Osama has 4 look-alikes to confuse spies

DUBAI, OCT. 7. Osama bin Laden, uses look-alikes to confuse western Intelligence agencies trying to track him down, an Afghan Opposition leader said in an interview published today.

``According to our latest information he is in Jalalabad (eastern Afghanistan) but we know that he has several doubles who move around in convoys to cover up and cause confusion,'' said Mr. Ahmed Wali Massoud, Charge d'Affaires for the Afghan Opposition, in London.

He told the Asharq al-Awsat newspaper, that ``several months ago, we received reports about the presence of four look-alikes of Osama in four different places in Afghanistan at the same time.'' Mr. Massoud, brother of commander Ahmad Shah Massoud, who was killed on September 9, just two days before the attacks on New York and Washington blamed Osama bin Laden and said the latter had become ``the true leader of the Taliban''.

``Since 1998 he has tightened his grip on the Taliban's security services and their money,' Mr. Massoud said, adding that U.S. strikes on Osama bin Laden were now inevitable since Kabul refused to hand him over.

The Afghan Opposition would support any U.S. military action in Afghanistan ``aimed at destroying the heavy weapons with which Pakistan supplied the Taliban,'' he said. ``But that does not mean we want the Americans to set up bases in our country with a view to a permanent presence.'' He added that Washington and its allies should ``support the legitimate Government of Afghanistan as soon as the operation against terrorists is over and help it rebuild the infrastructure and the economy of the country.'' Most countries still recognise the Rabbani Government ousted by the Taliban in 1996.

- AFP

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Section  : International
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