By Lynn Philip Hodgson, Canadian Editor: Eye Spy Magazine
 

They are searching for him in Afghanistan, in Pakistan, and in Iran.  But they’re looking in all the wrong places.

 And where should they be looking for bin Laden?  Quite simply, in the mountains of Tora Bora, the same area that the Americans declared, “clean” following weeks of
relentless bombing.

 Why Tora Bora?  Because Bin Laden is a sick man, but he is not stupid.  Would he be foolish enough to simply hide in a cave with little more than a couple al Qaeda fighters standing guard, their AK 47's the only resistance to any surprise invaders?   And are we foolish enough to believe that he would do so?

   No, he has been planning his diabolical schemes for years and, had September 11 not been successful, had additional plans at the ready that he would have continued to execute until he succeeded.

 We must remember also that bin Laden is a very wealthy engineer with virtually limitless resources.  Given the technology, he could easily personify the Hollywood image of the mad scientist with the weaponry to annihilate the target of his choosing.  A laser, carefully aimed from a satellite, could vaporize an entire city: Washington, for example.  One need only look at what he accomplished on September 11 with just a few suicide bombers to imagine his ultimate potential.

Keep in mind as well that, according to the CIA’s own published accounts, bin Laden and al Qaeda had trained thousands of terrorists in his various camps throughout Afghanistan.  Of them, how many were captured?  I believe that the number of detainees is fewer than four hundred at Camp X-ray in Cuba, none of whom were among bin Laden’s top aides.

 The explanation for this is simple: bin Laden, his top military men, and his elite guards have never left Tora Bora.  In fact, he was there before September 11, remained there during the attack, and is still there today.  He hasn’t moved from those mountains.  The interrogation of the al Qaeda prisoners at Camp X-ray by the Americans has not revealed his whereabouts simply because the prisoners don't know where he is.

In his infamous tape shown worldwide by Al-Jazeera some months after the September 11 attack, bin Laden laughed with pride as he stated, “And our own people were not even aware of the mission until just before the planes flew into the buildings.”  This serves as evidence of their ignorance regarding his plan.

Secondly, even if any of them did know of bin Laden’s secret installation, they would not reveal it under any circumstances.  People who would commit suicide in the name of bin Laden would not likely give in to any type of interrogation designed to force disclosure of his location.

And thirdly, published articles on the subject have reported the frustrations of the Americans in hearing so many conflicting stories as to bin Laden's whereabouts.  The al Qaeda prisoners merely had to stick to their stories, and under torture, have a second or even a third story at the ready, all designed to confuse the Americans further.  The al Qaeda fighters are highly trained both physically and psychologically.  Their American interrogators are well aware of this, which is why the al Qaeda fighters are at Camp X-ray and not in some POW camp in Afghanistan.

The American interrogators are not fools either.  They realize that the al Qaeda is playing one of the oldest games in the book: each of the al Qaeda has memorized a cover story, and each story is different.  They know through their training that if you tell a lie often enough, it becomes the truth.

For the Americans, this game had its origins during World War II.  The British SOE (Special Operations Executive) wrote the training Syllabus for their secret agents with this in mind and later trained the OSS (Office of Strategic Services) accordingly upon the Americans' entry into the War.  When the Americans found discarded copies of the al Qaeda training manual, it bore a striking resemblance to the OSS Syllabus.

“The surest way to hide is to be one of a crowd.  Look and act like the others and you will not be noticed.”  This quote is from the OSS Syllabus, and was also found in the al Qaeda training manual, which went on to say, “You must, for the sake of Allah, shave your beard off, cut your hair short, discard your turban and look every part an American.”

Mohammed Atta followed this instruction to the letter, as made evident by a surveillance camera as he boarded one of the planes on September 11 and proceeded to fly his suicide mission.

Next edition: The Whereabouts of Bin Laden, and how to find him.

General Tommy Frank’s chief spokesman, Rear Admiral Craig Quigley, said, “You need to see some sort of physical concrete proof.” (Ed. Note: in this case, that bin Laden is, in fact, alive)

Quigley couldn’t be closer to the truth!