U.S. covert bin Laden mission

Elite American commandos and agents from the CIA and FBI are
increasingly embarking on dare-devil, do-or-die missions in Pakistan’s
no-man tribal territories — sneaking into Afghanistan in their bid to
track down Osama bin Laden.

At least three U.S. commandos who were on one such top-secret mission
are now missing inside Afghanistan, and the U.S. Embassy in neighboring
Pakistan was desperately trying to ascertain their fate, though
officially denying any tragedy involving U.S. nationals.

Two high-ranking U.S. diplomats, principal officer Brad Hanson and
his assistant, who work for the U.S. Consulate in Peshawar, capital of
Pakistan’s Northwest Frontier Province, visited the areas close to the
tribal lands and met high local officials to seek their support in
tracing the missing commandos. The U.S. Embassy in the Pakistan capital
of Islamabad, however, played down the visit as a “routine call” prior
to Hanson’s retirement.

The go-ahead to the U.S. commandos appears to have been given after
the meeting of President Clinton with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.
Sharif pledged all cooperation in this direction to ease off the U.S.
sanctions that followed Pakistan’s nuclear blasts last May. The tribal
terrain where the U.S. commandos and spies have been carrying out their
secret mission is the Northwest Frontier Province, bordering
Afghanistan. These are basically lands where the law of the Pakistan
government exists only on paper, and social conduct is governed by
age-old tribal-cum-Islamic practices.

In these areas, anyone who does not sport a beard is deemed an
infidel deserving death. Officially all foreigners are barred from these
tribal territories for their own security. However, U.S. and Western
sleuths and commandos in pursuit of bin Laden have been given a free
rein. Pakistan was obliged to look the other way after the U.S.
administration bluntly told Islamabad that it might be declared a pariah
terrorist state if it supported groups loyal to bin Laden. This was made
clear by Sandy Berger, Clinton’s chief national security adviser, in his
talks with Pakistani leaders.

Pakistan is one of a handful of governments which recognize the
medieval
Taleban government in Afghanistan. In fact, the backbone of the Taleban,
which means students, is comprised of pupils of religious seminaries in
Pakistan. In the latest incident of its kind, three U.S. commandos are
reportedly missing for over a month now after they had gone into the
tribal territories named the South Waziristan agency. It was not known
whether local Islamic militants, who turned avowedly anti-American since
the Persian Gulf War, captured them.

Another hypothesis is that the three commandos might have either been
handed over to the forces loyal to bin Laden or his loyalists inside
Afghanistan. What might be worrying the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad was
that it could not be ascertained whether the three commandos were still
alive or dead.

The Persian Gulf War coincided with the stopping of U.S. aid for the
Mujahideen in Afghanistan, turning Islamic militants like Osama bin
Laden from friends of the U.S. into foes overnight. The fueling of the
war effort in Afghanistan was the second largest CIA covert operation
after the Vietnam War.

Though 90 percent of Afghanistan territory is in Taleban control, the
government forces are under constant challenge of other Islamic
guerrilla forces, some of which draw inspiration and support from Iran.
As such, what is most puzzling for the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad is
which group is holding its three men.

Pakistani analysts of the Afghan imbroglio are nonplussed as to why
the U.S. administration might be sending its men for such misadventures
when other less-risky options may be available.

One such option is to raise the head money for bin Laden’s capture —
the State Department is offering $5 million for bin Laden’s head.
However, bin Laden, whose financial worth is over $300 million, is
believed to be pumping more than that amount each year into
money-starved Afghanistan. In spite of this, the Taleban, in talks with
U.S. officials in the past, indicated that they would hand over bin
Laden to the U.S. in exchange for U.S. and Western recognition for their
regime. The U.S. fears that any such trade-off would make it a source of
ridicule in the free world, because of the Taleban’s poor rights record.

Analysts say the only other bet, rather than risking the lives of its
nationals, was if the local Afghan war fiefs who are loyal to none but
have considerable fire power in their command were enticed to capture
the most wanted man.

Earlier in March, two Americans were arrested by mistake in the same
Southern Waziristan agency for indulging in suspicious activities. The
two were among four westerners arrested, but a U.S. spokesperson said
they were tourists who had strayed into the tribal lands.

Press reports said that those two Americans were suspected to be
working for either the CIA or FBI. In that case, the administration
suspended five officials for allowing the Americans to cross all the
hurdles and reach so close to the Afghan border.

At the time of their arrest, the two Americans and their other two
colleagues, a Briton and a Dutch woman, were preparing to sneak into
Afghanistan with the intention of collecting intelligence on bin Laden.
After the U.S. Embassy intervened the four “tourists” were let off and
hastily left Pakistan, ranked among the top 10 most dangerous
destinations for westerners.

Saudi multimillionaire Osama bin Laden, who is the regarded as the
main financier of Islamic militants worldwide, had earlier declared an
open war against U.S. targets, including unarmed civilians. He has been
more restrained in hurling threats for the past several months now after
the Taleban warned him to stay quiet or face expulsion.