Timber Smuggling With Rockets in Chitral, Pakistan

Fox news TV is talking with Brig General Russell Howard right now about reports that Osama is living in a house in Chitral, Pakistan.


No links yet. I'll keep my eye out for them.

No link from Fox yet.

A more recent Peter Bergen article discusses the possibility of Osama living in Chitral. It mentions him living in a house with a couple bodyguards. The reports are also partially based on information from his video tapes. The trees in that region, and the length of delivery time factor into that.


Aug. 30, 2002 PBS Frontline sent a reporting team into the Chitral area. The reporters were aware that Osama and Zawahiri had been reported in the area weeks prior.


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[edit on 8/31/06 by makeitso]

I did not realize that Chitral was both a region and a town. A little better map of the region can be found here.

The St. Louis Dispatch names a particular area of the Chitral region that Osama is thought to be living in.

TirichMir, which is quite a distance north of the town of Chitral, but still within the Chitral region. As I understand it from the PBS article above, no outsiders are allowed north of the town of Chitral.

Pakistani foreign minister Khurshid Mahmood Kasuri think the finger-pointing of Osama Bin Laden's presence in Chitral and Mullah Omar's presence in Quetta is "very unfair"...


Oh btw, in case you didn't hear it already:
President Musharraf Made A Deal With The Taliban

Apparently, Chitral is blessed with huge reserves of black and white marble of fine quality. They want to set up factories in Chitral to make marble tiles and fancy products. When the Lowari Tunnel gets ready in 3-4 years time, these products can be easy transported from Chitral to Dir.


Photo: View from hotel, Chitral on Flickr

Pakistan News Service - PakTribune: Chitral`s marble reserves

October 06, 2006


Pakistan has large reserves of granite and marble in some places in Balochistan, Sindh and the NWFP. One of them is Chitral (NWFP), which is blessed with huge reserves of black and white marble fine quality. According to experts, the quality of Chtiral`s marble is comparable to that of Italian marble.

Development of marble reserves is essential for the socio-economic uplift of the people of Chitral. Preferably, some of the marble reserves in Chitral should be leased out to an inland or a foreign company of repute to set up factories within Chitral to make marble tiles and fancy products for sale within the country as well as for export purposes.

NATO planes violated Pakistani airspace and dropped bombs on two border towns near Chitral. No casualties have been reported but the bombs ignited a huge forest fire.



[edit on 2006/10/26 by Hellmutt]

Originally posted by Hellmutt
I guess you never heard of this city or area but it is of paramount importance in the search of Bin Laden. What can you find out about Chitral?

The reason Osama choose just THAT spot is obvious. Any old hippie have heard about it. It's legendary.

They got the best dope in the world - to smoke. Cannabis.

Back in the sixties Chitral was a synonym for the best hasish in the world. Just blew you orbiting 10.000 miles high.

Don't know how it is now. But in Afghanistan then, everybody (of the hippies) wanted to go to Chitral. Only problem, it was restricted and the roads could hardly be called roads. Furthermore, to obtain the permit needed to go there, you had to have a invitation from one of the locals. Now everybody can go there it seems. Worth a vacation, but then again they'll probably label you enemy combatant if you do.

They allegedly had a king or similar feudal lord in those days, and it was one the places associated with Shangri-la. Hunza valley is in that area too.

The legends about the dope are manifold and I shan't weary you telling them here.

Just wanna say, this guy Osama shows very good judgement in chosing Chitral.

There was a bombing in Bajaur which apparently killed 80 people. Musharraf is being blamed for it and he is demanded to accept responsibility and step down as President and Army chief.

Here's the revenge for the attack mentioned in my previous post. Musharraf says the previous bombing (which Chitral condemned so bad) was a strike at an Al Qaeda training camp. This is most likely the revenge for that attack. A suicide bomber has blown "himself" up at an army base and killed at least 35 Pakistani soldiers.


Whatever happened to the truce between Musharraf and Taliban?

The hunt For Al Qaeda/Bin Laden is still focused on Chitral. All traffic to Chitral has been suspeded due to bad weather. And they are tracking snow leopards with GPS.


Also here:
DailyIndia.com: Chitral still an area of concern in hunt for bin Laden
Daily Times: Chitral an area of concern





Also here: PakTribune: Traffic suspended in Chitral





They are tracking elusive snow leopards with GPS in Chitral Gol National Park:
BBC: Snow Leopard Diary
BBC: Snow leopard fitted with GPS tag

The winter has come to Chitral. There's no power and the only cellphone service has started to fail. Firewood is scarce and expensive on the black market. Flights have been cancelled for many days already, and the Lowari pass is closed.



[color=00FFFF]There is complete isolation...

Power is still out and the poor cannot afford to buy firewood. The poor have started to cut down fruit trees to use as firewood. "The masses" have appealed to authorities to urgently provide energy before Chitral becomes a mountain desert. Satellite pictures show disappearing forests in the Chitral area, and the situation becomes worse every day.



Some places have been without electricity for 35 days...

Once again we are told that there are "no signs" of Bin Laden in Chitral.


It sounds like a perfect place for Osama to be hiding. It's apparently "virtually impossible" for any "strangers" to go searching for him there...

Seems like the work on the Lowari tunnel was suspended December 4th because of "chilly weather and deep snow". A spokesman for the National Highway Authority (NHA) said the tunnel will be ready by September 2007. But "the people of the valley" said it would take over 10 years if the current pace of work continued. They accuse the NHA of disregarding President Musharraf's orders, a non-stop construction of the tunnel...

Seems like there are some new reports from The New York Times regarding Al Qaeda and Bin Laden...


Some ATS threads from the past 24 hours:

Al Qaeda Chiefs Are Seen to Regain Power

Al-Qaeda Is Rebuilding

Bin Laden and Al Qaeda rebuilding in Waziristan

Seems like Bin Laden and Al-Zawahiri are in Pakistan, near the border with Afghanistan, where they are establishing Al Qaeda training camps...


Related ATS Thread:
The World's Most Accessible Nuclear Facility
The True Finance Centers Of Mafia And Terrorism
President Musharraf Made A Deal With The Taliban

Originally posted by Hellmutt
Seems like Bin Laden and Al-Zawahiri are in Pakistan, near the border with Afghanistan, where they are establishing Al Qaeda training camps...

Seems like someone decided to do something 'bout that.

Major US offensive launched in Kunar

04/03/2007

US troops in eastern Kunar province, ~ have raided a village called Mandaghel over the last 48 hours. Witnesses describe a devastating display of air and ground attacks leveled at the village thought to contain a ‘High Value Target’ of the al Qaeda variety. The mentioning of Osama Bin Laden and Dr. Ayman al Zawarhiri as being such targets in Mandaghel has not been denied by military officials.

~ rumors have whirled for the last three years that Bin Laden himself drifts between Kunar, Nuristan, the Bajaur tribal agency and nearby Chitral.

US forces attack suspected al Qaeda hideout

March 03, 2007 3:12 PM

For the past two days, U.S. and NATO forces have been conducting a major attack against a compound in a remote area of Eastern Afghanistan where Osama bin Laden or another senior al Qaeda leader may be hiding.

Coalition forces launched a fierce attack on a small enclave in the village of Mandaghel, approximately 17 miles from the border with Pakistan, on Friday afternoon.

U.S. officials declined to identify who the operation was targeting, but indicated they were after a "High Value Target" (HVT) . Official sources would not rule out that al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden himself was the intended target. Afghan officials said the target could be another senior ranking al Qaeda leader.

U.S. forces attack a High Value Target in Kunar

March 3, 2007

Just days after the announced capture of Taliban leader Mullah Obaidullah Akhund was arrested in Pakistan, U.S. and Afghan forces are said to be on a major offensive in Kunar province ~.

The target is said to be a High Value Target, possibly Osama bin Laden or another senior al-Qaeda leader.

Godspeed taskforce 145!

[edit on 3/4/07 by makeitso]

Originally posted by makeitso

Seems like someone decided to do something 'bout that.

Wow!

Maybe they'll catch Bin Laden soon?

Lots of Chitralis have been killed in avalanches. And there was a magnitude 6.2 just now across the border in Afghanistan.

Hi Hellmut.

What a superb and relentless thread.

The information contained in your posts really does make me think that if OBL is still drawing breath, this could very well be his location.

Do you think he's being protected by unseen western hands as suggested in some of the links you have provided, or is that just a red herring ?

Thanks for keeping us informed.

PS: Is that Rabbit for real ? He's enourmous!