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US prepares base for prisoners, Laden and Omar still at large
( 2002-01-07 10:03 ) (7 )

The United States has ordered troops to the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to prepare it for prisoners from the war on terror - but two of the war's most wanted figures continue to elude US custody, and officials wonder if they have fled Afghanistan.

Checks of a region where Mullah Mohammed Omar was rumored to be hiding have so far failed to bring the fugitive Taliban leader into US custody, and US officials again are wondering aloud if he and Osama bin Laden have fled Afghanistan.

"The best intelligence is that both bin Laden and Omar are alive," Sen. Bob Graham, D-Fla., chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said on Sunday. "Whether they are still in Afghanistan or have slipped over the border to Pakistan is a big question.

"As our efforts to get them in Afghanistan have been futile, there is a greater sense that they have in fact escaped and they are probably in one of those tribal territories just over the border into Pakistan," he added.

Sen. John Edwards, traveling with other senators in the region, said military intelligence in Uzbekistan also believes bin Laden is in Pakistan. US military officials continue to say they don't know where bin Laden is.

Unconfirmed reports on Saturday said Omar, the leader of Afghanistan's deposed Taliban government, had fled the immediate area around the Afghan town of Baghran in the mountainous wilderness of northern Helmand province - where reports this past week had placed him. One widely circulated report said Omar was seen fleeing on a motorbike, but local residents and tribal leaders said they believed that Omar had never been in the region.

However, some US intelligence indicated Omar still was in Helmand province, US military officials said on Saturday. Roughly two dozen US troops and Afghan forces continued to search the area, defense officials said.

However, Interim Afghan Prime Minister Hamid Karzai said a single fugitive in Afghanistan's rugged terrain is not easy.

"He's one man, and one man can easily hide, can easily take a motorbike and go places," Karzai said. "If we find him, we will arrest him - today, tomorrow, whenever. We will keep looking for him."

Karzai said his government remains firmly committed to finding both Omar and bin Laden, the al Qaeda leader the United States blames for the Sept. 11 attacks on America, and turning both over to US authorities.

"They have damaged our religion," he said. "They are criminals, and they must face trial. And they must be dealt with that way."

In a speech on Saturday at a town meeting in Ontario, Calif., US President Bush again vowed the United States will do "whatever it takes" to find senior al Qaeda and Taliban leaders.

"They think they can run and they think they can hide because they think this country's soft and impatient, but they're going to continue to learn the terrible lesson that says don't mess with America," Bush said.

Preparing Guantanamo

If bin Laden and Omar are ever captured, there is a chance they could wind up at Guantanamo, where about 1,500 US troops have been told to join about 1,000 normally stationed at the base, Pentagon officials said.

The US troops have instructions to prepare Guantanamo initially for fewer than 100 "maximum security detainees," but ultimately for as many as 2,000, and then to provide security at the center, officials said. About 1,000 of the new troops were expected to arrive on Sunday.

The base will be equipped to conform to all aspects of the Geveva Convention, which governs the treatment of prisoners of war, and it might ultimately house prisoners taken from areas other than Afghanistan, the Pentagon said.

Officials said there has been no decision made where to hold any possible military tribunals.

Sunday's deployment orders went out to about 1,500 troops - including Army forces from Fort Hood, Texas, and Fort Campbell, Ky.; Marines from Camp Lejeune, N.C.; Navy personnel from the Norfolk, Va., naval station; and Air Force personnel from Charleston, S.C., and Dover, Del.

"I believe there is a certain risk associated with this mission, and as such we are using only our best-trained and ready military police," said Lt. Gen. B.B. Bell, commanding general at Fort Hood.

High-Level Prisoners

The United States on Sunday had 339 detainees in its custody in Afghanistan or on warships nearby, including a pair of senior enemy figures whose capture became public this weekend.

One, Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi, is the most senior member of al Qaeda taken into custody so far. He was a paramilitary trainer for al Qaeda, and one of 12 suspects whose financial assets were frozen by President Bush in late September.

Pakistani forces captured al-Libi, a Libyan, attempting the cross from Afghanistan at the border near the Afghan town of Khost. Pakistan transferred him to the American forces, and his identity was discovered, a defense official said.

Al-Libi was head of paramilitary training at al Qaeda's Khaldan camp in a cave complex in Paktia province near the border with Pakistan. Al-Libi is being questioned by US forces for any possible intelligence he may be able to provide.

"He may have more understanding of where other top al Qaeda officials are and if al Qaeda was planning any follow on attacks to the Pentagon and World Trade Center," said Anthony Cordesman, a military analyst.

In addition, the Taliban's former ambassador to Pakistan, Abdul Salam Zaeef, was taken on Saturday to the USS Bataan, a defense official said. Zaeef, one of the most senior Taliban figures captured so far, was a Taliban spokesman during the early weeks of the US campaign.

‘He Was Doing a Great Thing For His Country'

This weekend, Americans also recalled Sgt. 1st Class Nathan Ross Chapman, 31, of Texas, the first American soldier to die from hostile fire during the war in Afghanistan. Chapman and an unidentified CIA operative were ambushed near the eastern Afghanistan cities of Gardez and Khost on Friday, as they worked with a team searching for bin Laden. Chapman was killed, and the CIA officer was seriously wounded with a bullet to the chest. Military officials are investigating whether the two men were shot by al Qaeda forces, Taliban troops or possibly local Afghan bandits.

"We mourn for Sgt. Nathan Chapman," Bush said on Saturday. "I can assure the parents and loved ones of Nathan Chapman that he lost his life for a cause that is just and important, and that cause is the security of the American people."

Chapman's body arrived at Ramstein Air Force Base in Germany Saturday. Following an autopsy, Chapman's body tentatively is slated to be flown from Frankfurt, Germany, to Seattle on a commercial airliner departing Monday and arriving Tuesday, a spokeswoman with US European Command said.

Chapman's parents, Will and Lynn Chapman of Georgetown, Texas, said they did not know for sure he was in Afghanistan until news of his death came. They said he spent the last decade fighting for the United States all over the world.

"He died doing what he enjoyed doing, and we are proud he was doing a great thing for his country," Lynn Chapman said on Saturday.

Besides his parents, Nathan Chapman left behind a wife and two children. A communications sergeant, Chapman was a Green Beret who had spent more than 12 years in the military. He served most of his career at Fort Lewis, Washington, but had been assigned to the Fifth Special Forces Group at Fort Campbell, Kentucky.

The last time Will Chapman spoke to his son was Christmas day.

"Every parent loves their children, but I said, 'I really genuinely like you. You're a very likeable person to be around,'" Will Chapman said on Saturday.

"He was a very personable person and he had many friends, and he had a soft, tender heart, so that's the thing I'll miss," Lynn Chapman said.