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18.11.01, 23:02
Ciekawy artykul w Times (http://www.sunday-times.co.uk) o tym jak trafiono
Atefa w sam turban:
STEPHEN GREY
THERE was no moonlight in Afghanistan on Wednesday night. The new moon, marking
the beginning of Ramadan, had yet to appear. Invisible under the stars, an
unmanned American spy plane circled inaudibly over a stretch of dark landscape,
transmitting grainy images back to the United States.
Its night-vision camera was focused on a pinpoint of light in the distance, a
three-storey hotel building, where it detected a great deal of movement.
Turbaned men talked agitatedly outside among parked pick-up trucks and military
vehicles. Others moved in and out of the building. The drone�s controllers,
thousands of miles away in a bunker on the eastern seaboard of America, knew
who they were.
For two days since being roused from their beds in Kabul, these ragged figures
had been fleeing south, trying to stay ahead of enemy forces and anxious to
avoid satellite and surveillance planes.
Moving furtively in small groups across the parched plains, they had spread out
on side tracks and dirt roads, avoiding the main highway. Progress was slow.
They were still less than 100 miles from the capital when they reached the end
of the second day of flight.
Many thousands of men had fled in the Taliban withdrawal from Kabul. But amid
all the chaos of the retreat, this small convoy was given special attention. It
was believed by American intelligence to consist of fighters from Osama Bin
Laden�s Al-Qaeda organisation.
Predator spy planes, capable of staying aloft for 24 hours on station, and
JSTARS surveillance planes, equipped with radar that can monitor ground
movements across a vast area, tracked them from the moment they left Kabul �
despite their elaborate efforts to avoid detection.
The Predators � known as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) � come from the CIA�s
squadron of remote-control drones. At their cruising speed of 80 knots, they
are inaudible from the ground and can identify targets five miles away.
Armed with two Hellfire anti-tank missiles, a Predator could have been ordered
to strike the convoy at any time. But the controllers chose to go on shadowing
it.
�This may have been a case of �follow me to our leader�,� said one American
source. If so, the patience paid off with a remarkable prize.
It was just before 1am local time on Thursday when the Americans went in for
the kill. The convoy had stopped at a small town. Men in other vehicles were
there, too. Some sort of gathering was taking place in the hotel. The single
Predator, now overhead, gave a clear picture of the hotel�s crowded car park
and of the fighters � apparently pacing nervously as they waited for their
commanders to finish their meeting.
Through encrypted satellite communications, the Predator was providing a live
battlefield television picture back to control rooms at the US Central Command
in Tampa, Florida, from where General Tommy Franks has been running the war in
Afghanistan.
From Tampa, the Predator picture was relayed through the American secure
communications network to the CIA in Langley, Virginia, and to the battle-
scarred Pentagon itself. With the local clock showing 3.30pm Wednesday, the
operation was providing post-lunch viewing for senior leaders.
�When this kind of excitement is going on, everyone big wants to take a look.
This is modern warfare at work,� said one US intelligence source. President
George W Bush was absent, however. He was entertaining President Vladimir Putin
of Russia on his Texan ranch.
As American officials watched with mounting excitement, three US air force F-15
Strike Eagle planes, America�s premier attack fighters, were moved into
position. Deployed from bases in the Gulf, the aircraft had been �loitering� in
the Kabul area, kept aloft by inflight refuelling, awaiting the right moment to
move in.
Nobody knew precisely who they would kill if the order to attack the hotel was
given, but intelligence analysts felt certain that senior Al-Qaeda officials
were meeting in the hotel to consider their next moves as the Taliban regime
was collapsing all over the country. Finally, the order was given in Florida
for the target to be engaged.
Locking the cross-hairs of their weapon guidance systems on the hotel below,
each of the three F-15s let loose a single GBU-15 �smart bomb�. Weighing
2,500lb each, these bombs are guided on to their targets by infrared cameras in
their noses.
As the bombs slammed into the side of the hotel, the Predator completed the
mission, launching its two Hellfire missiles at the vehicles in the car park.
Almost everyone at the scene was incinerated, with close to 100 people killed.
It was many hours before American officials could know just how much they had
achieved. Then, in panic and pandemonium, an Al-Qaeda operative breached the
organisation�s strict security rules and revealed that a large number of the
movement�s senior figures had been killed � including Mohammed Atef, the 57-
year-old deputy to Bin Laden and the terrorist group�s senior military
commander.
According to one British official, a satellite phone call from an extremist
group in Afghanistan to a foreign country was, like all satellite phone calls
from the country, intercepted by British and American listening centres.
Translated and transcribed at the National Security Agency in Maryland, the
phone call revealed an operative who was heatedly reeling out a list of
casualties, and he made a distinct and definite reference to the death of
Mohammed Atef. This information was confirmed by a further human intelligence
source, said another British official.
�They said, �What a shame he is dead,� � said the senior official, paraphrasing
the overheard conversations.
By Friday, nobody had identified any bodies at the devastated hotel or could be
100% certain who had died. But Pentagon officials began to be increasingly
confident that they had killed Atef in the onslaught. Yesterday, the Taliban
initially confirmed but then denied he was dead.
Other air raids have taken place on Taliban and Al-Qaeda positions in the past
few days, but the intelligence officials believe Atef died at the hotel. Its
exact location has not been confirmed, but one source suggested it was in
Gardez, an ethnic Pushtun stronghold on the road up from Kabul into the Taliban
mountain province of Paktia.
The death of Atef, say security officials, has wiped out one of the western
world�s most formidable opponents. With a daughter married to one of Osama Bin
Laden�s sons, he was considered by many to be a potential successor to head Al-
Qaeda if Bin Laden was killed.
British and American intelligence agencies had identified Atef as an important
planner of the September 11 terrorist attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade
Center. He was the key link man, they believe, between Bin Laden and the
hijackers.
Telephone calls intercepted by spy agencies are believed to have revealed
specific details of how Atef controlled and approved the suicide hijackings.
It is believed by security agencies that Mohammed Atta, the German-based
ringleader of the hijackers and a fellow Egyptian, had visited Afghanistan to
get Atef�s specific go-ahead for the September 11 attacks.
In May 1998, at a press conference in Afghanistan, Bin Laden introduced Atef as
his �right-hand man�, according to Pakistani newspaper reports. The Al-Qaeda
leader then repeated his declaration of war on Americans. Atef was already
plotting the bombing of two US embassies in Africa, which occurred three months
later.
Atef not only sat on the shura (consultation council) of Al-Qaeda, but also
headed the group�s military council. He was responsible for the training of Al-
Qaeda terrorists, including suicide bombers. While
