshawar to help refugees fleeing the Soviets in Afghanistan. "They have as a custom [of] not turning in individuals," Berntsen said. "He has sought refuge among them."

Villagers say the CIA missed by only a few kilometres when it targeted bin Laden's top deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri, with a missile strike in January. Then in May, US Special Forces arrested one of al-Zawahri's closest aides, suggesting the trail has not gone entirely cold.
As for bin Laden himself? He may be nearby. Yet hopes of cornering the Saudi-born al-Qaeda leader seem distant as ever. The last time authorities said they were close to getting him was in 2004, and in hindsight those statements seem more hope than fact. Five years after the September 11 attacks, the most publicized manhunt in history has drawn a blank. The CIA has dismantled its unit dedicated to finding the al-Qaeda chiefs. And the American military's once-singular focus is diffused by the need for reconstruction and a growing fight against the Taliban, the resurgent Afghan Islamic movement that once hosted bin Laden.
American soldiers climbing through the forested mountains of Afghanistan's Kunar province - where in the 1980s bin Laden fought in the US-backed jihad against the Soviets - still hope to catch or kill him. But they say bolstering the Afghan government is their primary mission now, amid the worst upsurge in Taliban attacks in five years.
"It is like chasing ghosts up there," said Sgt. George Williams, 37, of Watertown, New York, part of the Army's
10th Mountain Division pushing into untamed territory along the border with Pakistan. "Osama bin Laden is always going to be a target of ours as long as he is out there, but there are other missions: to rebuild Afghanistan and attack the militants still here."
The top leaders of al-Qaeda remain free despite more than 100,000 US, Afghan and Pakistani forces at the frontier. High-tech listening posts, satellite imagery, unmanned spy planes - not to mention a $25 million bounty on each man from the US government -all aid the hunt.
Yet both bin Laden and al-Zawahri are communicating to the outside world, posting messages on Islamic Web sites to inspire further attacks on the West. Although the al-Qaeda leaders are too isolated to run directly a terrorist operation like September 11, Pakistan says the latest alleged plot, to bomb US-bound jetliners from Britain, may have been blessed by al-Zawahri.
The frustrating campaign has frayed critical cooperation between Afghanistan and Pakistan, neighbors separated by an ill-defined frontier and a history of mutual suspicion.
Pakistan has captured most of bin Laden's lieutenants, including 9/11 attacks coordinator Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, and claims to have reduced the remaining al-Qaeda command to mere figureheads. Pakistan has lost 350 troops fighting al-Qaeda and Taliban-linked militants.
Yet Afghan officials allege that Pakistan is sanctuary for Taliban rebel leaders and lets them recruit from radical Islamic schools. They even suggest that Pakistan is hiding bin Laden, perhaps to ensure Pakistan remains of strategic importance to Washington.
"We believe he is being kept as a prize, as an ultimate bargaining chip," said a senior Afghan government official, who declined to be identified due to the sensitivity of his comments.
Latfullah Mashal, a former Afghan Interior Ministry spokesman, goes so far as to pinpoint bin Laden's hideout in a remote valley in Pakistan's North Waziristan region. He says there's a mountain fortress with a network of tunnels, guarded by African militants who never venture outside.
Pakistan, which formally ended its support for the Taliban after the September 11 attacks, rejects both allegations. It has about 80,000 troops in its wild tribal regions along the Afghan frontier, including a US-trained and equipped
quick-reaction force.
"I don't think any other country has played a bigger role than Pakistan," said Interior Minister Aftab Khan Sherpao.
Retired Lt. Gen. Ali Mohammed Jan Aurakzai, who led the Pakistani army into the region after the September 11 attacks, said sealing the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan would require between 150,000 and 200,000 troops "and still there's no 100 per cent guarantee that infiltration would not take place."
Strained by the demands of Iraq, the US has only about 20,000 troops in Afghanistan. The roughly 10,000 in the border area must cover about 78,000 square kilometres of some of the most forbidding territory on Earth: jagged mountains, both arid and forested, that become impassable in winter.
There are steep valleys and rushing rivers spanned by rickety rope bridges; dark caves that could be booby trapped. Deeply religious and xenophobic villagers also obstruct efforts to run down al-Qaeda remnants.
"Bin Laden has a network of contacts and places to go to if he needs to that's pretty close to 20 years old. He's a veteran of that region, so it's very hard to find him," said Michael Scheuer, former chief of the CIA's now-disbanded unit dedicated to hunting the al-Qaeda leader. "Bin Laden's status as a hero in the Islamic world is also a telling factor in why he's not been caught."
A senior former Pakistani intelligence official put it more bluntly. "These (ethnic) Pashtuns have their own traditions. They'll die but they'll not hand over bin Laden," said the official, who declined to be named because of the secretive subject matter.
For US troops, the Afghan mission is increasingly dangerous. At least 272 US service members have died in and around Afghanistan since October 2001, including three recently from Williams' unit.
Some 44 US service members died in Afghanistan in 2004, 92 in 2005 and 61 so far in 2006.
Western, Afghan and Pakistani officials agree that the nearest they got to bin Laden was in the Tora Bora mountains, south of Kunar, in November 2001 when he was fleeing the US-backed war that toppled the Taliban regime.
The Pakistani intelligence official said Pakistan at first thought bin Laden was dead, perhaps killed by a bomb at Tora Bora, until a letter he penned to his family was recovered from Khalid Sheikh Mohammed when he was arrested in March 2003.
After that, repeated attempts have been made to get bin Laden and al-Zawahri.
-- In late 2003, Pakistani forces raided Lattaka, a village in North Waziristan, to get bin Laden but he wasn't there, said the intelligence official.
-- In 2004, amid a flurry of military action on both sides of the border, US Lt. Gen. David Barno said he expected to bring bin Laden to justice that year - although officials now say they had no hard intelligence to go on.
"It was all guesswork. No one ever gave us precise information that bin Laden or al-Zawahri is in such-and-such area, even a general area," said Pakistan's Aurakzai.
-- Pakistan stepped up its military action in 2004 with a series of bloody operations in South Waziristan province. They busted al-Qaeda bases complete with computer and communications equipment.
However, most foreign militants at these sanctuaries were not Arabs close to bin Laden but Central Asians, Pakistani officials said.
-- Sometime that year, Pakistan learned that either bin Laden or al-Zawahri was elsewhere in South Waziristan. "An operation was carried out where we were close to getting him but the trail got cold," said Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan, spokesman for President Pervez Musharraf. He declined to be more specific.
-- In the most recent case, in January, the CIA fired a missile from a Predator drone into the remote Pakistani village of Damadola, 250 kilometres northeast of Waziristan. The target was al-Zawahri, who was expected to attend a dinner there. Pakistani intelligence and local residents say the Egyptian doctor-turned-terrorist did not show, but they later learned he was at a supporter's home in Salarzi, about 11 kilometres to the east.
The missile killed at least 13 civilians. Reports that a number of senior al-Qaeda operatives also died were never confirmed, as none of their bodies were found.
The associate who allegedly hosted al-Zawahri, a timber merchant and tribal chief called Haji Nader, was later arrested by US Special Forces and taken to the American air base in Bagram, Afghanistan, said Commander Youssef, police chief in Naray, where the military also has a base.
Youssef declined to give further details, but Pakistani intelligence officials and local residents said the arrest was made in May in Kunar province and that Nader's family in Pakistan had since received a letter from him, sent from Bagram. The US military declined to confirm the information.
Talk of al-Zawahri's whereabouts persists. In Pakistan's Bajur region, opposite Kunar, tribesmen say al-Zawahri moves with a small entourage between Pakistan and Afghanistan. They say al-Zawahri briefly visited near Damadola in July and got engaged or married to the teenage daughter of another local associate, Kawas Khan, and the ceremony was attended by tribal elders including pro-Taliban militants.
Pakistani intelligence confirmed the reports but Aurakzai, who is now the provincial governor, maintained they were speculation.
Getting solid information is a dangerous business.
In Pakistan's border region, resentment has grown over the presence of the army. Until the Sept. 11 attacks, the military had left the semi-autonomous region alone since Pakistan won independence from Britain in 1947.
Aurkazai said that since late 2004, about 70 tribesmen have been killed, mostly for cooperating with the government; other officials report more than 100 such deaths. A senior officer in Pakistan's intelligence service, speaking on condition of anonymity, said at least 30 of its informants were assassinated, often beheaded and their heads displayed in a public place.
On Aug. 7, the decapitated corpse of a 38-year-old former militant-turned-informer, Loi Khan, was dumped in a North Waziristan village. An attached note read: "See this man's body. Anyone spying on us will face the same end."
Another intelligence officer said it was harder for Pakistani agents to operate in their own tribal areas than inside archrival India. "In the enemy country, we know who is our enemy but in the tribal areas it is extremely difficult to differentiate between the enemy and the friends," he said.
Pakistani intelligence officials say bin Laden and al-Zawahri likely live separately, each with a tight entourage of trusted Arab retainers and several rings of defense, the outermost ring manned by local militants.
They use a complex chain of human couriers, rather than intercept-prone electronics, to get out their messages. Al-Zawahri has issued 10 video or audio messages this year. Bin Laden – last seen in video in October 2004 - has released five audio messages during 2006.
Among the messages was a June 30 tribute to al-Qaida in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, killed north of Baghdad on June 7, and another soon afterward endorsing al-Zarqawi's successor.
Although Pakistan claims to have reduced al-Qaeda's leaders to symbols, Pakistani intelligence says its agents have heard that the alleged British-based scheme to bomb trans-Atlantic jetliners was blessed by al-Zawahri. If true, that would mean Afghanistan remains the headwaters of the world's most feared terrorist movement nearly five years after 3,000 people were killed in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.
"There's a little bit of whistling past the graveyard when we say the organization (al-Qaeda) is broken," said Scheuer.