World News 17-12-2001 They Can Hear Him, But They Can`t Find Him who: Terrorist Osama bin Laden what: Is heard directing his forces on short-wave radio where: Tora Bora, Afghanistan when: Yesterday snippet: "Evidence that the terrorist leader has been personally directing al-Qa`eda forces confirms the widespread conviction that he is making his last stand in the cave complexes now under siege by Afghan, American and British forces," reports The Telegraph`s David Wastell after US forces positively identified the voice of Osama bin Laden broadcast on "very short-range radio" in the mountains of Tora Bora. "Although officials believe bin Laden must have known that he was likely to be overheard, the al-Qa`eda leader may have concluded that his only means of effectively commanding his forces in their final battle was to use radio." The Guardian claims that US forces` attempt to capture bin Laden was in "disarray" last night "after Afghan warlords battling al-Qaida in the mountains of eastern Afghanistan announced that they were calling off the hunt, while Washington admitted the Saudi-born terrorist could have escaped to Pakistan." US Secretary of State Colin Powell goes some way to confirming this accusation, admitting "We don`t know where [Bin Laden] is. We have no reason to believe he has been either killed or captured." Mr Powell added: "Our best guess is that Osama bin Laden is still in Afghanistan but I can`t ignore the possibility that he might have gotten out." After two weeks of guerrilla fighting and relentless American bombing, "pro-Western mujahedin commanders declared that they had captured all of the caves used by al-Qa`ida fighters and had liberated Afghanistan of foreign terrorists," reports Richard Lloyd Parry in The Independent. Mr bin Laden, though, was nowhere to be seen, and Mr Powell has begun suggesting that the hunt may have some way to go: "We will get bin Laden. Whether it`s today, tomorrow, a year from now, two years from now, we will not rest until he is brought to justice or justice brought to him." [... more]

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