Hunt for Bin Laden Heats Up
The search zeroes in on three locations.
Claims of the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden seem to be as common as sightings of David Duchovny at porn shops. It is tempting to dismiss all such accounts as hearsay and rumors, but current reports focus on three areas of the world as the most likely hideout for the globe’s most wanted man: Parachinar, Pakistan; Chitra, Pakistan; and most shockingly, the Islamic Republic of Iran.
While it is often argued bin Laden would never receive harbor on Iranian territory, this is the location most identified by eyewitness reports available to the public, allowing for a detailed chronology of his movement in Iran to be drawn, as I attempted to do in a comprehensive report last month. Stunning new evidence has come out substantiating such allegations, which should make those who adhere to the outdated “Iran would never work with Sunni radicals” theory stammer so much you’d think they were Ozzy Osbourne.
Alan Howell Parrot, the director of the Union for the Conservation of Raptors (UCR), is dedicated to protecting the falcons of the Middle East, which are used in hunting, a love shared by Osama bin Laden and the highest officials of the Gulf countries. His website, SaveTheFalcons.org, shows how al-Qaeda and other terrorists and criminals in the region are heavily involved in the illegal trade of the highly sought-after birds.
As revealed by Dr. Rachel Ehrenfeld at the Huffington Post, of all places, Parrot says that members of the UCR have met with bin Laden in Iran six times. These meetings occurred in Zahedan, which was identified by the government as the location of an al-Qaeda network in January; in a safe house north of Tehran, similar to the description provided by Iranian defectors; and in Mashhad, another location known to be long used by al-Qaeda to smuggle personnel in and out of Iran.
She writes that Parrot has been sending the information on the meetings to the government since November 2004, but no members of his staff that tracked and met with bin Laden were interviewed. Parrot also wrote a letter to the State Department on January 20 saying he had spoken with Iranian officials about the matter and “a negotiated and political (i.e., non-military) solution is available,” consisting of the transfer of bin Laden from Iranian custody to the Saudi minister of foreign affairs, a friend of Parrot’s. He received no reply.
Ken Timmerman, whom I consider to be a Luke Skywalker of journalism, has talked to Parrot and has the rest of the details. Through an informant, Parrot was able to arrange a meeting with a Tajik smuggler who reported befriending bin Laden after unintentionally meeting him in November 2004 near Baluchistan and meeting him five more times in Iran, the last being in October 2007. The smuggler met with Parrot in March 2008 and videotaped him, in disguise, for a documentary Parrot was making. The smuggler came with a security force that called him repeatedly throughout the interview, ready to charge in the moment he didn’t silence it after a few rings.
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Ryan Mauro is the founder of WorldThreats.com and the director of intelligence at the Asymmetrical Warfare and Intelligence Center (AWIC). He’s also the national security researcher for the Christian Action Network and a published author. He can be contacted at TDCAnalyst@aol.com.
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30 Comments
1. jvon:Come on now. Accidentally met bin Laden in 2004? This is a guy with a multi-million dollar bounty on his head. I don’t think anyone is “unintentionally” meeting him.
Apr 10, 2009 - 2:26 am 2. Richard:Why can’t the new American president just summon him from afar.
Apr 10, 2009 - 4:02 am 3. Stephen Fox:Maybe Osama would come out of hiding if Obama bowed to him! After all, isn’t that what those of that particular religious stripe want from us all?
I can’t get over Mr Parrot being so solicitous for the welfare of falcons. A bit like Mr Mouse looking after cats, or Mr Rabbit caring for foxes.
Apr 10, 2009 - 5:29 am 4. Terry Gain:Too late for April fools though…
Sorry to be frivolous.
Mush.
Apr 10, 2009 - 6:13 am 5. wildman:have they looked in the whitehouse? He may be running our economic and foreign policy
Apr 10, 2009 - 7:37 am 6. The Historian:PUT JOHN KERRY ON OSAMA’S TRAIL
Right after he is done solving the Somali pirates problem.
http://greensrealworld.blogspot.com/2009/04/somali-pirates-beware-john-f.html
Apr 10, 2009 - 7:47 am 7. Pastor of Muppets:If you really think that Bin Laden is still alive, I’ve got a bridge to sell your gullible behind.
For chrissakes, he was hiding in a cave on a dialysis machine in 2001!
Do you really think that’s a long-term survival scenario??
Apr 10, 2009 - 8:02 am 8. Scott:I noticed that the reference to the Tajik / Iran border in the first paragraph in the second page has been removed, along with my comment mentioning that Tajikistan doesn’t border Iran. Turkmenistan does. You could have just hat-tipped me instead of deleting my comment. Is PJM or Kos?
Apr 10, 2009 - 8:48 am 9. John Haeberle:Minor point but it goes to credibility: Falcons aren’t “hunted for sport” anywhere. Falconry is the use of birds of prey to hunt other critters, and it’s accepted and legal here in the states.
It makes one wonder what else was “misunderstood” …
Apr 10, 2009 - 9:16 am 10. TexEd:(1) Why hasn’t this been handled? Didn’t Obama say that he was going to catch this evil doer quickly? It took God only seven days to create the heavens and earth; why has it taken Lord Obama so long?
Apr 10, 2009 - 9:37 am 11. Peter the Bubblehead:(2) The answere may be that Obama/Osama are really the same person! Yes, has anyone actually seen them in the same room together? Oh, sure, they both claim to see each other at family gatherings in Kenya or at events at the mosque, but can anyone prove that they are not one in the same?
7. Pastor of Muppets wrote:
If you really think that Bin Laden is still alive, I’ve got a bridge to sell your gullible behind.
Peter writes: And you believe those myths? Talk about gullible! the whole Bin Laden on dialysis myth was debunked YEARS ago!
Apr 10, 2009 - 9:48 am 12. e:“…myths include the widespread belief that bin Laden requires dialysis treatment…”
http://spectator.org/archives/2006/02/09/dialysis-analysis
I think there is a legitimate argument that Osama may have passed…for one thing he hasn’t updated his myspace page in a while.
But seriously, as a person Bin Laden is just one person. Killing or capturing would be a great PR win, but the point of the GWOT is to deny terrorists funding, training and safe havens so they will be unable to make any attacks.
Stopping an attack at the operational phase is important too, but its much safer and effective to prevent them earlier.
Apr 10, 2009 - 10:22 am 13. Craig:“Claims of the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden seem to be as common as sightings of David Duchovny at porn shops.”
OUCH. Fox Mulder must’ve run into a couple of aliens there.
Apr 10, 2009 - 10:37 am 14. kywrite:“Hunting falcons for sport” means they are used to strike and kill small game and other birds, not that you run around shooting falcons. The reason it’s a conservation issue is that many trainers take the eggs right from the nest so babies will impress on them, not their parents, and be a million times more trainable — and sometimes trainers have to kill the mothers to take the eggs. It causes serious problems, especially in already-endangered species.
I personally find this very, very believable; it has long been known that Bin Laden is a falconry fanatic, as are many other Saudis. I hope the feds begin taking these allegations seriously — and I hope that the next person with an extragovernmental chance to take out Bin Laden does it, and collects the damn reward. THAT will be money well spent indeed.
Apr 10, 2009 - 10:54 am 15. Delia:I hope Osama is worm meat. This cretin, evil, piece of filth behind 9/11 better damned well be dead if his slimy, curry reeking carcass knows what is good for him.
That is all.
Apr 10, 2009 - 11:11 am 16. Tim Furnish:I’ve been arguing for two years (at least) that UBL is in Iran: http://www.mahdiwatch.org/2007.06.01_arch.html
Apr 10, 2009 - 11:29 am 17. e:16. Tim Furnish:I’ve been arguing for two years (at least) that UBL is in Iran
Possible but unlikely. Iran has little to gain for sheltering Bin Laden. If the Iranian Gov. knew about him they’d likely have him record propaganda regularly.
The Sunni-Shiia problem doesn’t help Osama in Iran either.
Apr 10, 2009 - 11:54 am 18. Pastor of Muppets:Peter the Bubblehead writes: “And you believe those myths? Talk about gullible! the whole Bin Laden on dialysis myth was debunked YEARS ago!
“…myths include the widespread belief that bin Laden requires dialysis treatment…”
http://spectator.org/archives/2006/02/09/dialysis-analysis
Sorry, but a single article from the Spectator is simply not enough proof of your claim.
Apr 10, 2009 - 11:55 am 19. e:Plus the US military thinks that they injured Osama with a MOAB near the Pakistani border.
Apr 10, 2009 - 11:55 am 20. Tim Furnish:e,
Apr 10, 2009 - 12:06 pm 21. e:Ah, but methinks you’re falling prey to conventional wisdom on the Sunni-Shi`i discord issue. As I’ve also argued in a number of venues (most notably “The Importance of being Mahdist,” “The Weekly Standard,” Sep. 8, 2008), Iran is making an ecumenical bid for leadership of the entire ummah, not just the Shi`i side of the house–why else support the likes of Hamas, as well as various Sunni groups and organizations in West (and other parts of) Africa?
18. Pastor of Muppets:
Stick to your guns! Don’t ever let evidence get in the way of facts!
Apr 10, 2009 - 12:12 pm 22. Oscar the Grump:If you are looking for Bin-Laden, I’m sure I saw him at least three times in a Culver City, CA store. Anyone who is interested in the reward should go to Culver City and kill as many loo-a-likes as possible. Who knows, you might get the right one.
Apr 10, 2009 - 4:20 pm 23. Still Bill:Sissy Boy Bin Laden is going to die of old age in the rabbit hole he is hiding in unless his gutless Muslim yellow ass comes out. I have a pet rabbit, and she has more courage than that prick. God Bless America!
Apr 10, 2009 - 4:42 pm 24. typos_R_us:What a laugh! Osama bin hiding is at a CIA safe house in Miami (Dade county). The last cross checked ( comm intercepts, many eyewitness accounts) location for him was at Kabul Airport. After that all you have are either comm Id’s or eyewitness accounts, both of which can be faked. It is possible to semi-fake a dual linkage IF you have a impostor that can fool eyewitnesses working off a photo.
Apr 10, 2009 - 10:33 pm 25. Jim Baker:Digital recorders are good enough to allow him to make a recording that can be played over a cell phone that can fool the tech guys. Remember, when it comes to commercial technology, the terrorists generally have better tech then the good guys. It is only in the cutting edge military stuff that we have an advantage.
The theory I favor is that Bin Laden ALWAYS has another exit. Just like Saddam and any other reasonably intelligent person being pursued by a nation as powerful as the USA.
So when he was almost trapped in Jubal, he called in a favor, or blackmailed somebody at the CIA to bail him out. I would guess blackmail. About half of the money spent in Afghanistan throwing out the Soviets vanished. How many CIA agents ended that op with a fatter bank account somewhere that Uncle Sam can’t get a quick peek at?
So the Russians flew him out on a military transport. That plane was picked up and tracked by the AWACS controlling the air battle. It was noticed because the Russians were not exactly welcomed in Afghanistan. That was the ONLY Russian aircraft to enter ‘gani airspace during the bombing phase of the ‘gani campaign. Shortly after the plane lifted off, Osama vanished. He showed up later on comm intercepts, as one of his faithful minions started using his cell and the digital recorder to lay a false trail. Meanwhile, bin Laden got new papers in Moscow and hopped a jet to Miami.
Where better to hide then your enemies back yard? Where is the last place the US will look for him? Stick one of those bennie thangies on his head and he is just another tall skinny Jew. So you stash him someplace where there are a lot of tall skinny Jews and go have a cold one. Plus, running a terrorist or resistance cell of any sort only requires one way communications. Osama can get messages out because NSA is looking for messages coming in and Congress won’t let them look for messages going out. Instructions sent out by phone or e-mail and acknowledgments done by internet post on a web site.
Where is the evidence that Osama has medical problems? Walk the cat back and see when those rumors started. After 9-11.
No, he has been playing the CIA, and every other US intelligence service. The man is as healthy as any normal man in his 50’s that doesn’t drink smoke, eats a healthy diet and gets plenty of exercise.
One thing anyone with an IQ above room temperature knows is that he isn’t where the CIA thinks he is. If he was, they would have caught him. QED.
I don’t buy the Iranian scenario. Not because of the shia-sunni thang, but because Sudan put cuffs on him and offered him up to Clinton for some weapons (F-16’s was what I heard, but I really thought that was a rumor). Obama…. whoopsie, OSAMA, isn’t the sort of lad that steps on the same dog turd again. What would the Mad Dog Mullahs want in return for Osama? Osama doesn’t want to find out. I think the sightings are of his son, who IS in Iran. No secret about that, since he isn’t hiding. I think an uncle is taking care of him. Remember the Laden family construction firm is the Halliburton of the Muslim world and has many projects in Iran.
We will never catch him. The only way to catch him is to out think him, and there is nobody at the CIA capable of doing that.
I believe that Obama knows where Bin Laden is. I also believe that George Bush has known where Bin Laden is nearly continuously for the last 5 years. Every since Bush changed his tune and said that, “It would be great to catch Bin Laden, but the focus of the WOT is to disable Al Queda, and if we find Bin Laden in the process, then that would be nice.” I believe that the US compromised the Al Queda communications network a long time ago, and that if they capture Bin Laden, Al Queda will know that they have. The USA may just believe that Bin Laden is much more useful to us alive rather than captured or dead.
Apr 11, 2009 - 5:33 pm 26. Jim Baker:So, relating to the article and in my view, it is quite possible that there have been sightings of this towel headed monster, but you won’t get the government to confirm or deny any of it. So, obviously I disagree with you, typos_R_us and with all you others, who think that Obama should have produced Osama by now.
One more thing, I did not quote George Bush, I only recounted my best memory of that quote. Best I can do without spending a lot of time researching the exact quote. Sorry.
Apr 11, 2009 - 5:35 pm 27. vivo:Bin Laden has joined the Elvis club. UFO’s anyone?
Apr 12, 2009 - 4:39 am 28. Ran:“The search zeros in on three locations.”
Let’s see: His head. His chest…
Apr 12, 2009 - 9:31 am 29. typos_R_us:NSA only intercepts electromagnetic communications. AL Qeada knows this. That means ANY intercept needs to be taken with a grain of salt. Maybe two. If your enemy knows you are listening to him, won’t he use that to his advantage?
Apr 12, 2009 - 1:04 pm 30. Oscar the Grump:Back in the 9th century, a Byzantine General ‘arranged’ for a forged letter from an enemy general’s top aide to fall into the enemy general’s hands. Naturally the enemy general was suspicious, but he thought maybe it was a plot by those sneaky Greeks ( which is what the Muslims of that day called the Eastern Roman Empire). So the Byzantine general sent out a cavalry raid and burned a bunch of farms, skipping the farm of the Muslim General’s aide. The aide was executed shortly there after.
In low level conflicts, very few things are what they seem to be. Especially in the Middle East.
When wars are fought with deceit and stealth, NEVER believe your senses.
Remember, the CIA, DIA, DoD, DOS, etc. are all bureaucracies. So while the guy at this desk ( bureau) might not know where anything is, the guy 4 desks over might just be signing off on the utility bill for Osama’s hideout. President Bush DID not know where Osama was hiding. That doesn’t mean someone at the CIA didn’t know. Or somebody at State. State and the CIA stabbed President Bush in the back several times. It got so bad he ‘killed’ the CIA in bureaucratic terms. The CIA now reports to Homeland Security, which also controls their budget. In bureaucratic terms, the CIA was decapitated.
No matter what you want to call the war Islam is waging against the West, it will mostly be a war in the shadows. Their advantage in a shadow war is a great as the West’s advantage in any other type of warfare. Our only hope is that shadow wars are seldom conclusive. Decades of terrorism practiced by Saddam were undone by 21 days of mechanized warfare.
Folks, I’m sure I saw Bin Laden at the Culver City Mall at least six more times. Its not too late. You can grab your gun and shoot him dead for that huge reward. So what if you happen to plug a few look-a-likes. Its worth a few accidental shootings to get the right guy. Colateral damage.
Apr 13, 2009 - 8:23 pm