German TV: Documentary Claims Bin Laden Pakistan Hideout Found!

[JackRiddler]

Following is TV guide description of a documentary that aired on German TV this week. It was on Phoenix, a very serious channel, kind of C-Span plus documentaries. (I did not see it.)

Translation of German description, below:

How the Al-Qaeda chief is hidden and protected.
Ever since the Americans bombed the caves of the Tora Bora mountains in southern Afghanistan, he has gone missing. All the secret services of the world cannot find OBL - #1 enemy of the USA since 9/11.

Really?

Franco-Algerian journalist Mohamed Sifaoui follows OBL's trail through mountains, steppes and cities. He risks his life several times and films the governors of the terror network with a hidden camera - right up to the top of the Pakistani bureaucracy.

Finally he finds the hideout of OBL, and the question arises:
Why does no one arrest the Al-Qaeda chief?

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http://www.phoenix.de/dokus/16161/index.html

Mi, 18.02.04, 20.15 Uhr
Do, 19.02.04, 07.30 Uhr

Wie der Al Quaida-Chef versteckt und beschützt wird
Seit die Amerikaner die Höhlen des Tora Bora Gebirges im Süden Afghanistans bombardierten, ist er verschwunden. Bin Laden, Feind Nummer eins der USA nach dem 11. September 01, ist von allen Geheimdiensten der Welt nicht mehr aufzufinden.

Wirklich nicht?

Der franko-algerische Journalist Mohamed Sifaoui folgt seinen Spuren durch Gebirge, Steppen und Großstädte. Er riskierte mehrfach sein Leben und filmte die Statthalter des Terror-Netzwerks mit versteckter Kamera - bis in die Spitzen der pakistanischen Verwaltung.

Schließlich findet er den Zufluchtsort Bin Ladens, und es bleibt die Frage: Wieso verhaftet niemand den Al Quaida-Chef?

Dokumenation von Mohamed Sifaoui (2004)

[Brotherjohn]

1. "Why does no one arrest the Al-Qaeda chief?"

Because his arraignment date is set for October 25th, 2004.

We can't very well arrest him before the voters... er, before the legal system is ready for him.

[pmbryant]

2. Finds the hideout of OBL?

Somehow I doubt this. Did he interview the guy while he was there?

:eyes:

--Peter

[JackRiddler]

5. no idea

the above translation is all I know, so far. Am working on getting a copy or hearing from someone who saw it.

[Minstrel Boy]

3. Sounds like corroboration of the story that, in the winter of 2001,

Musharraf struck a deal with Bush not to seize bin Laden "for fear of inciting trouble" in Pakistan, and that bin Laden is "being protected by a three elaborate security rings which stretch 120 miles in diameter".

http://www.guardian.co.uk/alqaida/story/0,12469,1028044,00.html

[sunnynair]

4. Bin laden is ..........

Osama can be our October surprise.

[newyawker99]

7. Hi sunnynair!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[JackRiddler]

6. Review: Bin Laden documentary apparently worthless

The following page by the Cologne group "Arbeiterfotografie," who do absolutely the best work in Germany on 9/11, includes an extensive treatment of this week's German TV broadcast of a French-Morrocan filmmaker's documentary, "On the Trail of Bin Laden."

http://www.arbeiterfotografie.com/galerie/kein-krieg/hintergrund/rezension-6.html#02

(Let the page load for a year, then scroll waaaaaaaay down to Item #7 - do not click on the navbar, or you will end up on a different page.)

Even if you can't read German, the many screen shots from the film pretty much tell the story.

Here's the gist of their review:

Film cobbles together unsourced rumors about "all the world's terrorists gathering" in Pakistan - a land of demonized closeups of bearded, sweaty men. Barely anyone expresses their suspicions about OBL's whereabouts on camera, but the voiceover is rich in suggestion. "Everyone says" Bin Laden is somewhere in the Waziristan region, that he fled there under Pakistani cover, and that he is now protected by the Pakistani authorities and "three rings" of forces. A long detour does a laughable rehash of the official 9/11 story. The director discovers a "Qaeda video" on CD with footage of "hijacker confessions," remastered to include the actual 9/11 attack. (The pictures in the video don't quite match the official hijacker pictures.) At the end, an actor is shown playing Bin Laden as though he were (one of) the real one(s), wandering around some hills. Conclusion: "The Americans agree" that he must be in that region, which is about half the size of New Jersey. "Time will tell as the noose tightens..."

Reviewers conclude this is prewash work for an OBL "capture" later this year. Recall that Germany has provided the richest sources of official-story propaganda. All of the published "mastermind" stories about Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Ramzi Binalshibh and the Hamburg cell have come via Germany, especially ARD state television and "Der Spiegel" magazine.

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But hell, even Madeleine Albright says there's going to be an OBL Surprise.