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Taliban: Bin Laden's Hiding in Afghanistan

Cohort offered to arrange meeting, says Pakistan inmate

By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff

Posted Dec 4, 2009 3:08 AM CST
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(Newser) – A high-ranking Taliban member in Pakistani custody claims a cohort offered to arrange a meeting with Osama bin Laden earlier this year, and that the al-Qaeda leader is in eastern Afghanistan, not northern Pakistan as widely believed, the detainee told a BBC reporter. The inmate, who met with bin Laden numerous times before 9/11, says he spoke to a bin Laden contact from Afghanistan's Ganzi province, which is largely a no-go area for Afghan and coalition troops.

"If it's true—a big if—this is an extraordinary and important story," said a former CIA analyst. "Someone who has come forward and said, really for the first time, 'I met with Osama Bin Laden and I had the opportunity to meet him again in the recent past.'" The detainee's motives for talking are unclear, and Western interrogators have not been granted access to him.

Taliban militants hold their weapons at a undisclosed location in Ghazni province, Afghanistan. Osama bin Laden is hiding out in Ghanzi, according to a detainee.
Taliban militants hold their weapons at a undisclosed location in Ghazni province, Afghanistan. Osama bin Laden is hiding out in Ghanzi, according to a detainee.   (AP Photo/Rahmatullah Naikzad)
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The entire Western intelligence community, CIA and MI6, have been looking for Osama Bin Laden for the last seven years and haven't come upon a source of information like this. - Former CIA analyst Bruce Reidel

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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 7 comments
tran_tor
Dec 5, 2009 2:43 AM CST
Elvis sighting in Kabul! Story at 11!
SilenceDogood
Dec 4, 2009 12:57 PM CST
Roll the B52’s, the cruise missiles and get Delta force primed.
riffran
Dec 4, 2009 10:09 AM CST
but gee whiz didn't they just say he wasn't a few stories back.....bottom line..nobody not in the inner circle of the terrorist elite knows where that asshat is or if he is even alive for that matter

 
Afghanistan • Taliban • Osama bin Laden • Ghazni • al-Qaeda

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