Is Osama Bin Laden Enjoying a Safe Haven in Iran?
The average commentator thinks that Osama bin Laden’s trail has gone cold and that there is no credible eyewitness testimony as to where he is located. The only available public testimony is that a member of the Taliban arrested in Pakistan claims his colleague met bin Laden in Afghanistan in the first two months of 2009 — important information, but second-hand and unverifiable. The truth is that there have been credible leads, and these leads point to Iran.
Ken Timmerman, the best reporter covering Iran, provided an update on a story he broke last year. The last credible person to say they’ve met bin Laden is a smuggler who last saw him in October 2007. The smuggler, who said he met him a total of six times in Iran beginning in November 2004, provided Alan Parrot, leader of the Union for the Conservation of Raptors, with the “specific frequencies of small transmitters bin Laden had strapped to the backs of his hunting falcons so he could find them if they failed to return to base.”
When the smuggler claimed that bin Laden was moving from his safe haven in Tehran to the northern part of the country near the border with Turkmenistan in late 2006 for some falconry, Timmerman turned to his intelligence sources for verification. He found out that an intelligence report had been written based on “chatter” that a person of high importance was indeed moving from Tehran to Zahedan, and the hunting fields were shut off to all other guests. Zahedan was identified by the government as the location of an al-Qaeda network last January. The smuggler also said that he met with bin Laden at a safe house north of Tehran, which is similar to reporting from Iranian defectors, and in Mashhad, another location known to be used as a transit by al-Qaeda.
Parrot says that Iran is holding bin Laden’s family hostage in Tehran to stop the terrorist leader from ever revealing their collaboration with al-Qaeda. This also enables the Iranians to exercise greater control over the terrorist group and its leader, giving them a deniable proxy with which to wage asymmetrical warfare against the West, something further enabled by the staunch belief that such an alliance is impossible.
This story may sound unbelievable, but Omar bin Laden, one of Osama’s sons, has said that up to 40 members of the bin Laden family are living under house arrest in Tehran and are refusing to let them leave without being accompanied by the regime’s personnel. They live a lavish lifestyle with videogames, computers, “a swimming pool, tennis court, shopping trips, and horseback riding along the coast” — the same coast that the smuggler identified Osama himself as traveling to for entertainment.
Bin Laden’s 18-year-old daughter escaped to the Saudi embassy in Tehran, and after major resistance from the Iranians was allowed to leave last month. Another son, Bakr, left Iran in December. The Treasury Department has blacklisted a member of al-Qaeda living in Iran who they say arranged for Ayman al-Zawahiri’s family to live there. The scenario painted by Parrot suddenly seems very realistic.
Mauro you’re great. It’s either this or the ISI.
How do I put this. OHHHH I hope so..if we found out his narrow behind was chilling in Iran I would personally nuke the crap out of it. Seriously, this would solve 2 of the biggest probs we are facing today…..hmmm now how to get pelosi out ther…OH! I know..New revolutionalry Botox procedure discovered in Iran! WHOS with me!?
Why would bin Laden put up with living under hardships in Pakistan or even Iran? If he takes up residence at a palace in Saudi Arabia he will have the best medical care afforded to anyone with Arab doctors, modern communications with his network of terrorists and the freedom to make pilgrimage as he pleases.
Why would the Saudis allow him safe haven? The same reason why they supplied 15 of 19 hijackers. The terrorists ARE the Saudis and the Saudis ARE the terrorists. The two are linked inextricably. The various suicide bombers attacking Israel are funded by the Saudis.
Meanwhile bin Laden would never trust the Shia of Iran since he is a Sunni. He would fear betrayal every day in Iran.
He knows he’s safe in Saudi. The one place where even George W. Bush would not send a cruise missile to call.
It would behoove Iran to give the illusion that they had a handle on bin Laden. It would make for a rather dramatic handle to use in avoiding strict sanctions with the Europeans and perhaps even the U.S. “Well, just suppose bin Laden were to strike…” will keep real sanctions from Iran’s door step.
It’s like Saddam bluffing about weapons of mass destruction that had either never been completed or were already destroyed. You don’t have to have the weapon if you can bluff your enemies into believing you have one.
Look, not only is this report credible, it is VERY likely right on the money.
The reason why Bush and BHO have done nothing to capture him has little to do with not knowing where to find him. However, tt has EVERYTHING to do with the fact that going after him would mean that they would have to ‘engage’ in Iran, but NOT in the diplo way they want to.They would have to militarily engage Iranian forces sheltering him etc, and THAT they will never do.
This is most likely the dirtiest secret withheld from the US public since 9/11/01. For Americans to realize that Washington knew where he was, YET did nothing, but engage the mullahs with kid gloves, would cause a backlash like none other. It could very well topple Washington.
Therefore, it is of the utmost gravity that this information goes mainstream, viral and does not die down. Not only does Osama have to be killed,as well as all those sheltering him, but the souls of all who died on 9/11/01 cry out for justice and demand it!
A War with Iran means a draft and full mobilization like a second Korean war. It’s an all-in kinda thing. We would have to hold both sides of the straits of Hormuz within a few days or 60% of the worlds oil exports would be cut off. Then we would fight through endless mountain valleys to get to the capitol. Israel would be attacked… this list does not end.
Alexander the Great, Mohammad’s grandson and Genghis Khan took Iran and these where not punks. Iran is not Iraq after 30 years of 2 wars and sanctions. We could do it, but it’s not a small deal at all.
The US has sufficient arms and personnel to beat Iran in a month. The problem isn’t our military capability, but the lack of will (i.e., Obama’s cowardice) to use it.
The US could have had bin Laden years ago, but the politicians (including Bush)are so very afraid of offending other countries that they hold back. Look at the way Obama handled the “surge” in Afghanistan. Months late and millions of dollars short. You don’t hear much about the war in the MSM lately, do you?
The Obama administration wants you looking at the oil spill and baseball, not at foreign policy. They are desparate to avoid any act of terrorism on American soil which is why they showed a white guy changing his shirt so often just after the Times Square bombing and denied that the Ft. Hood Massacre was caused by a muslim terrorist.
We’re being played by Obama. The three-card monty is in full swing.
Where is Bin Laden? Like the Purloined Letter Bin Laden may be invisible because he is in plain sight. We do not see because of our own ideological
blindness. Our repeated failures to understand Islam or Jihad..(witness the ForeClosure Bomber Lunacy) suggests that we are in the grips of a sort of self willed madness. We creatively invent excuses so that we dont have to see
what is really going on. MultiCulturalism ..that bizarre invention of the Campus Left has risen to be the reigning Philosophy of the Age and the deepest
faith of our President. Islam and Jihad couldnt not have invented a better means to disarm its enemies than the one we invented to disarm and destroy ourselves..right here in the good ol’ USA, in a hundred Sociology Departments, Departments of Colonial Studies, Ethnic Studies, Womens Studies, Non Traditional Studies … Black Studies etc etc. Multi Culturalism. If Bin Laden is in Iran..and it makes a great deal of sense..we cant see the obvious because we will not understand how essentially alien Islam is. Bin Laden isnt hiding in Iran..he is at the center of the culture. Bin Laden is a tutelary diety guiding and giving focus to the whole the Islamic Jihadist psychosis.
Iran is insane..and Bin Laden gives what all madmen seek and find a Guiding Light in the chaos of their own minds.
We have to ask not what Bin Laden wants and why Iran would give it to
Bin Laden..we need to ask what Iran wants and needs and what Bin Laden gives to Iran. And Bin Laden gives Islam and Iran EVERYTHING. What nags constantly at the Islamist is the sense that they really are a failed culture..that perhaps, even, and this is the the most terrible thought any human can ever know.. perhaps their God..is a lie. For the Islamist Bin Laden restores Faith itself..Bin Laden reaffirms the power of Islam and its future…and to the True Believers..that is worth every sacrifice, even if it leads to Nuclear War.
This is another huge reason why it was stupid, really stupid, for Obama not to openly and aggresively support the Iranian anti-government protesters last year. If we had launched a major covert operation to overthrow the mullahs right then and there, the government stood a good chance of falling. And even if the new government was not totally pro-western, it certainly would have been better than what’s in power right now. With the Iranian government in turmoil or, better yet, falling, it would have been far easier for covert agents to infiltrate Iran and see if bin Laden, or any al Qaeda members for that matter, were around. Now the moment has passed and the mullahs retain their iron grip on the public. Nice going, team Obama!
Either loyalists of the false “radical Shiites and radical Sunnis will never work together” mantra convinced their superiors that it was an impossibility, or the government’s hands are tied as getting bin Laden would mean a violent operation on Iranian soil.
Or the president of the United States is Barack Hussein Obama.
Now how could terrorists possibly get their hands on a nuclear weapon? Gosh, I just don’t know.
While interesting, I take any and all OBL rumors with a large grain of salt. He was supposed to be dead by now of kidney disease. No, he was only suffering kidney problems. Maybe he has a bad back. Or the sniffles from living in a cave. Now he’s in Iran living in an apartment.
Show me some real evidence and not yet more reporting from supposedly realiable sources. The kidney disease stories were all from reliable sources too.
For all we know, the real Osama bin Laden is dead and the man seen in the bin Laden sightings is some impostor. It doesn’t really matter if the man isn’t the original; as long as he convinces people that he is Osama bin Laden, people will follow him, and that’s all that matters.
Bin Laden is alive. He issues video tapes referring to recent political events..Barack Obama
etc. The voice on the tape has been matched to Bin Ladens.
don’t any of you get tired of being manipulated by ONE SIDE of this fight?
I know I do…. it makes me dislike that side and sympathize with Iran and Palestinians.
We need free and open discussions… that tell the TRUTH of who the bad guys are.
I believe I’ve read your ‘book reviews’ on Amazon. Who are the bad guys? Oh, right, Israel.
The good guys send tens of thousands of teenage boys to death in the marshes along the Iran-Iraq border.
The good guys oppress women in all respects and using any means.
The good guys blow up Jewish community centers and Marine bases.
The good guys believe in an ideology by which they will bring the apocalypse – most especially by first killing all Jews in the world, so the Mahdi will be happy and reemerge.
Folks like you are a fascinating (sort of) study in how to go from 911 skepticism, which is certainly valid, to madness. I read two of Griffin’s books, and went to Amazon to read reviews of his latest. I am not sure if you were there, but the name is familiar. The most offensive reviewers were leftist Jews and half-Jews, at least one of whom gave credence to Holocaust deniers. Again, I don’t remember if that individual was ‘Marks’, but he wrote in the same spirit.
For those of us who remain loyal to our people – that’s right, our ‘people – we have to contend with those like you in every generation. You always make the best Jew-haters, those trapped in the remnants of an identity they can never really flee.
Go to Gaza for a day and we ill see your head removed on a video the next week.
The idea that Bin laden is in Iran isn’t exactly new and crazy idea.
I’ve persoanlly believed that he’s there for a few years now. And I know a lot of other people do too.
This makes the 1,348th stupid reason Obama hasn’t supported the people’s rebellion in Iran.
Ya, he’s there. What are we gonna do about? Nothing.
He’ll die there.
Bin Laden is in Iran as a most honored guest of the Mullahs.
Every country needs its unifying symbol. Iran defines itself by hatred
and defiance of the USA. Bin Laden punched the Great Satan in the face
and got away with it. It all makes perfect sense.
Don’t be silly Mauro, Osama Bin Laden is alive and well, and enjoying a very safe haven in the White House basement,where he serves as special consultant to Janet Napolitano.
Where there are Qur’an thumper’s and Ali/Ala worshipper’s you will find Old Osama Bino Laden hiding like the cowardly terrorist leader he is…….AND since THEY are all muslim’s-whatever breed of the day be–Sunni/Shite’s/Bushi’s/Osamit’s..he could be in Saudia Arabia, Iran, Afganistan, Pakistan, Turkey, USA. Look at the new today—The president want’s to sell our fighter planes to Iran now?? Why don’t he just have one big old anti-American/muslim get down party down in the tunnel he hides in under the White House and roll out the door mats(oh I meant rugs), break out the Qur’an and talk it all over with Ali/Ala………between him and Bush we are almost sold completely out anyway………..They have not hidden anything from us good American-born, God loving, country loving, freedom fighting – certified USA citizens that have kept and are keeping one step ahead of each of them. It’s sad, it’s sick, it’s real, and it’s true……what the silent majority has allowed these cowards to do.