"http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30200-1247153,00.html"
http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30200-1247153,00.html
Spy Chief Attacks Pakistan
Updated: 10:37, Friday January 12, 2007
Al Qaeda leaders are hiding out in Pakistan where they are rebuilding the organisation, America's intelligence chief has warned.
John Negroponte told the Senate Select Committee that Pakistan was the centre of the terror group's organisation.
And he said the group's leaders were holed up in a secure compound in the country.
He did not name Osama bin Laden or his deputy Ayman al Zawahri.
Intelligence experts say bin Laden is probably hiding out in Pakistan's tribal regions or neighbouring districts of North West Frontier Province.
Pakistan reacted angrily to Mr Negroponte's claims.
"We have no such information nor has any such thing been communicated to us by any US authority," said Pakistan's military spokesman Major-General Shaukat Sultan.
US-Pakistan relations have been strained in recent months by claims from American and Afghanistan that Islamabad is not doing enough to crack down on terrorism or stop al Qaeda fighters travelling to Afghanistan.
A CIA-led attack last January by a drone aircraft in Pakistan's Bajaur tribal region was intended to target Zawahri.
It did not kill Zawahri, though it possibly eliminated a handful of al Qaeda militants, along with 18 villagers.
Meanwhile, militant leader and former Afghan prime minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar said his fighters helped bin Laden escape US troops and the battle of Tora Bora five years.
He said some of his fighters moved bin Laden, Zawahiri and other associates to "a safe place" where he met them later.
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Simple enough. Given the common news mis-reporting on so many subjects, I would like to hear "informed" as opposed to "sensationalist" opinions on this subject.
Herald
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