Bin Laden's last stand: The Pakistan connection

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Bin Laden's last stand: The Pakistan connection

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• Publié par: ycyzadom
• Nombre de lectures: 66
• Langue: Français

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BY ANGELA WANG

EPOCH TIMES STAFF

NEW YORK—Following the death of

al-Qaeda leader and 9/11 orchestra-

tor Osama bin Laden, families of

those who lost their lives shared

their thoughts on Monday.

For Sally Regenhard, whose son,

Christian, lost his life in the attacks

on New York’s World Trade Center,

the death of bin Laden means that

justice prevailed.

“My family is very gratified to

be given the news that Osama

bin Laden, after 10 long years, was

apprehended and executed for his

crimes against humanity that were

inflicted upon this country and this

city on September 11, 2001,” Regen-

hard said.

“I hope he had to experience the

same brutal and prolonged death

that the 3,000 people had to experi-

ence. He will not live to inspire any

more terrorists.”

For others, the news of bin Laden’s

death led to joy and relief. Mau-

reen Santora, whose 23-year-old son,

Christopher Santora, died in one

of the collapsed towers, described

her immediate feeling as “being

thrilled.”

“I was numb. I couldn’t believe it,

so I had to think it over and over

to make sure it was not a mistake,”

she said.

“I knew he would be caught. I’m

delighted it was our soldiers who

caught him. If we have patience, live

long enough, good things happen.”

“Today I feel honoured to be an

American citizen,” said Santora’s

husband.

Rosemary Cain said tearfully

that the news would be a great

present for her son George who

died in the attacks. His birthday

would have been next week.

“I got a phone call from another

mother and she said, ‘bin Laden

is dead! They found him!’ I was

stunned. I started to cry, and I

felt victory for George. I felt vic-

tory for all the souls of 9/11,” said

Cain.

“This is a joyous day for us. We

still have a long way to go, but

we got rid of one evil man, and

I’m grateful for that.”

But for others like Rosaleen

Tallon, the news was just anoth-

er reminder of the constantly

threatening terrorist force. “I had

10 years to learn that captur-

ing Osama bin Laden does not

mean that this is over. We have

to make sure that we continue

to pursue Islamic terrorists over

the world.”

Months before the attacks

took place, Tallon finished her

doctorate at Columbia Univer-

sity and married. Just when she

thought that her life was going

well, the news of the death of her

brother put her and her family

into despair.

She said the killing of one evil

figure is not enough to make up

for the loss in her family. “Even

though Osama bin Laden is dead,

we still can’t go back.”

Tallon said she has learned that

as long as a terrorist ideology is

alive, people are under threat.

“We constantly have to be

vigilant. They are going to

strike when they are going to

strike. They have a mission. It’s

not over.”

4

WORLD

MAY 5 – 11, 2011

BY JOSHUA PHILIPP

EPOCH TIMES STAFF

The final location of Osama bin

Laden was at a compound right

next to Pakistan’s leading mili-

tary academy. President Barack

Obama said intelligence on bin

Laden’s location was presented

to him in late August, suggest-

ing bin Laden was a long-term

resident at the location.

Obam a said he gave the go-

ahead on the mission last week,

after he “determ ined that we

had enough intelligence to take

action.”

Pakistan locals tweeted and

blogged as helicopters flew

overhead and as explosions

echoed from a compound near

the military academy. Local

resident Sohaib Athar posted

an image of the compound

on Twitter, which appeared to

be still in the process of con-

struction. Similar images of

the compound were posted by

Radio Free Europe.

The mountainous resort

town, full of Pakistan military,

and home to two of its larg-

est military bases in the north,

seems an unlikely place for bin

Laden to be hiding. According

to Jere Van Dyk, however, the

location sits perfectly with

what he was told by Taliban

fighters and local residents.

“Every single Afghan and

Pakistani Pashtun I met said

bin Laden was too big; not in

stature, but too big politically,

too important for them to hide.

It would be impossible for him

to hide in a so-called cave along

the border,” he said.

Van Dyk lived alongside the

mujahideen Muslim fighters, in

the 1980s and maintains con-

tact with high-ranking Afghan

officials. He was captured by

the Taliban in 2008, an experi-

ence he recounts in his book,

“Captive: My Time as a Prisoner

of the Taliban.”

While Van Dyk was in the

Taliban prison, he was told by

his jailor and by bodyguards

that bin Laden was “being kept

by an institution deep inside

Pakistan where you will never

find them.”

“By institution I think they

meant some part of the Paki-

stani military,” Van Dyk said.

While covering the earth-

quake in Pakistan in 2005,

Van Dyk was allowed access to

Abottabad, where bin Laden

was killed. He said just north

of there is where the Pakistanis

“train their militants … to fight

in Kashm ir ... and Abottabad

has two large military bases

right there.”

He added that from his

experiences and knowledge of

the culture in the region, it is

unlikely that bin Laden’s pres-

ence was unknown.

“I don’t think it’s possible,” he

said. “I don’t see how Pakistan

can avoid the very clear evi-

dence that he was not hiding

independently.”

The location is an odd piece

of the puzzle. The Pakistan

government, including its for-

eign office and the office of

the prime minister, expressed

support for the operation,

calling it a victory. The Tali-

ban meanwhile is doubling

up retaliatory threats against

both the U.S. and the Paki-

stani governments.

The weight has largely

fallen on the Pakistani mili-

tary, and more specifically

its intelligence agency, the

Inter-Services Intelligence

(ISI). The ISI was accused of

supporting and aiding both

al-Qaeda and the Taliban in a

leaked report commissioned

by the U.K. government in

2006, cited by a Council on

Foreign Relations report.

Similar accusations against

the ISI have appeared since.

A U.S. intelligence official

with knowledge of the raid

told The Long War Journal

that the ISI “could not be

trusted” with details on the

raid.

Similarly, in an interview

with Radio Free Europe, Far-

zana Shaikh, a Pakistan spe-

cialist at the Chatham House

think tank in London, noted

that in July, Secretary of State

Hillary Clinton accused the

Pakistan government of w ith-

holding information on bin

Laden’s location.

Obama said in his May 1

speech, “Over the years, I’ve

repeatedly made clear that

we would take action within

Pakistan if we knew where

bin Laden was. That is what

we’ve done.”

In 2005, Van Dyk was able

to interview the man who

founded the mujahideen and

who rode into Kabul with the

Taliban in 1996. He revealed,

Van Dyk recalls, that “the ISI

is a disciplined, technical part

of the Pakistani army. There

are no such things as rogue

elements.”

The significance of this is

that if this statement were

true, there would be no divi-

sions in support for the Tali-

ban and al-Qaeda among the

ISI, Van Dyk said.

“There are a lot of people in

Pakistan who feel that the

United States is truly there for

one reason—that is to prevent

a Muslim country from hav-

ing nuclear weapons. We’re

not seen as a friend,” he said.

“Everybody I know there

would say Pakistan is trying

to create chaos here, with the

Taliban and al-Qaeda, in order

to get money from the U.S.”

Bin Laden’s last stand:

The Pakistan connection

Pakistani soldiers approach the suburb of Bilal Town, near the compound where Osama bin Laden

was reported killed on May 2 in Abottabad, Pakistan.

WARRICK PAGE/GETTY IMAGES

I knew he would

be caught. I’m

delighted it was

our soldiers who

caught him.

MAUREEN SANTORA

File photo of the now-deceased Osama bin Laden.

GETTY IMAGES

BY ALEX JOHNSTON

EPOCH TIMES STAFF

In the days since al-Qaeda leader

Osama bin Laden’s death, a wealth

of information has emerged about

the last several hours of his life.

Information that was acquired

by the team of Navy SEALs was

sent to an FBI lab on Wednesday,

coinciding with their return from

Pakistan to the U.S., reported ABC

News.

Bin Laden looked poised to

run at a moment’s notice, with

around 500 euros and two

phones stitched into his clothing,

according to ABC.

Also seized from the compound

near Islamabad were around 100

digital media items, disks, DVDs,

and pen drives, among other

items. They were transported to

an FBI facility for examination.

“There’s a lot we have to go

through, some encryption, some

coding. It’s in another language.

It’s in Arabic, so there’s a lot to

go through before we really find

out what we have, but remember

small pieces of information can

be critically important,” Mike

Rogers, a Michigan Republican

who heads the House Intelligence

Committee, told ABC.

On Tuesday it was announced

that the SEALs shot bin Laden

even though he was not armed.

Attorney General Eric Holder on

Wednesday defended the move.

“He made no attempt to sur-

render, and I tend to agree with

you that even if he had, there

would be a good basis on the part

of those very brave Navy SEAL

team members to do what they

did in order to protect themselves

and the other people who were in

that building,” he said before the

Senate Judiciary Committee.

He added that the special forces

who shot the al-Qaeda leader and

admitted mastermind of the 9/11

attacks “was entirely lawful and

consistent with our values.”

Bin laden escape plan: 500

euros and two cell phones

BY JACK PHILLIPS

EPOCH TIMES STAFF

Around the Western world

leaders and citizens hailed the

long-sought killing of Septem-

ber 11 mastermind Osama bin

Laden on Monday, but some

remained wary of a potential

backlash from terror cells as

they warn that the demise of

bin Laden is not the end of the

terror threat.

U.S. Secretary of State Hil-

lary Clinton said the decade-

long War on Terror that was

initiated by former President

George W. Bush is not over by

a long shot even though the

al-Qaeda head is no longer in

the picture.

“Cooperation will be just as

important in the days ahead,

because even as we mark this

milestone, we should not forget

that the battle to stop al-Qaeda

and its syndicate of terror will

not end with the death of bin

Laden,” Clinton said.

Afghanistan and Pakistan

will still remain the front lines

in the war. The message to the

Taliban and al-Qaeda “remains

the same, but today it may

have even greater resonance,”

she added.

“You cannot wait us out. You

cannot defeat us. But you can

make the choice to abandon

al-Qaeda and participate in

a peaceful political process,”

said Clinton.

U.K Prime Minister David

Cameron said bin Laden’s

death “will bring great relief

to people across the world” but

it will “not mark the end of the

threat we face ... we will have to

be particularly vigilant in the

weeks ahead.”

French President Nicholas

Sarkozy, likewise said, “The

scourge of terrorism suffered

a historic defeat, but this is not

the end of al-Qaeda.”

Many heads of governments,

coalitions, and international

organizations around the world

echoed similar sentiments.

However, several states like

Iran say the U.S. and its allies

should discontinue their pres-

ence in Afghanistan.

“We hope that this recent devel-

opment will end the war, conflict,

and the death of innocent people

and help establish peace in the

region,” Iran Foreign Secretary

Ram in Mehmanparast stated

on Monday. He further said this

“clearly shows that there is no

need for a major military deploy-

ment to attack one person.”

Some analysts and think tanks

say that a retaliatory strike from

an extrem ist faction is a very

real possibility.

Council on Foreign Relations

head Richard N. Haass said bin

Laden’s death is “a milestone, not

a turning point, in what remains

an ongoing struggle without a

foreseeable end.”

The greater significance of

taking bin Laden down is not

so much practical as it is sym-

bolic, he said. “Any celebration

needs to be tempered by two

realities. The first is that bin

Laden’s demise is in no way to

be equated with the demise of

terrorism,” says Haass.

The second reality is that

“Pakistan, home of some of the

most dangerous terrorists in the

world, is decidedly less than a

full partner” with the U.S. in the

War on Terror.

“Terrorism will continue.

Indeed, it could even grow

somewhat worse in the short

run as there are sure to be those

who will want to show that they

can still strike against

the West,”

Haass said.

Bin Laden is dead but

terror threat remains

For 9/11 victims,

bin Laden’s death

brings relief, tears

New Yorkers gathered at the World Trade Center site on Monday

.

PHOEBE ZHENG/THE EPOCH TIMES

I don’t see how Pakistan

can avoid the very clear

evidence that he was not

hiding independently.

JERE VAN DYK