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WASHINGTON, Dec 31: The head of the US Senate’s select committee on intelligence said on Sunday that fresh intelligence showed “high probabilities” that Osama bin Laden was still alive. He said a new strategy was being planned for launching another operation to capture Osama.
“The latest intelligence we’ve had indicates that the high probabilities are that (Osama) bin laden is still alive,” Chairman Bob Graham, a Florida Democrat, said on CNN’s “Late Edition”.
“Where he is, is a question mark. The trail has gone cold as to whether he’s still in the caves of Tora Bora or, in fact, has slipped into Pakistan”, Graham said, declining to discuss details of the intelligence.
On Friday, President George W. Bush said he had no idea where bin Laden was — or whether he had survived “in a cave with the door shut or a cave
IRAN: Emissaries for Osama bin Laden contacted Iranian agents in the mid-1990s in an effort to form an anti-American terror alliance, the New York Times reported on Monday.
Citing secret US intelligence reports, the newspaper said Osama’s representative talked to Iranian intelligence officers in July 1996 about forming a partnership with his Al Qaeda network to strike American targets.
The newspaper said, according to the American intelligence reports, the Iranian agents made clear they were willing to meet with Osama in Afghanistan. But the newspaper said it was unclear if such a meeting ever took place, and if so, whether any agreement was reached.
Just as their intelligence officers were considering whether to meet Osama, the Iranian government was moving to oppose the Taliban movement, which had just gained control of Afghanistan, the newspaper reported.—Reuters
