French Push in Afghanistan To Spur Bin Laden Hunt
By Marie-Louise Moller and James G. Neuger
April 17 (Bloomberg) — France’s plan to send a battalion to eastern Afghanistan improves the chances of catching terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden, the European Union’s anti- terror chief said.
Bin Laden and his al-Qaeda cohorts are operating out of rugged tribal areas along the ill-defined border between Afghanistan and Pakistan, said Gilles de Kerchove, the EU’s counter-terrorism coordinator.
France’s dispatch of 700 troops to one of the hardest- fought regions of Afghanistan is “an excellent sign” of Western determination to hunt down bin Laden, De Kerchove said in a Bloomberg Television interview in Brussels yesterday. “I’m very confident that our people will in the end find him.”
The survival of al-Qaeda’s leadership, the rise of spinoff groups in northern Africa and the potential for home-grown radicalism in Europe have escalated the terrorist threat in the 27-nation EU, De Kerchove said.
De Kerchove said he has no specific intelligence pointing to the arrest of bin Laden, the ringleader of the Sept. 11 attacks, who has followed up last year’s four public statements by making three so far in 2008.
Bin Laden eluded U.S. forces in the caves of Tora Bora in eastern Afghanistan in December 2001, and since then has been a shadowy presence on global television screens with strategically timed predictions of doom for the West.
Some recent pronouncements came with subtitles in English and German, a sign that bin Laden is trying to mobilize followers in Europe, De Kerchove said.
`Still Active’
Bin Laden is seeking “to inspire behavior all over the world,” De Kerchove said. “So he’s still active. As long as they can benefit from safe havens, of course they will remain active for some time.”
In a first stint in eastern Afghanistan, France put 200 special-forces troops under U.S. command from 2003 to 2006. The new battalion, offered by President Nicolas Sarkozy at this month’s North Atlantic Treaty Organization summit, would be under allied command.
De Kerchove said the EU is intent on stepping up contacts with the new government in Pakistan, noting that EU foreign- policy chief Javier Solana will travel to Islamabad in coming weeks with an offer of closer cooperation.
EU governments created the role of anti-terror coordinator after Islamic militants killed 191 people in bombings of commuter trains in Madrid in 2004, the deadliest terrorist attacks on European soil.
The post has loose authority to coordinate the counter- terror policies of EU governments, leaving ample room for the bureaucratic turf wars that the Department of Homeland Security has only begun to address in the U.S.
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Good Christ!
If the fucking “French” find this bastard’s rotted bones before we do …
Well, MAYBE … if they sent in Brigitte Bardot!
April 17th, 2008 at 9:03 pmIf Bin Laden is anywhere he’s safely tucked away in Waziristan among people who protect and shelter him. He may not have operational control over AQ franchises, yet he remains the enigma that he is…a figurehead in the modern Jihadi movemnt.
Predators are looking for him 24 x7. OBL does his communicating via written dispatch. He’s hiding like the coward fake-martyr that he is.
Any country wishing to pusue that POS, needs to go into Pakistan to do it.
Pakistan is the center of gravity for jihad in that area of the world, not Afghanistan. The other center of gravity is Iraq…which is MORE important in the GWOT than is the whack-a-mole game in Afghanistan.
Targets 1,2,3 and 4 should be Iran, Western Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Syria.
If the West wants to win this war, then they need to start fighting like its WWII again. No quarter given. None expected.
I’m curious as to whether or not these French troops are actually going to fight or just occupy high ground?
Having a presence is one thing. Seeking out combat and closing with the enemy is US SOP. It isn’t everyone else’s.
We’ll see if the French Troops are up to the task. And if they catch Bin Laden? Just bring back his head.
April 17th, 2008 at 9:23 pm“If” the French Battalion is from the French Foreign Legion’s 2nd Para. Regiment…AND…if…Fr. Pres. Sarkozy turns them loose Visavi the rules of engagement, well then…yes, they could grab OBL, dead or alive.
Will they be turned loose? I hope so.
F.F.L. 2nd Para’s a VERY BAD ASS counter terror unit that every Arab speaking bad guy has feared for 40 years, the same way they are scared to death of US Marines after Fallujah.
April 17th, 2008 at 10:48 pmDan fuck you toilet boy
April 18th, 2008 at 2:19 amWith Sarkozy at the wheel, I for one will wait and see what happens before dissing the French again.
April 18th, 2008 at 11:14 am