The News (India) Oct 2, 2001

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Osama digs himself in Pamir

By Nusrat Javeed

ISLAMABAD: After innumerable checks and counter-checks through satellite and human intelligence, the American and their allied forces in Afghanistan are getting convinced that Osama bin Laden has dug himself for the eventual showdown at a state-of-the-art military base, set in an extremely inaccessible nook of Pamir mountain range.

Till around a week ago, most people thought that Osama and his close aides were hiding in caves dug in a desolate province on the northeast of Kandahar, Ourzugan.

Mulla Omar, The Taliban leader, was born and brought up in Tarin Kot town of this province. The desperate "informants" from within the Northern Alliance kept telling the US and its allies that Osama will always feel secure while staying put in the home province of the Taliban leader.

As if to provide 'the deceptive substance' to suspicions of his being in Ourzugan, Osama and his protectors among the Taliban also plied truckload of provisions to this town from 15th to 20th of this month. The purpose was to create the illusion that Osama's outfit was storing provisions to survive in hiding.

Some 'deceptive shapes' were also created close to some sites in Jalalabad. Some Brits almost got convinced of them and appeared rushing for an assault on the said sites. But The News has found out from highly reliable sources that Russians were the first to point out a nook in the heights of Pamir mountain range as the possible hideout of Osama. Their intelligence officers also provided route maps to this location to US forces.

Shaped like a panhandle, the marked place has exit routes to three countries. Tajikistan and Pakistan's northern areas are located in the north and south of it. After turning to the East from this point, you can also reach the Muslim-majority province of China, Xinjiang. The peaks of this range average 20,000 feet while the highest point goes up to 25,000.

Ironically, Russians were also the first to discover the strategic potential of the said point called Little Pamir. During the presence of the USSR troops in Afghanistan, the area was virtually taken over by the former Soviet Union. Pakistan and its allies during the Afghan Jihad made a lot of noise over the "surrender of Wakhan corridor" to the Soviets by their puppets amongst the communist government in Kabul. But no one could really discover that the Soviets were storing the nuclear intercontinental ballistic missiles there. That was done with the purpose of providing Moscow with "third strike capability" in case of an atomic war.

Even after the withdrawal of the Soviet forces from Afghanistan in 1988, Moscow kept controlling and maintaining the said base till the fall of the Soviet Union in 1992. Osama got to know the strategic worth of this base through contacts he cultivated among the Kyrgyz and Kazakh citizens, who joined the Jihadi movement way back in mid 1985. Immediately after pushed to Afghanistan from Sudan because of the American and the Saudi pressure in 1994, he took control of the said site.

Though abandoned by the Russians by then, the base still had the supply of electricity in abundance. Coming from a family of established builders, Osama had no trouble in reconstructing the place as an ultimate citadel.

Thanks to a huge storage capacity, hundreds can survive for years while staying put at this base. "The residential quarters" of it is "buried" well under the mountains south of the Sari Qul Valley, a spot on the Tajik frontier north of Buzai Gumabad. "An alternative fort" is also erected there, in northeast of Wakhyir which has exit routes to the People's Republic of China.

'Deep throats' of some Israeli news portals have claimed that Osama is staying put at his hideout with a core group of 200 top operatives of his outfit, Al-Qaeda. More than 2,500 persons are also reported 'covering' the said base with positions taken at key entry points.

Aerial bombing, howsoever incessant and ruthless, wouldn't work against the suspected hideout of Osama bin Laden in Pamir mountain range. It's only through close encounters that his opponents can get there.

An untold number of commandos from the Seals and Delta units of the US forces are precisely preparing for that, it seems. An advance party of the said commandos is already reported to be crawling towards the said base, which highly reliable sources claim were 'launched' from a Dzhartymumbez base of Tajikistan three days ago. Osama and his die-hard followers are believed to be staying around 35 miles away from this launching site.

It's with very hi-tech and not-yet-used-in-real-combat weapons that the US commandos are reported to be inching towards Osama's base in Pamir mountain range. For the first time in real use would perhaps be a newly developed two barrelled rifle. Its lower barrel can fire ammunition of 5.56 mm calibre. The upper barrel of the same gun fires 20 mm shells from a distance of half a mile. It sends shells to explode over the targets before unleashing a rain of death.

The commandos talk to each other in virtual whispers, amplified through satellite enabled voice messaging received through the helmets of the addressed soldiers. They can also communicate with each other through message, written through a wrist mounted keyboard. The troops read these messages on the visor of their helmets.

The soldiers chasing Osama and his followers can also use a specially designed laser. It can pick and destroy an individual in a crowd by unleashing 2 mega watts of energy. Though, some defence experts told The News that before going for the "unavoidable" hand to hand combat, the US troops would certainly want to "smoke Osama and his followers out" of their citadel, with excessive use of GBU 15 system of penetrating bombs.

-- Lars (lars@indy.net), October 01, 2001

Answers

ISLAMABAD: After innumerable checks and counter-checks through satellite and human intelligence, the American and their allied forces in Afghanistan are getting convinced that Osama bin Laden has dug himself for the eventual showdown at a state-of-the-art military base, set in an extremely inaccessible nook of Pamir mountain range.

-- Lars (lars@indy.net), October 01, 2001.

I suppose Z thinks he predicted this as well

-- dum dum (as@stupid.does), October 01, 2001.

If ObL realy, truly is dug into this fixed defensive position, away from civilian populations, I would consider that to be excellent news. Taking out a fortress like this is the kind of task our military is good at and it looks possible to limit civilian deaths. This sounds almost too good to be true.

-- Little Nipper (canis@minor.net), October 02, 2001.