August mission in Tora Bora almost snared 'high value target'
By Justin Balding, Adam Ciralsky and Robert Windrem
NBC News
Updated: 8:07 p.m. ET Sept 26, 2007
A little more than a month ago, with the anniversary of Sept. 11 approaching and fears of a new al Qaeda attack rising, some U.S. intelligence and military analysts thought they had found one of the world’s two most wanted men just where they last saw them six years ago.
For three days and nights — between Aug. 14 and 16 — U.S. and Afghanistan forces pounded the mountain caves in Tora Bora, the same caves where Osama Bin Laden had hidden out and then fled in late 2001 after U.S. forces drove al Qaeda out of Afghanistan cities. Ultimately, however, U.S. forces failed to find Bin Laden or his deputy, Ayman al Zawahiri, even though their attacks left dozens of al Qaeda and Taliban dead. Source:MSNBC more:
UPdate: the op isn't over !!!
WE posted about this 8.17.07 Our Paradigm Intel foretold this operation:
And our bots, agents and spiders produced this look at the secret Pardigm. Bots Programed to look for evidence, produced this view of the secret project.
( our warning to Lars Vilks on the terrorist threat to his life, before the Police or Intel agency's notified him, NOW $100,000 bounty )
We produced all this Intel with OSINT only. Developed paradigm, deployed bots for evidence collection, as it happened. And got a preview of a secret operation. Intel from a closed, secure CELL. Anthropologically driven Competitive Intelligence.
Gerald Anthropologist, ad Magnum
Some of our past work, kicking hell out of their lead hacker.
Put on your stereo head phones turn the volume up, you will notice the slight echo, ( small cave 9 x 9 foot ) and the squeaky wheel in the background ( damp )
BACKGROUND SOUNDS: at 2:06 you hear a lighter 3:36 LIGHTER AGAIN, softer 5:38 SOUND 7:17 lighter 7:27 lighter 8:53 big water drip ( damp ) 9:35 they switch the Arabic sub-title to English. 14:00 video CUT ( video has been doctored ) 14:35 LIGHTER 15:03 - watch beep indicating top of hour? 17:25 SOUND 18:10 small water drip ( damp ) 21:26 sound
So Binny is not alone, according to lighter use maybe as many as 3 people in there with binny. Or maybe they aren't smoking tobacco. Water drips mean they are below snowline, Its cold maybe 60 degrees F.
He is not wearing suicide robes. No gun visible His right eye is drooping. Black beard sign of war.
...IT DOES NOT SOUND LIKE BINNY SOMETHING NEW:
Posted on 09/09/2007 3:57:28 AM PDT by George Maschke
Osama Bin Laden's widely reported video address to the American people has a peculiarity that casts serious doubt on its authenticity: the video freezes at about 1 minute and 36 seconds, and motion only resumes again at 12:30. The video then freezes again at 14:02 remains frozen until the end. All references to current events, such as the 62nd anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing of Japan, and Sarkozy and Brown being the leaders of France and the UK, respectively, occur when the video is frozen! The words spoken when the video is in motion contain no references to contemporary events and could have been (and likely were) made before the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
The audio track does appear to be in the voice of a single speaker. What I suspect was done is that an older, unreleased video was dubbed over for this release, with the video frozen when the audio track departed from that of the original video.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx HOW DID THEY DO IT???
Paradigm Intel: video is an old video, colored beard to disguise vid, ( Photoshop ) They found a voice similar to Binnys, Played old video, voice over by sound alike voice. Parts where lips didn't match, they frooze the vid. Added squeeky wheel for cover. maybe faked echo and background sounds to juice it up. video is Binny. Voice is NOT Binnys.
Why is file so huge? Bad compression ? or hidden files?
ITS A FAKE. Binny is dead and this is the beginning of the end for al Qeda.
Gerald
Binnys 26 min video
....Compare voices to this one. ...IT DOES NOT SOUND LIKE BINNY
Fly over Mountain range where Tora Bora is. ... xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx MORE: Adel Darwish, political editor of Middle East magazine, told Al Jazeera that he had "doubts" about the authenticity of the tape.
"Any kid these days with an electronic kit can alter images and edit the way that he or she likes," he said.
"There is no close up on bin Laden, the beard is thick and black and then there are large segments where the image is a still."
Update: The tape was undergoing technical evaluation by U.S. intelligence analysts, but an initial review indicated it was authentic. "The analysis suggests that the voice on the tape is indeed that of Osama bin Laden," said a U.S. intelligence official, speaking on the condition that he not be identified by name.? ( unable to confirm this ) What do you think, does it sound like Binny?
More: Neal Krawetz of Hactor Factor, an expert on digital image forensics.
Krawetz says the inner frame of bin Laden was resaved at least twice, and not at the same time. The images show fine horizontal stripes on bin Laden and a background indicating these came from interlaced video sources. In contrast, the text elements, such as the As-Sahab logo, appear to be from non-interlaced sources.
The September 7 video shows bin Laden dressed in a white hat, white shirt and yellow sweater. Krawetz notes "this is the same clothing he wore in the 2004-10-29 video. In 2004 he had it unzipped, but in 2007 he zipped up the bottom half. Besides the clothing, it appears to be the same background, same lighting, and same desk. Even the camera angle is almost identical." Krawetz also notes that "if you overlay the 2007 video with the 2004 video, his face has not changed in three years--only his beard is darker and the contrast on the picture has been adjusted."
More important though are the edits. At roughly a minute and a half into the video there is a splice; bin Laden shifts from looking at the camera to looking down in less than 1/25th of a second. At 13:13 there is a second, less obvious splice. In all, Krawetz says there are at least six splices in the video. Of these, there are only two live bin Laden segments, the rest of the video composed of still images. The first live section opens the video and ends at 1:56. The second section begins at 12:29 and continues until 14:01. The two live sections appear to be from different recordings "because the desk is closer to the camera in the second section."
Then there are the audio edits. Krawetz says "the new audio has no accompanying 'live' video and consists of multiple audio recordings." References to current events are made only during the still frame sections and after splices within the audio track." And there are so many splices that I cannot help but wonder if someone spliced words and phrases together. I also cannot rule out a vocal imitator during the frozen-frame audio. The only way to prove that the audio is really bin Laden is to see him talking in the video," Krawetz says.
Put on your stereo head phones turn the volume up, you will notice the slight echo, ( small cave 9 x 9 foot ) and the squeaky wheel in the background ( damp )
BACKGROUND SOUNDS: at 2:06 you hear a lighter 3:36 LIGHTER AGAIN, softer 5:38 SOUND 7:17 lighter 7:27 lighter 8:53 big water drip ( damp ) 9:35 they switch the Arabic sub-title to English. 14:00 video CUT ( video has been doctored ) 14:35 LIGHTER 17:25 SOUND 18:10 small water drip ( damp ) 21:26 sound
So Binny is not alone, according to lighter use maybe as many as 3 people in there with binny. Or maybe they aren't smoking tobacco. Water drips mean they are below snowline, Its cold maybe 60 degrees F.
He is not wearing suicide robes. No gun visible His right eye is drooping. Black beard sign of war.
Binnys 26 min video
....Compare voices to this one. ...IT DOES NOT SOUND LIKE BINNY binny is in a wet cave below snowline. NOT
Fly over Mountain range where Tora Bora is. ...
SOMETHING NEW:
Posted on 09/09/2007 3:57:28 AM PDT by George Maschke
Osama Bin Laden's widely reported video address to the American people has a peculiarity that casts serious doubt on its authenticity: the video freezes at about 1 minute and 36 seconds, and motion only resumes again at 12:30. The video then freezes again at 14:02 remains frozen until the end. All references to current events, such as the 62nd anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing of Japan, and Sarkozy and Brown being the leaders of France and the UK, respectively, occur when the video is frozen! The words spoken when the video is in motion contain no references to contemporary events and could have been (and likely were) made before the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
The audio track does appear to be in the voice of a single speaker. What I suspect was done is that an older, unreleased video was dubbed over for this release, with the video frozen when the audio track departed from that of the original video.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx HOW DID THEY DO IT??
Paradigm Intel: video is an old video, colored beard to disguise vid, ( Photoshop ) They found a voice similar to Binnys, Played old video, voice over by sound alike voice. Parts where lips didn't match, they frooze the vid. Added squeeky wheel for cover. maybe faked echo and background sounds to juice it up. video is Binny. Voice is NOT Binnys.
ITS A FAKE. Binny is dead and this is the beginning of the end for al Qeda.
Analysis of the acoustics from Binnys video indicates it was done in a cave or cave like area, about 6 x 6, This is a fly over the Mountain range that contains Tora Bora, its marked.
Your looking for a 6 ft 4 inch man surrounded by body guards.
He says its against Islam to burn humans, even ants, but he obtained a fatwa to kill 10 million Americans with a nuke?
What I got from a first reading is that they don't plan on using a nuke in USA, Binny took alot of grief from peers and religious leaders for not giving USA the proper warning before 911, chance to convert to Islam. This is an Islamic warning.
And he seems to be doing so now, WHICH MAY FORTEL an attack soon.
Update: The vid title is "The Solution" The BLACK beard is a sign of being at war. He has no gun in view. His hands are in front of him in a non threatening way. He argues USA joining Islam from the indigenous point of view, ie lower taxes. An sincere attempt to convert USA, using argument based on our interests. He in effect says there are no innocent in USA. But have we had the offer of truce yet? His last video I believe. Binny sounds almost sad.
Feels like something big.
ODD video graphic freezes at 1:54, while audio goes on ( you can hear the beep beep as the video battery goes dead)? ( use zoom feature )
Gerald
Update: The accoustic signature indicates it was recorded in a cave or cave like structure and made with poorly maintained equiptment, there is a drive wheel that squeeks all the way through the vid in the background, all indications Binny himself made the tape. made both with audio recorder and video recorder. VHS from the sound of the squeaking drive wheel. ( put on your stereo head phones turn the volume up, you will notice the slight echo, and the squeaky wheel in the background )
At 9:35 they switch the Arabic sub-title to English.
Looks like maybe Binny himself made the video in a section of the caves. The room he is in is around 6 feet square. It is humid, or where the camera was stored was humid. Binny is alone.
The abrupt ending speaks to Binny alone with out advisors. He did not check the full video tape, so they made the film with the last good frame, hence binny is frozen, non moving.
And by the time it was shipped to As-sahab, and they discovered the glitch there wasn't time or it was to risky to make another vid.
Osama Bin Laden's widely reported video address to the American people has a peculiarity that casts serious doubt on its authenticity: the video freezes at about 1 minute and 36 seconds, and motion only resumes again at 12:30. The video then freezes again at 14:02 remains frozen until the end. All references to current events, such as the 62nd anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing of Japan, and Sarkozy and Brown being the leaders of France and the UK, respectively, occur when the video is frozen! The words spoken when the video is in motion contain no references to contemporary events and could have been (and likely were) made before the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
The audio track does appear to be in the voice of a single speaker. What I suspect was done is that an older, unreleased video was dubbed over for this release, with the video frozen when the audio track departed from that of the original video.
The video may be downloaded as a 677 mb MPEG file here.
September 1, 2007 Flashpoint Afghanistan: Musa Qala. ( fight ) The fight against al Qaeda, the Taliban, and allied extremists in eastern Afghanistan has heated up over the past year. According to a high-level NGO executive, al Qaeda has called for jihadis to flock to Nuristan to help push the Americans out. The open plea from al Qaeda may point to the importance Nuristan has held to the insurgency in this region along the border with Kunar province. Since the start of Operation Enduring Freedom there has been no sustained, conventional Coalition or government presence in Nuristan. Emboldened by a seemingly neglectful strategy in regard to the area, Nuristan and its isolated valleys have become a comfortable home for hundreds of terrorists and other anti-government allies.
In July 2007, Richard Strand, who has worked in and collected data on Nuristan for 40 years, published his interpretation of current issues plaguing, what he calls, "The Nuristan-Kunar Corridor". According to Strand, this corridor is the gateway to Kabul and al Qaeda is making a major push to secure it.
The bin Laden factor
It is commonly believed that Nuristan and Kunar could be hiding the elusive Osama bin Laden.
The scene of last year's heavy fighting is once again catching on fire as Operation Palk Meher continues.
Helmand province.
September 1, 2007.
Over the past week, Coalition forces have been engaged in heavy fighting near Regay village in Musa Qala district, resulting in the deaths of dozens of Taliban who have been attacking Coalition patrols daily. Located 14 miles south of the city of Musa Qala, Regay saw heavy fighting break out August 25th when a joint Afghan-US Special Forces patrol came under attack and spent the night fighting off the Taliban. The next day, the fighting continued after the patrol was engaged from reinforced positions again, this time by extremists from inside several compounds lined with trenches.
Following the battle, that left more than 20 Taliban dead, a large heroin-producing facility was uncovered.
Red agencies/ districts controlled by the Taliban; purple is defacto control; yellow is under threat.
Company of Punjabi Pakistani troops captured in a sophisticated Taliban operation in South Waziristan. Pakistani government is negotiating with Taliban commander Baitullah Mehsud to secure their release.
The Taliban insurgency in the Northwest Frontier Province intensifies as a large force of Taliban fighters captured a company of Pakistani soldiers in South Waziristan. The Taliban captured “over 100 security forces personnel after intercepting a military convoy in the Mehsud-dominated tribal area,” Dawn reported. The Taliban have claimed over 300 Pakistani soldiers were captured by a large Taliban force near Luddah, which is about 25 miles north of Wana, but the highest estimate given by Pakistani sources is 130. “The Taliban had also impounded 17 trucks which were carrying troops,” Pakistani sources told Dawn. “Nine of the hostages were reported to be officers including a colonel.”
Baituallah Mehsud is one of the most the powerful Taliban commanders in South Waziristan; it is estimated he commands upwards of 30,000 well-trained fighters. ( WE have heard this before Abdullah Mehsud )
One issue that is not being discussed is both the skill and size of military units needed to force a company of Pakistani troops to surrender with no violence. A senior US intelligence official told The Fourth Rail that this Pakistani unit was an experienced regular army unit, not a paramilitary unit such as the Levies or Frontier Constables. "This was a Punjabi company, loyal to Musharraf, which conducts operations against the Taliban when needed," the official stated.
The Pakistani troops also surrendered while knowing that 19 soldiers were currently in the custody of Baituallah Mehsud's Taliban. One of those soldiers was brutally beheaded by a 12-year-old boy. This gruesome acted was videotaped and distributed to the media as a warning.
Tora Bora: Malawa valley area is a hot bed of Taliban activity. USA continues to engage the Taliban on all fronts and Patki is still looking towards appeasement.
USA is killing Taliban, Patki has its forces captured.
Nuristan is a nerve center for al Qaeda and the Taliban, and they have requested reinforcements heroin use among the Taliban is rising according to indigenous sources. As are purges for Spies. The Taliban are experiencing the highest mortality rates they have ever experienced.
Operational forces continue to collect Intel including Bio Id. And sweeps and mop up operations are run daily.
Mshari Al-Zaydi A Saudi journalist and expert on Islamic movements and Islamic fundamentalism as well as Saudi affairs. Mshari is Asharq Al-Awsat's opinion page Editor, where he also contributes a weekly column. Has worked for the local Saudi press occupying several posts at Al -Madina newspaper amongst others. He has been a guest on numerous news and current affairs programs as an expert on Islamic extremism.
The latest news on 'Sheikh' Osama Bin Laden is that he is currently seeking refuge in a huge white cave in the Tora Bora Mountains. The cave is said to be connected to a series of caves and protected by some armored cars and a group of ever-loyal suicide bombers.
Last June the Saudi daily 'Al-Watan' stated that US intelligence detected "al Qaeda messages sent during the night urging Afghans to fight against the foreign forces." Meanwhile, investigations on the 'Tora Bora front' led to the arrest of Bin Laden's doctor and another person whose task was to protect him. Both of them confessed that they were a part of the 500-member al Qaeda organization which had fled Waziristan to the Tora Bora region.
Tora Bora and Waziristan; the first is Afghan territory while the latter is Pakistani. However, they are neighbors that share the same borders. The two cities are inhabited by the Pashto tribes, which are extremely rigid and volatile, in addition to the prevalent tribal culture that is not governed by the state and in which powerful tribesmen exhibit their clout, impose levies and recruit new combatants.
The Tora Bora region lies south of Waziristan by approximately 1,500 kilometers. These two locations have witnessed the movements of al Qaeda leader, Osama Bin Laden and his followers since the American war on Afghanistan. Today, Tora Bora has reemerged onto the scene following the story about the big white cave.
MORE http://aawsat.com/english/news.asp?section=2&id=10053
The spokeswoman for the American Forces Captain Vanessa Bowman that the 'process aimed at the expulsion of Al-Qaeda elements and other Islamic militants hiding in preparation for the fight the tunnels'. ( لجمعة, 17 اغسطس, 2007 Friday, August 17, 2007 )ة
OP' s view looking down on Malawa valley, from the mountainside across from Tora Bora. USA op stationed here.
"Information on Tora Bora is not to be shared, that is the guidance we've had," "It's classified."........
NO reporters allowed. NO reports from the Taliban. NO videos from the Taliban. Nothing from al Qaeda.
Military sources not commenting. Foreign journalist Zip. Home country journalist nothing.
OSINT: Dr. Amin al Haq, who serves as Osama bin Laden's security coordinator, was reported to have been wounded in the fighting, The Telegraph'sTom Coghlan reported from Tora Bora. Al Haq is said to have fled across the border into Pakistan's Kurram agency. As bin Laden's security coordinator, al Haq commands the elite Black Guard, the fanatical praetorian bodyguards devoted to the security of al Qaeda's leader.
THE LEADER OF THE "Black Guard". He was wounded early in the op, before all the back doors were closed. He was sent out for medical treatment at a hospital. His forces the Black Guard did not leave with him.
Terrorist media arm has released no videos, that signals it is closed up tight. No terrorist media reports, its bad for them. No escape. Who or what ever is there is trapped.
Very simmilar to some operations against the Japs in WWII.
To my memory this is a first large classified operation and THEY are forbidding reporters.
The "Tora Bora Front", as Taliban propaganda calls it, borders the province of Nangahar and has been active for about three weeks. The complex of deep caves, which proved impervious to US bombing in 2001, sits on an infiltration route from the Spin Ghar mountains between Nangahar province and Pakistan's lawless Tribal Areas, where bin Laden is still thought to be hiding.
Members of the Canadian army dig away rubble as they search for a cave in the Towr Ghar mountain
Western officials and local government authorities confirm that Taliban insurgents backed by al-Qa'eda have reoccupied the complex.
They believe that one of the group's leaders could be Amin ul-Haq, a close associate of bin Laden. One western official also named Maulvi Anwar ul-Haq Mujahed as a commander of the group. He is the son of Younis Khalis, one of the most famous Islamist leaders in the Afghan jihad against the Soviets. advertisement
Initial estimates of the Tora Bora force by local Afghan officials put the number at between 200 and 250, including Arab, Chechen and Pakistani fighters.
"They have reoccupied the old base," said Haji Zalmai, the district governor of Khogiani, which borders the Spin Ghar mountains at Tora Bora.
Khogiani district is a dusty plain dominated by the imposing rampart of peaks that make up the Spin Ghar mountains and the border with Pakistan. Governor Zalmai survived an assassination attempt two weeks ago that blew up his car and the district, which has never been secure, has experienced a recent rise in insurgent activity.
The area, which is also notorious for poppy production and smuggling, has had three governors in a year. Zalmai's predecessor was killed and the governor before him was injured and swiftly left the post.
A Taliban propaganda blitz across southern Nangahar has led to "night letters" being dropped in villages boasting of the new front. They warn Afghans of the dire repercussions for supporting the government or western forces.
Officials in Kabul believe that the move is part of a more general strategic shift in the focus of Taliban operations away from their previous epicentre in the southern provinces of Kandahar and Helmand, where a series of offensives by British troops supported by US and other Nato forces has left the Taliban with a battered command structure and weakening morale.
The death of the notorious Mullah Dadullah Akhund in May was only the most high-profile success of a little-publicised campaign, largely conducted by both British and American Special Forces, to decapitate the leadership of the Taliban in the south.
There also appears to be a shift in tactics, with the insurgents turning more to terrorist tactics such as yesterday's suicide bombing in Kabul..
Excerpts: Aug. 26, 2007 - One way or another, Afghanistan always comes to this: a group of men of varying degrees of fitness sweating up goat-steep mountainsides, wondering whether trouble will come from ahead, behind or above, and marveling at how anyone can fight in a place like this, in whatever war is going on at the time. The war against the Soviets, the wars between the warlords, the war of the Talibs, the Taliban vs. the Northern Alliance, the American invasion and, now, the apparently endless hunt for Al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden. In all this, one place, Tora Bora, played a starring role, and still does.
There used to be a good mountain road up to the entrance to bin Laden's cave complex in the Tora Bora area of Afghanistan's Spin Ghar, or White Mountains, substantial enough for jeeps and even tanks—after all, Osama was an engineer, and that was the talent he first brought to bear when he joined the jihad against the Soviets.
Now, however, our car could take us only as far as a cemetery for Arab fighters, dating from the December 2001 U.S. bombing campaign, a sloping dirt-and-rock plot marked by a few dozen flattish stones stuck in the earth, no inscriptions. With a local tribal chief known as the Hajji (an honorific conferred on those who have made the pilgrimmage to Mecca) as a guide, we had donned Afghan dress and head scarves and enlisted a single armed guard, also in civilian clothes.
The Hajji, who guided us on condition he not be named, said he wanted to keep as low a profile as possible. As we prepared to set out on foot, an Afghan who identified himself as an intelligence officer, well-known to the chief, insisted on reporting our presence to one of his counterparts higher up, and then accompanying us; he was armed with a 9mm pistol and carried a mobile phone.
Remarkably, even at 8,000 feet, our eventual destination, there would still be a signal on the Afghan cell-phone network. He knew we weren't allowed there, but saw no harm in the visit.
The Hajji was worried most of all about American airstrikes, hence our own lack of visible firepower, but also about Taliban sympathizers in the area, and even the possibility that insurgents may have been missed on the sweep of this part of the Tora Bora area, which had been completed only five days earlier. He was also worried we might run into locals less than thrilled at seeing an American; he told us about a man who had lost his wife and eight children to the U.S. bombing of Tora Bora in 2001, and just the week before had lost another four children by his new wife in the latest bombing campaign.
The trail climbed up rock scree, and along remnants of what was once a wide road cut by bulldozers into the mountainsides, which were lightly forested and heavily bouldered. In some places landslides had eroded the roadbed; in others, bombs had clearly done the job. The higher we got, the more craters we saw, some of them 30 or 40 feet across. In many places, the pebbles were mixed with bits of shrapnel, bullet casings, rusted bullets and among the rocks were larger metal pieces of military detritus, most of it quite old, as well as mysterious chunks of burnt polyurethanelike foam, with military markings. Here and there were what looked like recently constructed firing positions, rocks piled into a crude shelter high above the path.
Frequently we saw leaflets, apparently dropped from American aircraft, warning locals against cooperating with the Taliban and Al Qaeda. "Insurgents and terrorists are not your friends," one read in Pashtu, "they will only bring trouble to you if you give them aid", and, "Afghan troops and ISAF [NATO's International Security Assistance Force] and American troops will hunt down people who shelter terrorists." The text was accompanied by garish pictures of evil-looking masked men with glaring white eyes; one had the word OSAMA in a red circle with a diagonal slash through it, like an international no-parking sign. Another showed villagers burying their dead, the apparent point being that that would be the fate of those who help terrorists. Strangely, our translators said, the leaflets were riddled with blatant grammatical errors, as if penned by a child.
After an hour's climb, we halted and took cover after spotting a column of armed men higher up, on an intersecting ridge; our guard and the intelligence official went ahead, returning satisfied that they were just smugglers heading to Pakistan, about a five-hour walk farther up. Later we came across a series of burned-out Soviet tanks with triumphal Arab graffiti on them, leftovers from the struggle against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.
Our guides kept a careful ear out for the sound of aircraft, stopping occasionally for complete silence to be sure none were near. In Afghanistan, there have been far too many cases of civilians mistakenly bombed, especially in places like this. Every night for the past two weeks, until just two days earlier, there had been heavy bombing throughout Tora Bora, lasting much of the night. Officially, U.S. military spokesmen have been saying very little about the operation. Apparently it began in response to a roadside bomb that killed three American soldiers and an Afghan interpreter on Aug. 11—the three were Special Forces troops, two from the Second Battalion Seventh Special Forces Group, and one from the 3-45 Psychological Operations Company, Second PsyOp Group. According to the Hajji, the ambush took place along this path; it was described in the military death report as a combination IED and small-arms-fire attack.
...that hundreds of U.S. and Afghan troops, backed by airstrikes, had launched an operation in the Tora Bora area in response to the infiltration of "hundreds of foreign fighters.
All requests by media to embed with the forces in Tora Bora were turned down, with the advice that no embeds were anticipated—which is unusual, except for Special Forces ops. "Information on Tora Bora is not to be shared, that is the guidance we've had," said Lt. Cmdr. Brenda Steele, a NATO spokesman in Kabul, queried for an update last week. "It's classified." It seems odd, given that diplomats in Kabul said they were being told the operation was a great success and was now in the mopping-up stages. Even our Afghan intelligence officer said he had been impressed, a few civilian casualties notwithstanding. "This is the best operation the Americans have done here in six years," he said.
There have been unconfirmed reports that Gen. Dan McNeil, who is both American commander in Afghanistan and NATO's ISAF commander, has deployed NATO's theater reserve troops, from the 82nd Airborne, ( WE HAVE CONFIRMED THIS ) on the operation. No one is commenting, but locals have reported seeing heliborne deployments of troops, often rappeling down or being lowered from helicopters as they hovered over terrain too rough and steep for landings. And at the airport in Jalalabad, witnesses have seen scores of C-130 aircraft on the aprons, an unusually large number for the area.
they received intelligence that up to 500 Qaeda and Taliban forces had infiltrated into the region, fleeing from Waziristan, Pakistan, and transiting through Kurram, the tribal agency closest to Tora Bora, and through which Osama bin Laden had made his 2001 escape. The operation consisted of heavy bombing, both day and night, followed by deployment of airborne troops blocking escape routes to Pakistan, while American and Afghan ground forces advanced up the Tora Bora mountains from the north. In all, 55 Taliban and Qaeda fighters were killed and 57 taken prisoner, he said; among the prisoners were Uzbeks, Chechens, Arabs and Afghans. "They are not fighting any longer," he said. "They can't fight, they are just hiding. And day by day, step by step, we are finding them and going on."
they began getting reports from villagers in the area who were friendly to the Taliban that among the infiltrators was "the sheik," referring to bin Laden. None of the villagers had any evidence of that but were just repeating rumors they'd heard from others. He put little stock in it but did say he thought there may be high-ranking Al Qaeda among the refugees. Another Afghan official, Police Col. Abadullah Talwar, head of the Provincial Coordinating Council, a security body established by the Americans in Jalalabad, told NEWSWEEK his officers had also been hearing rumors among locals in the mountains that bin Laden was back in Tora Bora, but regarded them as unsubstantiated;...
particularly unpopular among the tribals anyway.
Jason P. Howe / WPN for Newsweek
Standing Guard: An Afghan national policeman armed with an RPG stands outside of an old Al Qaeda training ground near Jalalabad on Aug. 20
A Western military official with extensive experience on both sides of the border in this area partly corroborated the Afghan military's account, although he said the Tora Bora fighters did not come from Pakistan, but from other parts of Afghanistan. “There was good reason to believe there were serious players there,” he said, declining to be identified because he was not authorized to speak to the press.
After two hours' hike, we reached approximately 8,000 feet and the entrance to the Tora Bora caves complex, just above a gorge known as the Malawa valley. The steep slopes were heavily terraced, and for the first time in recent years, the terraces were green with crops, mostly corn, as well as vegetables, and some stands of tall sunflowers. Goats grazed in the unplanted expanses. Clouds hung low around the surrounding peaks, and the trace of the supply road came to an abrupt end just after another rusted and blasted Soviet tank. Our guard climbed to a spot of high ground and set a picket; the Hajji did the same a little ways on. A short walk further and there were a few houses that had recently been restored, little more than stone huts against the slopes, with a smattering of a dozen children and men, the women out of sight. Scattered around were timber- and stone-buttressed entryways to what had been the caves, now filled with rubble, and connected by a defensive trench system a few dozen yards in extent. Two years earlier, French demolition teams had come here and destroyed the major caves, setting sapper charges deep within them, although the broader area has hundreds of others.
Our guides, who had been here many times in the past (one of them had been a Qaeda liaison for the mujahedin in the jihad days), insisted these were the main caves where Osama had hidden during the Tora Bora battle. Up close, they certainly didn't seem likely to harbor elevator shafts and vast underground stores. They were unprepossessing to say the least, even given a lot of demolition works; the shafts appeared narrow, earthen-walled; the supporting timbers roughhewn and slapdash, hardly SMERSH-like. We were unable, of course, to enter. Nearby, on a somewhat wider than usual ledge looking out over the Malawa gorge, there was what the Hajji and the intelligence officer described as Osama's swimming pool, a rock-walled rectangular cavity about 10 yards by three, and three yards deep, on the uphill side, half a yard deep on the long side facing the gorge. The pool, now bone dry, had been spring-fed, with the remnants of a slate channel on the uphill side still visible. Although cement had flaked off the rock lining and part of the low side of the pool had crumbled, the design suggested it had been a sort of crude infinity pool, with the infinity side facing the view, quite a dramatic one down to the heart of the Spin Ghar range. What's a Saudi millionaire, without a pool he doesn't swim in?
The local farmers were apparently welcoming, offering tea and showing us around. They said they were the original residents here, having left during the Soviet period when jihadis moved in to the area, and only returning from Pakistani refugee camps in the course of the past year. American ground forces, they said, had passed through five days earlier [about Aug. 16], with Taliban insurgents fleeing ahead of them. American patrols had come through as recently as two days before, and higher in the mountains they had seen helicopters offloading troops regularly. The military's interpreters had warned them to leave the area while bombardments were going on, and many of them had; this group of farmers had only returned here the day before, after a night with no apparent bombing. "It was so bad I couldn't sleep for days, the bombs, the helicopters flying over," said Nour Mohammed, 60. "All the night long." In Suleiman Kheil, the next valley over, hundreds of families had been evacuated—a figure confirmed by Nangarhar provincial officials. Some of the bombs had damaged their irrigation works, they said: "Everything we have is here, what are we going to do?" The damage didn't seem dramatic; the crops in the fields were green and healthy. As for Osama bin Laden? "I've never met him so I have no opinion about him," Nour Mohammed said diplomatically. The $50 million reward? Never heard of it.
While we were talking, one of the local men had gone off to his house. The intelligence officer, an impressively devious man, followed him and eavesdropped as he made a mobile phone call to someone: "There are journalists here and they are asking about the Taliban."
The intelligence officer was concerned enough to insist that we leave, and it sounded like a good idea. We quaffed the thin yellow tea, thanked our hosts politely and headed back. It was easier going but seemed to take a lot longer, as downhill hikes often do. Partly, it was knowing that bomb-layers know that what goes up, must come down. Partly, it was the knowledge that for some of us, it would almost certainly not be the last time we would return to Tora Bora.
Senior al Qaeda leader may have been wounded in the ongoing battle at Tora Bora
The battle at the Tora Bora mountains in Nangarhar province has completed its first week, the fighting has intensified as Afghan Army and US forces hunt Taliban and al Qaeda fighters who have infiltrated the region. Scores of Taliban and al Qaeda operatives are reported to have been captured after upwards of 50 terrorists were killed in the initial fighting. A senior al Qaeda leader was also reported to have been wounded in the attack.
Dr. Amin al Haq, who serves as Osama bin Laden's security coordinator, was reported to have been wounded in the fighting, The Telegraph'sTom Coghlan reported from Tora Bora. Al Haq is said to have fled across the border into Pakistan's Kurram agency. As bin Laden's security coordinator, al Haq commands the elite Black Guard, the fanatical praetorian bodyguards devoted to the security of al Qaeda's leader.
Al Haq was born in Afghanistan's Nangarhar province, was educated as a doctor, and practiced medicine in Pakistan. He accompanied Osama bin Laden during the 2001 battle at Tora Bora, and helped senior al Qaeda leaders escape the US and Afghan militia assault on the cave complex.
Several senior al Qaeda leaders -- such as Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Saif al Adel, and Walid bin Attash -- rose through the ranks in al Qaeda by serving in the Black Guard. A Special Forces raid against the Black Guard camp in Danda Saidgai in North Waziristan, Pakistan in March 2006 resulted in the death of Imam Asad and several dozen members of the Black Guard. Asad was the Danda Saidgai camp commander, a senior Chechen al Qaeda commander, and associate of Shamil Basayev, the Chechen al Qaeda leader killed by Russian security forces in July 2006.
US and Afghan commanders believe they have a large force pinned down in the valleys in southern Nangarhar. "Five hundred infiltrated the area," Gen. Qadim Shah, the commander of 1st Brigade of the Afghan Army, told Mr. Coghlan. "We have captured 57 fighters from the Taliban and al-Qaeda. They include Chechens, Arabs and Uzbeks." Local tribesmen are also saying Chinese Muslims, or Uighurs, and "a large contingent of Uzbeks led by Tahir Yuldashev" of the al Qaeda affiliate Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan are fighting in the area.
The fighting has been reported to be heavy in the Tora Bora region. The United Nations reports over 400 Afghan families have been displaced due to the ground combat and NATO airstrikes.
The news of the recent fighting in Tora Bora comes as al Qaeda and Taliban camps in North and South Waziristan recently emptied of fighters. Also, evidence recently emerged the US military has approval to conduct raids inside Pakistani territory. Pakistani troops are reported to have reinforced the border in the Kurram agency.
Gen Dan McNeill, the Nato commander, moved a battalion from 82nd Airborne, which makes up his operational reserve in Afghanistan, from Helmand to support the operation. Pakistani troops are also reported to have taken up blocking positions along the border.
Western intelligence has placed bin Laden close to the border, probably in the tribal agency of Khurram, which lies opposite Tora Bora, during recent months.
Osama bin Laden's cement-lined swimming pool fed by a mountain stream still lies, half destroyed, at the entrance to his cave complex at Tora Bora.
Close to the caves, which have been dynamited shut, is a rusting 1980s vintage Soviet tank; bullets and scraps of camouflage clothing litter the ground. An air of brooding gloom hangs about the cloud-wreathed mountains.
A week ago American forces launched a major operation to counter a rejuvenated al-Qa'eda, which has been steadily regrouping in the tribal areas of Pakistan, and has in the past three months moved back into the Tora Bora area of Afghanistan.
American military officials say much of what is happening around Tora Bora remains "classified". Discreetly, Western officials in Kabul describe it as "very successful", trapping insurgents in a series of adjacent valleys.
Local people report that the fighters include Arabs, Chinese Muslims, Chechens and a large contingent of Uzbeks led by Tahir Yuldashev.
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September 1, 2007
