'Bin Laden was here'
2005-03-23 11:37
Washington - A terror suspect held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, was a commander for Osama bin Laden during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s and helped the al-Qaeda leader escape his mountain hide-out at Tora Bora in 2001, according to a United States government document.
The document, provided to The Associated Press in response to a Freedom of Information request, says the unidentified detainee "assisted in the escape of Osama bin Laden from Tora Bora." It is the first definitive statement from the Pentagon that bin Laden was at Tora Bora and evaded US pursuers.
The detainee is not identified by name or nationality. He is described as being "associated with" al-Qaeda and having called for a jihad, or holy war, against the United States.
In an indication that he might be a higher-level operative, the document says he "had bodyguards" and collaborated with regional al-Qaeda leadership. "The detainee was one of Osama bin Laden's commanders during the Soviet jihad," it says, referring to the holy war against Soviet occupiers of Afghanistan.
Controversial issue
The events at Tora Bora were a point of contention during last year's presidential race, and President George W Bush as well as vice-president Dick Cheney asserted that commanders did not know whether bin Laden was there when US and allied Afghan forces attacked the area in December 2001.
Cheney said last October 26 that General Tommy Franks, the commander of US forces in Afghanistan, had "stated repeatedly it was not at all certain that bin Laden was in Tora Bora. He might have been there or in Pakistan or even Kashmir," the Indian-controlled Himalayan region.
Franks, now retired, wrote in an opinion column in The New York Times last October 19, "We don't know to this day whether Mr bin Laden was at Tora Bora in December 2001." He added that intelligence assessments of his location varied, but bin Laden was "never within our grasp."
Senator John Kerry, the Democratic presidential nominee, lambasted Bush during the campaign for having missed a chance to capture or kill bin Laden by relying too much on Afghan allies at Tora Bora, a mountainous area along the Pakistan border that became al-Qaeda's last stand in Afghanistan.
Bin Laden, whose al-Qaeda terrorist organisation is believed to be behind the September 11 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States, had operated from Afghanistan until the US invasion in October 2001.
He remains at large. For many months, officials have said they believe bin Laden probably is hiding in the Afghan-Pakistan border region, although last week General Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, declined to endorse that view, saying bin Laden's whereabouts were unknown.
- AP