NYPost

CHANCES ‘HIGH' OSAMA IS ALIVE By JOHN LEHMANN --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

AS IT WHIR: Sea Knight helicopters touch down yesterday at the Marine base in Kandahar while Afghan fighters set off to hunt Taliban chief Mullah Omar. - Associated Press

December 31, 2001 -- Fresh U.S. intelligence shows "high probabilities" that Osama bin Laden is still alive, and fears are growing in Afghanistan that hard-line Taliban militants are regrouping. The double dose of bad news came as a new search for Taliban leader Mullah Muhammad Omar began in mountains in western Afghanistan.

Officials in southern Afghanistan said 6,000 soldiers had been recruited to trap Omar, who escaped Kandahar before it fell to U.S.-backed forces.

And even as the trail seems to be going cold for bin Laden, Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Bob Graham revealed that the latest U.S. intelligence indicated he was still in hiding.

"The latest intelligence we've had indicates that the high probabilities are that bin Laden is still alive," Graham (D-Fla.) told CNN's "Late Edition."

"Where he is is a question mark. The trail has gone cold as to whether he's still in the caves of Tora Bora or in fact has slipped into Pakistan."

The revelation came as senior officials in Afghanistan's new government said it fears dangerous Taliban leaders have blended into local communities and are already regrouping.

While 150 Taliban and al Qaeda soldiers are now in U.S. custody, Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah said yesterday "quite a few have disguised themselves and gone elsewhere."

Senior advisers to Afghan Prime Minister Hamid Karzai told NBC News that senior Taliban leaders were being assisted by allies in Pakistan to evade capture.

The advisers reportedly said that some Taliban leaders might have changed their style of dress and were pretending to have cut ties with the Taliban while secretly rebuilding.

U.S. military sources said some of the prisoners had told interrogators they had not seen bin Laden since Dec. 14, about the same time he apparently taped the video broadcast last week.

In a sign of divisions within the new Afghanistan government, Abdullah differed sharply from another ministerial colleague by suggesting bin Laden was still in Afghanistan.

Defense Minister Mohammad Fahim said last week bin Laden had probably escaped to the north-western Pakistani city of Peshawar and his al Qaeda lieutenants had dispersed, rendering more U.S. airstrikes pointless.

But Abdullah said yesterday the relentless bombing campaign that began Oct. 7 "should continue as long as it takes to finish the terrorists."

As Abdullah spoke out, the Pentagon said U.S. bombers had hit a suspected Taliban leadership complex outside the eastern Afghan city of Gardez.

Two Air Force B-1B bombers fired precision-guided missiles Friday night at the compound, located 10 miles from Gardez, military officers said.

"We had indications that there were senior Taliban officials at the facility," said Pentagon spokesman Marine Lt. Col. Dave Lepan.

The Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press reported yesterday that the bombing killed at least 15 people, mostly women and children.

As tension continued to rise between India and Pakistan, fears also emerged that Pakistan might be compromising the hunt for bin Laden while preparing for a possible war with its neighbor.

Witnesses in the western Pakistani town of Chaman said Pakistan was thinning out troops along the Afghan border while building up its military presence on the disputed Kashmiri border.

In another development, Pakistan froze the accounts of two nuclear scientists suspected of links with bin Laden. With Post Wire Services

-- Anonymous, December 31, 2001

Answers

What these "optimistic" articles don't seem to address is, what happened to his left arm?

-- Anonymous, December 31, 2001