In other related news...CIA director: US has not had good intelligence on Osama bin Laden in years
The United States has not had good intelligence on the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden, the al-Qaeda leader, in years, Leon Panetta, the director of the CIA, admitted on Sunday.
He also gave a sobering account of the war in Afghanistan, saying the Taliban seemed to be strengthening with a stepped-up campaign of violence, even as US-led forces undermine the Islamist movement with attacks on its leadership.
Of greatest concern, he said, was al-Qaeda's reliance on operatives without previous records or those living in the US.
"We are engaged in the most aggressive operations in the history of the CIA in that part of the world, and the result is that we are disrupting their leadership," Mr Panetta told ABC television's "This Week".
The rare assessment from the US spy chief comes as President Barack Obama builds up US forces in Afghanistan to prop up the government and prevent al-Qaeda from returning. Mr Panetta said only 50 to 100 militants were believed to be operating inside Afghanistan.
Mr Panetta said the al-Qaeda leadership was at its weakest point since the Sept 11, 2001 attacks, but admitted that he had not had reliable intelligence on the location of the group's leader since "the early 2000s".
"Since then, it's been very difficult to get any intelligence on his exact location," he said. "He is, as is obvious, in very deep hiding ... He's in an area of the tribal areas of Pakistan."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... s-CIA.html
Osama bin Laden is still in Pakistan, says CIA
Osama bin Laden is still hiding in Pakistan, the CIA has said.
A 70+ year old man on dialysis who used to live in a cave in Afghanistan has managed to elude an advanced and sophisticated intelligence service capable of reading the printing on the letters in your mailbox while at the same time, the world's most powerful and technologically superior military has been bogged down in a 3rd world country for 9 years now against insurgents who use camels and 'night letters' to communicate... with no end in sight!
Anyone who still believes we're in Afghanistan to defeat terrorism in a 'war on terror' needs a head examination.
