‘Bin Laden Has Four Doubles to Confuse Western Intelligence‘

‘Bin Laden Has Four Doubles to Confuse Western Intelligence‘

Agence France-Presse
October 7, 2001

Osama bin Laden, the prime US terror suspect, uses doubles to confuse western intelligence agencies trying to track him down, an Afghan opposition leader said in an interview published on Sunday.

"According to our latest information he is in Jalalabad (eastern Afghanistan) but we know that he has several doubles who move around in convoys to cover up and cause confusion," said Ahmed Wali Massoud, charge d‘affaires for the Afghan opposition in London.

He told Asharq al-Awsat newspaper, "Several months ago, we received reports about the presence of four look-alikes of Osama in four different places in Afghanistan at the same time."

Massoud, brother of commander Ahmad Shah Massoud who was killed on September 9, just two days before the attacks on New York and Washington blamed on bin Laden, said the latter had become "the true leader of the Taliban".

"Since 1998 he has tightened his grip on the Taliban security services and their money," Massoud said, adding that US strikes on bin Laden were now inevitable since Kabul refused to hand him over.

The Afghan opposition would support any US military action in Afghanistan "aimed at destroying the heavy weapons with which Pakistan supplied the Taliban," he said.

"But that does not mean that we want the Americans to set up bases in our country with a view to a permanent presence."

Massoud said Washington and its allies should "support the legitimate government of Afghanistan as soon as the operation against terrorists is over and help it to rebuild the infrastructure and the economy of the country."

Most countries still recognise the Afghan government of Burhanuddin Rabbani, ousted by the Taliban in 1996. He is backed by opposition forces known as the Northern Alliance, previously commanded by Ahmad Shah Massoud, which control about 10 percent of Afghanistan.

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