from lucianne link

Bin Laden can run but can he hide?

If Osama bin Laden leaves Afghanistan the number of places he can go is limited — but it is premature to say the Saudi-born militant has nowhere left to hide. His al-Qaeda (The Base) network operates cells around the globe, while his henchmen in Afghanistan are powerful Islamist leaders in their own right, with connections throughout Central Asia, Russia, the Middle East and Africa.

The Taliban militia, which has sheltered bin Laden as a «guest» in Afghanistan since 1996, has already investigated alternative hideouts in the event it is forced to withdraw its support. Following the 1998 twin bombings of US embassies in East Africa, the Taliban reportedly made contact with Chechen leaders about moving its guest to a new home somewhere within the rebel Russian republic. «If he leaves at all, he will go to Chechnya. He has already established a network there,» said a Pakistani source who has met bin Laden.

Bin Laden’s Arab «Afghan» mujahedin are also suspected of operating throughout the Central Asian region. The Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), shadowy religious zealots who are trying to topple President Islam Karimov, are believed to cross into the region through Tajikistan from Afghanistan. Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan were destabilised last year by a wave of cross-border attacks from Islamists allegedly backed by bin Laden and the Taliban in Afghanistan.

The rebels are apparently seeking to create an Islamic state in the Ferghana Valley, which stretches across Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

Iraq is another possible destination. Israel’s military intelligence service, Aman, has said it suspects Iraq sponsored the attacks on New York’s World Trade Center and the Pentagon outside Washington. Jane’s Security, a website specialising in defence matters, said Thursday that according to Aman, Iraqi intelligence officers have for the past two years been shuttling between Baghdad and Afghanistan. US officials have also said this week that an Iraqi officer met a hijacker of one of the airliners that crashed in New York.

Baghdad’s foreign ministry dismissed the allegations as «lies», but analysts have for years suspected bin Laden of developing close ties to the Iraqi leadership.

He is reported to have sent one of his closest aides, Egyptian Islamist leader Ayman al-Zawahiri — another alleged plotter behind the 1998 embassy bombings — to Iraq that year to inspect sites for future bases.

Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein undoubtedly shares bin Laden’s hatred not only for the United States, but also the royal family in Saudi Arabia, one of Washington’s closest allies in the Arab world. Both men also share a mission to rid the Middle East of US influence. «Baghdad will be only too happy to help bin Laden strike any American objectives anywhere in the world, even with weapons of mass destruction,» wrote Yossef Bodansky, author of a book on bin Laden published in 1999.

But a Pakistani expert on bin Laden said he had already decided against Iraq as a destination. «A couple of years ago the Iraqis showed their interest in allowing him to come to their land, but it was bin Laden who refused,» said writer Hamid Mir. Bin Laden was born into a family with close links to the Saudi royal family but he is no longer welcome in the desert kingdom. He was stripped of his citizenship in 1994, for campaigning against the regime’s decision to let US troops be based on Saudi territory, and his family have disowned him.

But he might be tempted to try Yemen, where al-Qaeda reportedly set up a headquarters in 1998 ahead of the embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania. Bin Laden also reportedly has a Yemeni wife. His group is suspected of the suicide bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen last year, in which 17 US sailors died.

-- Anonymous, September 22, 2001

Answers

he is hiding in plain sight:

-- Anonymous, September 23, 2001