Electronic Telegraph (very reliable newspaper)

SAS to join American special forces By Macer Hall, Philip Sherwell and Christina Lamb (Filed: 16/09/2001)

SAS troops are preparing to join American special forces in a swoop aimed at devastating terrorist training camps in Afghanistan under plans for a swift retaliation for last week's outrages.

Air Strikes on Osama bin Laden's strongholds could begin within a week, according to US officials. One officer in the British security services told The Telegraph that action would start "within days". The air assault - along with cruise missile attacks - will soften up targets before elite troops go in on "search and destroy" missions.

The special forces troops were being briefed while the biggest build-up of military might since the Gulf War was going on in preparation for the West's war against terrorism.

The soldiers will be dropped in by helicopter to seal off and lay waste to at least six sites believed to be used by bin Laden supporters, in plans drawn up by military strategists. The special forces attacks will follow an initial wave of cruise missile strikes then a second wave of aerial carpet bombing to soften up targets.

A senior Pentagon official said yesterday that "pinpoint air strikes" without ground attacks - similar to those used against bin Laden in the past - were not an option.

He said: "The strategy this time is we are going to go in hard and we are going to get it right. The political and public will is there. We know there will be casualties if we send troops in and we are prepared to accept that after what happened on Tuesday."

The first retaliatory strike is likely to be a barrage of Tomahawk cruise missiles from destroyers supporting the US aircraft carrier Carl Vincent, currently in the Gulf. The warship will move east, with its battle group of more than 10 surface ships and a nuclear submarine, to a position off Pakistan.

Strategists have identified at least six training camps and military bases for attack. First on the list is the hideaway at Shar-i-Nau, a suburb of Kandahar, which in January was the last place bin Laden was sighted.

Also understood to be in line for air raids are sites at Farmada outside Jalalabad, Darunta in Nangahar, bases near Khost and Kabul and a remote bunker hidden in the Hindu Kush mountains in the north-east of Afghanistan.

Strikes against targets in Afghanistan are seen as only part of America's war against terrorism. Offensives against other targets, most specifically Saddam Hussein in Iraq, were understood to be under preparation last night.

The key to success in Afghanistan is establishing bases in neighbouring territory in Pakistan or Tajikistan to unleash special forces units into attack. Any agreements on setting up bases are expected to remain secret.

Special forces - including airborne units from America's Special Operations Command and members of the SAS - are seen as the best way of demonstrating the ability to launch a devastating ground assault while avoiding the danger of being drawn into a protracted conflict with guerrilla forces in forbidding mountain territory. The strike force would stay no longer than a few days.

The Pentagon official added: "We do not see this as a repeat of the Soviet attempt to conquer the country in the 1980s or the British during the 19th century. We do not want to occupy."

Bin Laden's movements are now under 24-hour scrutiny by spy satellites and his communications are monitored by electronic eavesdropping devices, said intelligence officials.

The CIA has also paid Afghan tribesmen to watch for the armoured vehicles in which bin Laden travels and to report back their whereabouts, although American officials acknowledge that it is extremely hard to keep tabs on his entourage in the rugged mountainous terrain.

In a reversal of the 1980s, events in Afghanistan are bringing Washington and Moscow into a possible military alliance against their common enemy, bin Laden. Twenty years ago, the US backed the likes of bin Laden against the Soviet occupying force.

Under the high-stakes strategy, the country's Taliban rulers will be told that if they use military force to oppose the strikes on bin Laden, their bases will also be targeted in the offensive.

America is also negotiating with President Vladimir Putin of Russia, who despises bin Laden because of his support for Islamic militants and terrorists in Chechnya and the former Soviet republics in Central Asia. US intelligence sources say that Russia may provide access to Afghanistan through Russia's ally, Tajikistan, on Afghanistan's northern border.

There is talk in American intelligence circles of Mr Putin providing reports from his own spies on bin Laden's whereabouts. There could also be offers to join an American commando invasion force for a joint Russian-American effort to capture or kill the terrorist and the use of Russian helicopter pilots, some of whom know the tortuous terrain from the days of the Soviet invasion.

Such moves would be incredibly dangerous but, following the attacks on the American mainland, Mr Bush is prepared to suffer substantial troop losses. The Pentagon hopes that ground troops would sweep through the mountains aiming to trap bin Laden and his commanders and either kill them in a firefight or capture them and bring them to America for trial.

The US already has plenty of firepower within striking range, with cruise missile-armed warships from the 5th and 7th fleets and a nuclear submarine in the Gulf and Indian Ocean. Further air-launched missiles could be delivered from B-52 bombers using the island of Diego Garcia as a staging post.

British aircraft, including Tornado bombers armed with laser-guided bombs and Nimrod surveillance aircraft, are also based in Gulf states.

The US has at its disposal a wide range of units under its Special Operation Command, including more than 46,000 troops. Most likely to be involved in attacking the landlocked, mountainous terrain of Afghanistan is the US Army's Delta Force. Other special force units that could be called in include the 160th Aviation Regiment, known as the Night Stalkers, and the 75th Ranger Regiment.

The terrain in Afghanistan will mean paratroops or aeroplanes are unlikely to be favoured for deploying ground forces, at least in the first wave of attack.

US troops are expected to be landed by powerful CH-53E Super Stallion helicopters, which are capable of carrying up to 80 fully armed personnel and able to be refuelled by dedicated Hercules tanker aircraft.

Troops from the Special Air Service are almost certainly to be used in any operation, both to emphasise that retaliation will not be carried out by the US acting alone, and because the British elite force is highly regarded by its American counterparts, who have a much broader concept of "special forces". Regular troops will be called in if a ground assault is launched against Iraq.

Britain has growing numbers of forces in the Middle East. Heading for the month-long manoeuvres in Oman are 27,000 troops, an armoured division of Challenger tanks and a Navy task force, including the aircraft carrier Illustrious.

-- Anonymous, September 16, 2001

Answers

ET

Bush finalises battle plan (Filed: 16/09/2001)

AMERICA was last night assembling the biggest military strike force since the Gulf War as President Bush issued an ultimatum to Pakistan to back allied action or run the risk of being bombed.

In his bluntest terms yet, Mr Bush made clear that the United States was about to launch a sustained offensive against Osama bin Laden and his terror camps in Afghanistan.

The Saudi Islamic fundamentalist was named for the first time by the President as the prime suspect in the suicide hijack attacks on New York and Washington that left almost 5,000 missing.

American officials have made clear that they expect Pakistan, which is the nearest point for allied forces to attack bin Laden's base in neighbouring Afghanistan, to co-operate fully in the allied operation.

In an uncompromising list of demands made to Pakistan's military leaders, US officials called for Islamabad to close training camps used by Islamic militants.

The US demanded that Pakistan shares all its intelligence on bin Laden and the Taliban, an organisation which it created in 1994 and is still funding. Pakistan should also make available airspace to US warplanes and take action to cut off funding to any group allied to bin Laden, and to close its border with Afghanistan.

If Pakistan failed to comply, US officials warned that the country ran the risk of being bombed in any future military action taken against Islamic terrorists. "We have been left with no doubt," said a senior Pakistan official.

"We can no longer be a friend of bin Laden and the US. And if we don't opt for Washington then they will not only cut off economic funding, including that from the International Monetary Fund, but also see us as a potential target."

As Pakistani officials considered the demands US forces started flying reinforcements to bases around the Middle East. Twelve B2 stealth bombers were on standby to fly to the British Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia.

SAS troops are preparing to join US special forces for operations in Afghanistan. British security service officials believe that initial missile strikes will take place "within days", although the full operation will take longer to mount.

As Washington attempts to forge a broad alliance, Pakistan was warned that Islamic militant training camps on its territory would be targeted if it refuses to support strikes against bin Laden. Although President Pervez Musharraf promised full co-operation, his own powerful military intelligence is firmly opposed to Pakistani involvement.

America urged Russia to allow it to use Tajikistan, the former Soviet republic that borders Afghanistan and is still dominated by Moscow, as a platform for troops to move against their mutual enemy.

The Taliban told all foreigners to leave the country in view of a possible attack and threatened war against any of its neighbours that offers assistance to Washington. Mr Bush prepared Americans for conflict as he repeated "we're at war" in a radio address.

He said: "There's no question about it, this action will not stand. We're going to find those who did it, we're going to smoke them out of their holes, we will get them running and we will bring them to justice."

Before meeting security advisers at Camp David, he added: "If he [bin Laden] thinks he can hide and run from the US and our allies, he will be sorely mistaken."

Congress approved late on Friday a resolution allowing the President to strike both individuals and nations which he determines "planned, authorised, committed or aided the terrorist attacks".

American intelligence officials have intensified monitoring of suspected terrorist groups amid fears that further "sleeper" cells will launch fresh attacks in response to US military retaliation.

US military commanders plan a three-stage assault against training camps used by bin Laden, beginning with air strikes by cruise missiles, followed by carpet bombing and attacks by ground troops.

Six training camps and rebel bases used by bin Laden's supporters in Afghanistan are understood to have been identified as targets. "We are going to go in hard and we are going to get it right," one Pentagon official told The Telegraph.

John Gannon, a former CIA intelligence chief, warned that bin Laden supporters have been trying to develop nuclear and biological weapons for future attacks. Other reports say they are already in the process of making chemical weapons.

The Pentagon is also preparing to strike against Iraq after it emerged that Saddam Hussein has been providing bin Laden's terrorist network with funding, logistical back-up and advanced weapons training.

Over the past four months senior Iraqi intelligence officers have met representatives from al-Qaeda, bin Laden's international network, in Pakistan. They are believed to have transferred at least £2.7 million to his agents via diplomatic bags in cash or Lebanese bank accounts over the past year.

Pakistan's President Musharraf said yesterday that his country will co-operate with US demands. However, a meeting in Rawalpindi yesterday of corps commanders and intelligence chiefs was deeply divided as his own powerful military intelligence backed a new jihad (holy war) against the West.

Not only does Pakistan have plenty of Islamic militants of its own fighting in Afghanistan but there are millions of armed Afghans in Pakistan and millions of Pakistanis who see bin Laden as a hero. Moreover in the country's highly Islamicised armed forces many generals share the same strict vision of Islam.

Meanwhile, America's European allies, led by France, were backing away from offers of full military support after Nato's show of solidarity. "We know that we can only rely on Britain, not France and Germany" said a US official.

-- Anonymous, September 16, 2001

France and Germany are wimping out.

I am reminded of a song, C/W type I think it is, the refrain goes something like "One way, or another, I'm gonna gitcha, gitcha gitcha gitcha gitcha one way, or the other..."

Anyone know the tune? heh heh

I was listening to NPR last night at work, they are airing continually until Monday morning. late last night, before I left work, they switched to WRN, World Radio News. Interviewing folks from various governments. Most were sympathetic to the American losses, but did not support the war on terrorism.

The fact that the terrrorist we are currently looking to target are operating under the misguided notion that they are 'the army of god' is something of extreme importance. The repurcussions will be extensive.

these terrorists will stop at nothing to destroy our whole way of life. They do not like our freedoms, our movies, our whole way of life. It isn't just America, but we represent all that they hate, and they consider our influence to be infecting other countries.

As much as I would like to keep religion out of it, allowing others to believe as they wish and worship as they want, the terrorists and their supporters insist that any retaliation from the US is an attack on their religion.

This view of the US attacking their religion, while misguided, has much support. So much that we will create more terrorists with every action.

-- Anonymous, September 16, 2001

It's an old Blondie song. Another verse:

One way or another, I'm gonna trick ya, I'm gonna give ya the slip. A slip of the hip, Or another, I'm gonna trick ya, I'll Trick ya, I'll trick ya...

-- Anonymous, September 16, 2001