December 04, 2009
Osama bin Laden Spotted in Afghanistan (or not!)
A captured Taliban fighter claims to know where Osama bin Laden is. He's in Afghanistan's Ghazni province he says. Check the source, though. A friend told him.
If the Beebs were to start reporting what every Afghan or Pakistani had been told by a friend, then the entire service would be nothing but Jewish Yetis stealing Muslim children.
BBC:
"In 2009, in January or February I met this friend of mine. He said he had come from meeting Sheikh Osama, and he could arrange for me to meet him," he said.The BBC has an expert who says the report is believable. But then why not the hundreds of other bin Laden sightings?According to the detainee, his contact is a Mehsud tribesman, responsible for getting al-Qaeda operatives based abroad to meetings with Bin Laden.
"He helps al-Qaeda people coming from other countries to get to the sheikh, so he can advise them on whatever they are planning for Europe or other places.
"The sheikh doesn't stay in any one place. That guy came from Ghazni, so I think that's where the sheikh was."
The problem with these kinds of reports is that at some point one of them might be right. How do you weed out false positives from facts with limited resources?
And the evidence here is based on the kind of story easily made up for the sake of bravado and proving ones centrality and connectedness to the inner circle.
Now, add that to how the BBC gained access to the Taliban fighter:
According to a Pakistani security official he has close ties with leaders of the Taliban in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and was involved in kidnapping and fundraising operations.So, the Pakistanis hooked him up with the BBC. An interrogator listened in on the interview. That Pakistanis also vouched for the guy who conveniently says that bin Laden is somewhere else.We were given access to him twice in the past month. A Pakistani interrogator was listening in as he spoke.
And the report is released on the same day that British PM Gordon Brown met with Pakistan's Prime Minister. A meeting in which the Pakistanis knew Brown would press the PM to do more in finding bin Laden and other top al Qaeda leaders. Which he did.
And the PM responded on cue:
"I doubt the information which you are giving is correct because I don't think Osama bin Laden is in Pakistan," said Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani at a joint press conference with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown in London.This is all much too convenient. Yes, I question the timing.
