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[EMAIL PROTECTED] has sent you an article from The Washington
Times.
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INTERCEPTS FORETOLD OF 'BIG ATTACK'
Rowan Scarborough
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
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The day before terrorists struck the United States, its
intelligence agencies detected discussions between Osama bin
Laden's lieutenants of an impending "big attack," a senior
administration official says.
The official said in an interview that the detection
was not discovered until days after the Sept. 11 assault on
the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The time lapse is
typical of intelligence analyses, in which computers sift
through loads of that day's collection to find valuable
material.
The detection explains, the source said, why President
Bush increasingly pointed the finger of blame at bin Laden
in the days following the kamikaze attacks. The source said
the discussions were between bin Laden supporters in the
United States and senior members of bin Laden's al Qaeda
terrorist organization.
As the U.S. military buildup continued yesterday in
preparation for air strikes on bin Laden's adopted home of
Afghanistan, the Bush administration has brought on board
significant allies in its campaign against global terrorism.
Military sources said Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, two
former Soviet republics on Afghanistan's northern border,
have agreed secretly to allow American special-operations
troops to launch raids from their soil.
The U.S. Air Force is now operating Predator unmanned
reconnaissance planes in the region. The RQ-1 Predator
relays instantaneous images via a satellite link. It is
being used over Afghanistan to locate military targets and
possible bin Laden hide-outs.
Mr. Bush spoke to Uzbek President Islam A. Karimov on
Wednesday in the administration's drive to build an
international coalition against terrorism.
The two Central Asian countries have a strong motive
for helping the United States dislodge the Taliban from
power. The extremist Islamic rulers of Afghanistan
reportedly have tried to spur a militant Muslim uprising in
both neighboring states.
Pakistan, which borders Afghanistan on the south and
east, has agreed to let American warplanes use its airspace.
This means fighter-bombers on Navy carriers in the Arabian
Sea would have a direct route to targets in Afghanistan.
The Predator flies up to 140 mph and below 25,000 feet.
Several were shot down during NATO's air assaults on
Yugoslavia in 1999. This summer, a Predator failed to return
from a spy mission over southern Iraq amid Baghdad's claims
it had downed an American plane.
A Pentagon official said at the time that, "The whole
idea is to use them in high-risk areas. If you lose it, you
don't lose a pilot."
Officials also said that around Sept. 11, Afghanistan
ordered the scattering of heavy military weapons, such as
MiG jet fighters and tanks. "They are not where they used to
be," said an official. "They moved them up into the hills."
The Pentagon yesterday continued to direct what could
be the largest deployment of weapons to the Persian Gulf
region area since the 1991 war with Iraq. Defense Secretary
Donald H. Rumsfeld has signed deployment orders for about
150 Air Force aircraft. The package includes heavy B-52 and
B-1 bombers, F-15, F-16 and F-117 fighters, aerial
refuelers, E-3 AWACs radar-surveillance aircraft and cargo
planes.
The Pentagon will not say where the planes will be
based. Most will likely go to airfields in Kuwait, Saudi
Arabia and Bahrain, where American warplanes are stationed
year-round. Some may launch their bombing runs from Central
Asian countries.
Two Navy carriers, the Carl Vinson and Enterprise, are
in the region. Two others, the Theodore Roosevelt and Kitty
Hawk, have been deployed and may join the other two in
waters near Afghanistan.
The Army is also moving ground troops in the form of
special-operations soldiers. These will include elite
Rangers, Green Berets and Delta Force commandos.
Meanwhile, the Pentagon is starting to spend some of
the billions of dollars in emergency funds approved by
Congress. On the shopping list: new stocks of
precision-guided munitions and improved surveillance
equipment. Together, the systems would be used to locate and
kill suspected terrorists.
The deployment is adding up to a combined air-special
operations war against the Taliban and bin Laden's terrorist
network. The only way the Taliban militia seems able to
defuse an attack at this point is to meet Mr. Bush's demands
to turn over bin Laden and other terrorists. The Taliban
yesterday rejected the president's demands.
The U.S. alliance with Uzbekistan and Tajikistan means
that a decade of forging military-to-military contacts with
the Central Asian nations has paid off for Washington.
In 1995, Uzbekistan and the United States signed an
agreement to conduct joint military exercises. The former
Soviet republic has hosted Army commandos who advised the
country's 80,000-strong armed forces. In 1999, 16 Uzbek
officers from the 65th Special Operations Battalion visited
Fort Campbell, Ky., and Fort Bragg, N.C., home of U.S. Army
Special Operations Command.
The Uzbeks received instruction about close-quarter
battle, sniper fire, mountaineering, water operations,
paratroop jumps, and using the 9 mm pistol.
Military sources say no final battle plan has been
approved. But the ongoing deployments signal the Pentagon
plans to infiltrate Afghanistan with special-operations
soldiers. Working in small teams and armed with the latest
intelligence, the commandos would try to take down the
Taliban militia of about 30,000 — one fighter at a time.
Backed by air strikes, the U.S. soldiers would also seek and
destroy bin Laden encampments, with the hope of encountering
the prime suspect in the Sept. 11 attacks that killed over
6,500 people, most of them civilians.
"We'll make it so he can't spend the night in the same
place twice," said one official.
Unlike the Soviet Union, which spent the 1980s trying
to occupy Afghanistan and then retreated in disgrace, the
United States will strike, then move back to base, officials
said. And, unlike the Russians, the American troops will be
backed by advanced surveillance equipment that can find
pockets of Taliban militia.
The U.S. Army commandos have another advantage: they
train, and are equipped, to fight at night.
"Night is day to us," said a military source. "And
night is night to everyone else."
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This article was mailed from The Washington Times
(http://www.washtimes.com/national/default-200192213012.htm)
For more great articles, visit us at
http://www.washtimes.com
Copyright (c) 2001 News World Communications, Inc. All
rights reserved.
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