Bin Laden network is shattered, officials say

The war in Iraq and the War on Terror (aka the war against Al Qaeda) are two different entities. With respect to the War on Terror, other than actually capturing Osama Bin Laden, I believe we're actually doing just fine in our stated goals. Since 2001, there have been reports from all over the world that many terrorist cells have been smashed, many of the key players in the Al Qaeda heirarchy have been captured or killed and most importantly, many plots against the US as well as other Western nations have been thwarted. Much of this does not get reported in the news for a variety of reasons so I can understand why people might think nothing is happening out there except for the Iraq war.

The fact remains that despite George W. Bush's "leadership" we are winning the war against Al Qaeda in so much as a war against a world wide terrorist organization can be won in the first place. In addition to the progress described above, there are efforts to train and work with armies all over Africa to stop the spread of Islamic terrorist organizations throughout that continent. This piece seems to reflect my belief that we've accomplished quite a lot against our foes from the Middle East:

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: Isolated with only a small core of mainly Arab supporters, Osama bin Laden has been crippled as al-Qaeda chief, his command network shattered and his communications ability limited to messages passed from hand to hand, senior Pakistani military and intelligence officials said Sunday.

There have been no fresh clues to bin Laden’s whereabouts, but he is generally believed to be hiding in the border region between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

“In our opinion, the reports on the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden are more speculative stories rather than based on accurate intelligence,” said Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan, chief spokesman for Pakistan’s army, which has fought intense battles with al-Qaeda-linked militants in the country’s prugged tribal regions bordering Afghanistan.

Bin Laden is probably accompanied by “dozens” of mainly Arab supporters, an intelligence official in the northwestern city of Peshawar, near the Afghan border, said on condition of anonymity, citing the secretive nature of his job.

Military and intelligence officials in Pakistan, Washington’s front-line ally in the war on terrorism, believe bin Laden’s communication network has been destroyed, crippling any coordination with his fighters.

“For a very long time there are no intercepts about Osama bin Laden giving instructions to his regional commanders, either through radio, telephone, satellite phone or the Internet,” a senior security official said on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the subject.

“For a person to exercise proper command, he needs to be in communication” with his lieutenants,” he said. “If he is unable to give orders physically or otherwise... his communication has been severed.”

In his heyday, bin Laden would be surrounded by up to 500 people, the Peshawar-based intelligence official said, adding that his communication network has been reduced to human couriers.

A message “changes several hands” between its point of origin and final destination in the al-Qaeda network, he said.

“This is a very slow and exposed way of communicating,” the official said.

Security forces seized a letter from bin Laden during a raid in Rawalpindi in 2003 in which al-Qaeda’s then-No. 3 leader Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, a suspected planner of the September 11, 2001, attacks, was captured. Mohammed is believed to have received the letter via the courier network, the official said.

Pakistani officials say more than 700 al-Qaeda suspects have been arrested, including senior figures like Mohammed and several others.

Pakistan has deployed some 80,000 troops to its border regions along Afghanistan. In the North and South Waziristan tribal areas in particular, security forces have claimed to have overrun al-Qaeda hideouts and communication facilities and captured militants.

Officials also say that information gleaned from al-Qaeda has led to the arrests of militants in Western and “some Arab countries” and helped prevent terrorist attacks abroad.

“The arrest of Naeem Noor Khan led to the arrest of a big gang in the UK, ahead of the British elections,” said Sultan, the Army spokesman, claiming that the people arrested in Britain planned to attack Heathrow airport.

Last year intelligence agents arrested Muhammad Naeem Noor Khan, 25, an alleged Pakistani computer expert for al-Qaeda. A tip-off from Khan led to the arrest of Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, a Tanzanian on the FBI’s most-wanted list for his alleged role in the 1998 bombings of US embassies in East Africa that killed more than 200 people.

There were media reports that Mohammed Sidique Khan—one of the suspected bombers in the July 7 explosions in London—may have had ties with members of an alleged terrorist cell that matched information from Noor Khan’s computer.