Osama holed up in mountain fortress?

By Hasan Suroor

LONDON, NOV. 28. Even as American reconnaissance drones, satellites and special forces- not to mention the CIA operatives- scoured the length and breadth of Afghanistan for Osama bin Laden, a British newspaper today claimed ``evidence'' that he was holed up in a mountain fortress in Tora Bora, south of Jalalabad and was being protected by ``hundreds'' of his loyal troops.

The Daily Telegraph, quoting local intelligence straight out of a ``what-the-butler-saw'' episode , said bin Laden and his men moved to Tora Bora base from Jalalabad a fortnight ago with a large number of Arabs and Taliban fighters. ``Witnesses who saw him leave Jalalabad told The Daily Telegraph last week that the al- Qaeda chief was persuaded to leave by several close allies in the city... ,'' the report said contradicting what it described as ``persistent rumours'' that bin Laden was hiding in southern Afghanistan, near the Taliban stronghold of Kandahar.

The newspaper claimed that its information about the whereabouts of bin Laden was based on the investigations of an Afghan undercover reporter who spoke, among others, to the Saudi fugitive's chief foods supplier Haji Jamal. Jamal's account, it said, was confirmed independently by villagers in the area and ``Arab fighters loyal to bin Laden''. Jamal reportedly said that bin Laden had made a ``short run'' to the Pakistani border last week.

``I saw the Sheikh (bin Laden) after he returned...,'' he said describing the Tora Bora base, situated in the peaks of the White Mountains, as the ``largest concentration of foreign commandos anywhere in Afghanistan''. The base is protected by three lines of defence, manned by 400 al-Qaeda zealots, according to the report which added that the location provided a ``quick exit across mountain passes'' into Pakistan's tribal areas ``packed'' with bin Laden supporters. The hideout, it said, was a ``vast and cavernous complex'' set at angles which were almost impossible to target from the air. ``Bin Laden appears to have a steady supply of food which is brought in with the help of Jamal,'' it said and quoted one villager as saying that a tactic used by al-Qaeda fighters to distract the U.S. bombers was to put tents out in the open as ``decoys'' and then move them on to other places once they were hit.

The report came as experts emphasised the importance of ``humint'' (human intelligence from local sources rather than from professional spooks) in tracking down bin Laden though they also warned against relying too heavily on glib ``eyewitness'' accounts that could actually be part of a ``disinformation'' campaign. ``The local grocer is always an important source of information but you must sift it carefully because he can also be a source of some extremely effective disinformation,'' one expert said.

Meanwhile, The Times reported that the violent revolt by the Taliban mercenaries imprisoned at Kala-i-Janghi on Sunday and the subsequent bloodbath might have been triggered by the sheer ``incompetence'' or ``overconfidence'' of two CIA operatives. The trouble, the newspaper said in an eyewitness account from its correspondent Mr. Oliver August, began when the prisoners were being questioned by the two CIA men, Michael and David.

Both were dressed as Afghans and spoke Persian, and the prisoners apparently mistook them for their Northern Alliance captors. ``Michael asked one Taleb why he had come to Afghanistan . He replied:`we are here to kill you', and jumped at Michael who killed him and three others with his pistol before being wrestled to the ground.'' That was the beginning of a sequence of bloody events that ended on Tuesday with the deaths of hundreds of foreign Taliban fighters.

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