Rare Photos Released By The U.S. Government Showing Osama Bin Laden At Tora Bora Before 9/11

Image: Osama Bin Laden holds a Kalashnikov rifle in Tora Bora, a mountainous region of Afghanistan, in November 1996. The Al Qaeda leader spent years developing a network of tunnels and caves in the area

Daily Mail: Inside Bin Laden's bolt-hole: Rare photos show grinning terrorist at his Tora Bora hideout pre 9/11 - high in the Afghan mountains guarded by children wielding Kalashnikovs

* Images taken by journalist Abdel Barri Atwan in 1996 released in trial of Al Qaeda lieutenant Khaled al-Fawwaz
* Shows 9/11 mastermind's compound in mountainous region of Tora Bora, including a two-bedroom mud hut
* Developed an intricate network of caves and tunnels to avoid detection and acted as protection during air strikes
* Reports suggest he would go on day-long hikes across the mountains surrounded by bodyguards
* He fled the area near the Pakistan border on horse back in 2001 when US forces closed in on him

Rare photos have emerged of the primitive and isolated compound Osama Bin Laden lived in until a Western bombing campaign forced him to flee.

The images resurfaced last month during the terrorism conspiracy trial in New York of Al Qaeda lieutenant Khaled al-Fawwaz, a communications conduit for the terrorist organisation in London in the mid-1990s.

They were taken by Palestinian journalist Abdel Barri Atwan, who was invited to the hideout in 1996 as part of Bin Laden's ploy to spread his message of hate to the Western world.

The 9/11 mastermind had declared war on America and planned a media campaign to garner international attention.

WNU Editor: You know that the U.S. has even more pictures .... probably thousands of more pictures of Osama Bin Laden .... but to this day for reasons of their own they are still reluctant to publish them.

New York City Terror Trial Reveals Osama Bin Laden's Secret Ties To Iran?

Osama bin Laden was killed in 2011 when Navy SEALS raided his secret lair in Pakistan. STR/REUTERS

Weekly Standard: New Docs Reveal Osama bin Laden's Secret Ties With Iran

Show availability of Iran for al Qaeda training, plotting.

This week, prosecutors in New York introduced eight documents recovered in Osama bin Laden’s compound in Pakistan as evidence in the trial of a terrorism suspect. The U.S. government accuses Abid Naseer of taking part in al Qaeda’s scheme to attack targets in Europe and New York City. And prosecutors say the documents are essential for understanding the scope of al Qaeda’s plotting.

More than 1 million documents and files were captured by the Navy Seals who raided bin Laden’s safe house in Abbottabad, Pakistan in May 2011. One year later, in May 2012, the Obama administration released just 17 of them.

WNU Editor: What I found fascinating about this story is the revelation that over one million documents were seized from Osama Bin Laden's compound by Navy SEALS when they launched the raid that killed him .... but only 17 of the one million have ever been released.

Makes you wonder what the other 999,983 documents contain.

Update: This is interesting .... FBI agent testifying in trial of accused Al Qaeda terrorist says he saw body of Osama bin Laden (New York Daily News).

10 Kelompok Teroris paling terkenal di Dunia

Masalah teror sudah menjadi musuh bagi semua negara di dunia (terutama negara-negara barat), Keeksistensian dan aksinya banyak meresahkan masyarakat (Walau ada beberapa yang menurut saya mempunyai tujuan yang jelas dan mulia), Namun begitu tetap saja teroris dianggap sebagai sesuatu yang terlarang.Berikut ini adalah 10 Kelompok Teroris paling terkenal di dunia :

10. Armed Islamic Group of Algeria (GIA)
Kelompok teroris ini berdiri pada bulan Juli 1992. Kelompok ini adalah kelompok oposan pemerintah Aljazair yang selalu melakukan aksi-aksi per-oposisi-anya dengan teror. Kelompok ini mulai terkenal di dunia setelah ikut serta dalam aksi pembajakan pesawat Air France 8969 pada tahun 1994.

9. Aden-Abyan Islamic Army
Kelompok ini adalah kelompok Jihad Islam terkemuka di Timur tengah, Namun begitu basisi kelompok teroris ini berada di Yaman. Belum jelas kapan kelompok ini didirikan, namun mulai terkenal di dunia setelah peristiwa penculikan 16 turis pada tahun 1998 di kota Abyan.

8. Jamaat Ansar al-Sunna
Kelompok Teroris ini berdiri tahun 2003, kelompok ini adalah kelompok yang menentang pemerintahan Irak di masa Nouri al maliki serta penentang keras pendudukan Amerika serikat di negeri 1001 malam itu.

7. Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia
Kelompok teroris Kolombia yang dianggap masih setia dengan paham Marxis-Leninis serta dianggap sebagai salah satu gembong perdagangan narkoba dunia. Didirikan tahun 1964 dan hingga kini tercacat ada 12 ribu pejuang dari kelompok ini yang setia menjarah uang orang-orang kaya untuk diberikan kepada masyarakat miskin.

6. Kurdistan Worker’s Party
Dikenal sebagai PKK, kelompok ini didirikan pada 27 November 1978 di Turki dan berorientasi untuk memerdekakan negara kurdi. Wilayah operasinya berada di Turki, Iran, Suriah dan Irak.

5. Liberation Tiger of Tamil Eelam
Kelompok teroris paling berpengaruh di Sri Lanka, didirikan oleh Velupillai Prabhakaran pada bulan Mei 1976. Dan hingga kini dilarang di 32 negara di dunia karena aksinya yang telah banyak membunuh petinggi Sri lanka dan India

4. Hezbollah
Salah satu kelompok teroris paling berbahaya di dunia. Kelompok teroris ini berpusat di Lebanon, namun juga eksis di Iran dan Suriah. Orientasi utamanya adalah memerdekakan negara-negara Syiah dari penjajahan Amerika serikat dan antek-anteknya.

3. Taliban
Taliban adalah organisasi teroris yang didirikan oleh suku Pashtun dengan dukungan beberapa negara Islam seperti Arab, Chechen, Uzbek, Tajik Punjabi. Sebagian besar anggotanya adalah mahasiswa. tujuan utamanya adalah mengusir pendudukan NATO di Afganistan dan sekitarnya.

2. Hamas
Singkatan untuk "Harakat Al-Muqawama Al-Islamia", Hamas adalah kelompok sosio-politik teroris Palestina yang didirikan pada tahun 1987. Organisasi ini didirikan dengan tujuan Jihad dan untuk melepaskan Palestina dari penjajahan Israel. Dikenal karena pelaku bom bunuh diri yang pemberani, kelompok teroris ini secara signifikan didukung oleh Hizbullah untuk membunuh warga sipil Israel dan petugas pertahanan.

1. Al-Qaeda
Siapa yang tak kenal dengan Al-Qaeda. Kelompok teror terbesar di antara semua kelompok teroris di seluruh dunia. Kelompok ekstrimis Islam ini didirikan pada tahun 1989 oleh Osama bin Laden, Kelompok ini terkenal di seluruh dunia setelah serangan 11 September. Walaupun pemimpin utamanya yakni Osama dikabarkan sudah tewas, namun organisasi ini tetap hidup.

Saddam and Bin Laden

From The Belmont Club:

Did Saddam Hussein cooperate with al-Qaeda to attack America? The Institute for Defense Analyses survey of Saddam Hussein's relationship to terrorist organizations, based on 600,000 captured documents, categorically concludes they can't find the connection -- there's "no smoking gun (i.e., direct connection) between Saddam's Iraq and al Qaeda" -- but thoroughly documents the Iraqi dictator's systematic use of terrorism to attack Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Iran, Iraqi dissidents all over the world and, when it suited him, American interests.

The lasting value of the IDA report will be as a portrait of a certain type of Middle Eastern state, for whom terrorism is a normal instrument of policy. Although the report is about Iraq, it could just as easily describe the basic structure of statecraft in Iran, Syria, Egypt, "Palestine" and Saudi Arabia.

Saddam's terror aparatus ran along two tracks. There were the "in-house" killers, composed of intelligence operatives, frequently supported by their diplomatic missions overseas and there were the contractors; some small outfits and others full-service providers in the way that major consulting firms are.

Read more ....

My Comment: Another excellent read from the Belmont Club. His analysis is dead on.