Not surprising that you would have terrorist collaborators in the Pakistani establishment. It is very hard to change course on a ship the size of Pakistan.
Pakistan ‘gives Al-Qaeda refuge’
Nicholas Rufford
OSAMA BIN LADEN is being given safe haven with the help of Pakistani officials, British security sources believe.
Recent intelligence reports coming from remote tribal areas of Pakistan have indicated the Al-Qaeda leader is being given refuge by senior figures in the regional government.
America has given Pakistan tens of millions of dollars since the start of the war on terrorism and the hunt for Bin Laden. There is growing impatience in Washington at the failure of the military to capture him.
He is believed to be hiding along the mountainous 1,500mile frontier between Pakistan and Afghanistan, where many people are hostile to America.
A senior British source said the growing view in the British and American intelligence communities was that Bin Laden was in the area and receiving support. “It’s the kind of help that suggests he is being protected or he has bought influence,” said the source.
A videotape broadcast last Friday by Al-Jazeera confirmed that Bin Laden was in good health, despite reports that he was dying of kidney failure. His gestures also contradicted rumours that he had lost the use of an arm. He was dressed in a golden cloak and white turban at a lectern, in a pose similar to those adopted by the candidates in the US presidential debates.
Bin Laden claimed President George W Bush had misled electors by saying America was safer now than it was three years ago. He taunted the president for giving the hijackers more time than they expected to carry out the September 11 attacks, claiming Bush continued to read the book My Pet Goat to schoolchildren in Florida when told that a plane had hit the World Trade Center.
“A little girl’s talk about her goat and its butting was more important than the planes and their butting of the skyscrapers,” Bin Laden said.
“The best way to avoid another Manhattan” was for the US to change its Middle East policy. “Your security is not in the hands of Kerry, Bush or Al-Qaeda. Your security is in your own hands,” Bin Laden said.
Magnus Ranstorp, a St Andrews University terrorism expert, said the tape could signal another attack: “There has often been a correlation between Bin Laden appearing and attacks being launched.”
The tape’s main purpose would be to undermine America’s sense of security and damage Bush. “What he’s saying is less important than the fact he appears at all,” Ranstorp said.