Quake Prompts Questions on Bin Laden(Did Alla get him for us?)
AP ^ | 10/11/05 | KATHERINE SHRADER,

http://www.freerepublic.com/focu...s/1501075/ posts

Posted on 10/12/2005 6:50:30 AM PDT by TigerLikesRooster


Quake Prompts Questions on Bin Laden

By KATHERINE SHRADER, Associated Press Writer
Tue Oct 11, 4:04 PM ET

Did Osama bin Laden's secret lair crumble in the earthquake that devastated northwest Pakistan? So far, U.S. government officials and terrorism experts caution against too much speculation about whether the al-Qaida chief may have been killed, injured or forced from hiding.

"There's a lot of people who know that that's an obvious question" was the most Pentagon spokesman Lawrence Di Rita would say Tuesday about U.S. thinking on bin Laden's fate.

Federal officials who track terrorism for a living said there's no evidence yet to suggest that bin Laden or his top deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri, was injured or killed in the quake.

Yet the quake has caused many in and out of government to ask, "What if?"

Bin Laden has managed to avoid capture for nearly a decade, including a feverish manhunt since he ordered the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. The United States is offering up to $25 million for information leading to his killing or capture.

He has been rumored to be taking cover anywhere from urban areas of Pakistan to remote cave structures winding along the Afghan-Pakistani border to villages in western Pakistan's lawless tribal areas.

Any of these possible hideouts could have been at least shaken by Saturday's 7.6-magnitude quake, forcing bin Laden to move.

Bruce Hoffman, a terrorism expert at the RAND Corp. in Washington, noted that some also theorize that he may be hiding in the disputed region of Kashmir, controlled by the Pakistani military, which was devastated by the temblor.

The region is difficult to move in and out of, Hoffman said, and Islamic extremist groups friendly to bin Laden have camps and operations there.

"It's enormously tempting to speculate" about bin Laden's situation, Hoffman said. But "without knowing where he is, it's impossible to say."
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Reid said this all happened on 11-23-05, on a show called KRNV-TV's "Nevada Newsmakers".
rita cheney | 12.01.05 - 12:45 pm | #