Press Trust of India
Posted online: Monday, November 01, 2004 at 1231 hours IST
Updated: Monday, November 01, 2004 at 1255 hours IST
New York, November 1: Osama bin Laden, who has resurfaced on the eve of the US Presidential polls does not seem like a hunted terrorist in the just released tape and the backdrop of the video suggests as if he is living comfortably in an urban setting in Pakistan.
"He is not tired, is not running and is not worried, Newsweekmagazine quoted one Taliban official as saying.
It was the second tape to be aired within a week. On Thursday, ABC television network had broadcast footage of an angry, fluent-English speaking man claiming to be an American member of al-Qaeda who promised attacks that will make us streets "run red with blood." the tape had an electronic logo at the bottom of the image -- the same logo that appeared on the bin Laden tape and other Qaeda videos, the magazine said.
Just a few weeks ago, the news magazine said, America’s finest intelligence agents and analysts believe they might be on the verge of a big breakthrough in the manhunt for bin Laden. The net was closing on a Qaeda operative in Pakistan who, it was hoped, could lead them to bin laden.
"It looked like we were really close, maybe one or two people away," one US official told Newsweek. "There was a lot of optimism around here."
At the same time, in the lawless tribal territories close to the afghan border, 30,000 Pakistani troops were on a hunt for al-Qaeda members. Backed by jets and helicopter gunships, Pakistanis in an operation had killed 246 al-Qaeda members. But after eight months of military operations, bin Laden was nowhere to be found. Intelligence agencies had warned earlier this month that the only missing piece of the puzzle in their "threat matrix" was the sight of bin Laden -- a possible signal for an attack. With no evidence of an ongoing plot, but more than enough fear to go around, attorney general John Ashcroft ordered the FBI to step up "intrusive" surveillance of suspected Islamic militants in the us, the magazine said. The FBI is expanding its operations to a second-tier list of several hundred more suspects, pulling in manpower from other agencies, including drug teams and US marshals, in the wake of new threat issued by Laden. (Source: Express India Website)
