Talk:Location of Osama bin Laden

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[edit] Article needs improvement

This article was split off from the main Osama bin Laden article. Here we can do a more complete overview of OBL's location, possibly including a timeline of his travels and some of those urban legends about his whereabouts, like that Swedish newspaper's mistaken claim that he'd been in Sweden. --Mr. Billion 05:47, 6 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Removed similar information from OBL article

I removed the majority of similar information from the OBL article and added a 'direct' to here.

This is the text that was removed (diff):

On July 3, 2006, it was reported that in late 2005 the CIA had closed a unit called Alec Station dedicated to the search for and capture of Osama bin Laden. According to the New York Times, Michael Scheuer, a former senior C.I.A. official who was the first head of the unit, said the move reflected a view within the agency that "Mr. bin Laden" was no longer the threat he once was. [1]

Osama bin Laden is often stated to be residing within fortified caves in the rugged Tora Bora region that straddles the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Since November 2003^{[1] [2]}, claims have been made that he may be hiding somewhere in the Chitral area, or possibly in nearby Gilgit.^[3] This claim is based in part on a bin Laden videotape from 2003 in which trees peculiar to the mountainous region could be seen. In August 2006, an unnamed US official said that bin Laden is probably not in a cave, but in a comfortable house with his family and no more than two bodyguards.^[4]

In May of 2006 an American arrived in the conservative Islamic town of Chitral with two carloads of furniture and equipment to move into a house that was rented by the United States Embassy in the fall of 2005. The arrival created quite a scene, as locals thought they were members of the CIA or FBI, there to hunt for bin Laden. The New York Times identified them as Paul Aurdic, from the consulate in Peshawar, and a Pakistani colleague named Muhammad Iqbal. The local deputy police superintendent, Fazal Elahi, said the American told him he was there to prepare a vacation house for himself. According to Mr. Elahi, bin Laden is not living in the peaceful, resort-like region. Others said that outsiders could not reside there without being widely known.^[5]

On May 8, 2006 a member of the Pakistani parliament, a man named Maulana Abdul Akbar Chitrali, warned that the Americans should leave the area immediately or there would be an uprising by the people of Chitral. He said that they were members of the CIA or FBI, and had been disrupting peace and tranquility there. They had been seen driving toward Chitral in an official consulate vehicle, he claimed, and then switched to unmarked S.U.V.'s in a town called Dir, about 25 miles to the south. "We can't allow the US to do this in our area," he was quoted as saying by the "Iran News Agency."^[6] He said that neither bin Laden nor Mullah Omar were in Chitral and, therefore, there was no need for any US agencies to be there. He told the New York Times, "I think Osama is dead and the Americans are keeping him alive for their own reasons." The Americans left Chitral a day before the demonstration took place.^[7]

ABC News reported about rumors on May 24, 2006 that bin Laden was sighted in the Kumrat Valley in the Kohistan District of Pakistan. ^[8]. The region is 40 miles east of the Afghan–Pakistani border.

An article in the Hindustan Times of New Dehli on August 18, 2006 stated that "A report with the government of India says al Qaeda's leadership was recently spotted near Darkot, a Pakistani village" which is at approximately 9,000 feet, at the foot of the Darkot pass (15,380 feet), near the border with Afghanistan's Wakhan Corridor. Darkot is in the Pakistani controlled Kashmir, about 105 miles from Chitral Airport, and 60 or so from the city of Gilgit. The Wakhan Corridor, which was Marco Polo's famous "Silk Road" to China, is described by the Hindustan Times as "Sticking out of northeastern Afghanistan, the corridor (a strip of land) is wedged between Tajikistan, Pakistan and the part of PoK known as Northern Areas."^[9] A former Soviet military base is said to be located in the area. He had previously been thought to be in that region as far back as October 2001.^[10]

That report followed an article of July 2006 in al-Hayat that "Pakistani authorities on Thursday (July 20, 2006) ordered the evacuation of a northern area of the country, near the border with China, of tourists and foreigners after receiving intelligence reports of the possible presence of Osama bin Laden in the area." Hundreds of tourists, most of whom were said to be European, were made to leave the Chilinji Pass and the Wakhan Corridor. All access to the area was then closed. It was reported that bin Laden and al-Zawahiri had decided to use the area bordering China because it is not controlled by US military, and US bombers would not attack the area for fear of hitting China.^[11]

-- That Guy, From That Show! 18:43, 11 September 2006 (UTC)

i think only osama should edit this article. he is the only expert in this field Eevo 15:28, 23 September 2006 (UTC)

Good idea, then we could track his IP. I'll pass that along to him. --Mr. Billion 16:22, 23 September 2006 (UTC)

This article needs to be merged with the main OBL article, it has no significance unless it applies to him. User:CS92 16:11, 23 September 2006

It is very speculative and the OBL article is already too wordy as it is.

Visit Elvis sightings and suggest a merge with Elvis for example.

-- That Guy, From That Show! 08:19, 25 September 2006 (UTC)