"The Pakistani military officers battling al Qaeda along the border with Afghanistan who have the latest first-hand information about Osama bin Laden believe he is hiding with a small cadre in Afghanistan and is no longer an effective leader for the terrorist group.
A full report by correspondent Steve Kroft on the search for bin Laden will be broadcast on CBS News’60 Minutes on Sunday, Sept. 25 at 7 p.m. ET/PT.
“I think now [bin Laden] is being protected or assisted by a very short number, which keeps his profile very low,” says the counter-terrorism head of Pakistan’s Intelligence Service, a brigadier who goes by the name “Ali” and whose true identity is known by only a few government officials. Ali believes that bin Laden is still someplace along the border, probably in Afghanistan.
Ali tells Kroft that Pakistan’s intelligence forces have diminished bin Laden’s power by capturing 594 al-Qaeda members and crippling the group’s communications, including infiltrating their courier network. “We have been able to effectively break the communications network from top to bottom. We do not allow these people to communicate with each other,” says Ali.
The information gleaned from captured al-Qaeda members and given to coalition officials has helped to prevent planned terror attacks against financial buildings in the U.S., and planes and buildings at London’s Heathrow airport. It also assisted in the capture of al-Qaeda operatives in Great Britain. “The mere fact that there has not been a replication of 9/11 speaks volumes of what we shared with the world,” boasts Ali.
Finding bin Laden doesn’t matter at this point, according to Lt. Gen. Safdar Hussain, who is in charge of Pakistan’s anti-terrorism operations along the Afghanistan border. “If [bin Laden] is hiding in a hole, neither the electronic nor the human intelligence can find him,” he tells Kroft. “Is it all that important to find him? If he’s taken out tomorrow, his ideology is not going to come to an end. I don’t think that it’s important…if he is captured… This is my personal view,” says Hussain.
Kroft also spoke to Pakistan’s leader, Gen. Pervez Musharraf. “These troops are not certainly on the trail of one man, and that’s all they are doing,” notes Musharraf. “We are fighting terrorism wherever it is. If Osama happens to be there incidentally, he will be killed or captured.”
Of of the critques of the Bush administration is that "They never got Osama!" But here we see that simply isn't true.
And let's not forget who let Osama go first.
The fact is that the GWOT is working. Since 9/11 the United States hasn't had one single terrorist attack on it's soil - not one. By comparison the Clinton Administration had four. Call it what you will, but what we are accomplishing is working to protect us.
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