As the United States braces for a major escalation in the war in Afghanistan and Pakistan, it is launching a new drive to kill or capture Osama bin Laden, declaring that he's the key to defeating al-Qaida.
But almost eight years to the day after the Americans let him slip through their fingers at his Afghan mountain redoubt of Tora Bora, his last confirmed location on or about Dec. 16, 2001, they admit they haven't a clue where he is now.
The best guess is that's holed up in the lawless tribal belt of Waziristan in northwestern Pakistan that runs along the rugged border with Afghanistan.
According to Jason Burke, a British journalist who is an expert on al-Qaida, bin Laden 'is almost certainly being sheltered by local sympathizers, not in a cave but in one of the many fort-like compounds that litter the inaccessible frontier region. …
'Communicating largely through messages memorized by couriers, ascetic in the extreme, there are few clues as to bin Laden's presence in a given location.'
Although the Americans have posted a $50 million bounty on bin Laden's head, recently increased from $25 million, Burke says 'betrayal by a member of his inner circle seems unlikely.'
By: Brant
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