Pakistani official: Bin Laden moving

Associated Press

KABUL, Afghanistan “”mdash; Osama bin Laden moved to a new hiding
place within minutes of the terrorist onslaught in the United
States, refusing to tell anyone where he was going or where he had
been when the attacks occurred, sources in Pakistan’s
intelligence service said Thursday.

The sources in neighboring Pakistan spoke on condition of
anonymity. Pakistan is one of only three countries that recognize
Afghanistan’s Taliban government, and is considered to have
good intelligence on Islamic militants operating here. A U.S.
official, also speaking anonymously, confirmed the Pakistani
report.

Bin Laden, a major suspect in Tuesday’s attacks on the
World Trade Center and the Pentagon, dropped out of sight in August
1998, when the United States fired cruise missiles into eastern
Afghanistan following the terrorist bombing of two U.S. embassies
in East Africa.

In a statement carried on Taliban radio, Taliban leader Mullah
Mohammed Omar accused U.S. investigators of focusing on bin Laden,
a wealthy exiled Saudi, “without any proof but because he is
so well known.”

“Does Osama have planes to train pilots? Where did they
get their training? Who trained them? Are they former pilots? From
which country? This is the job of a government. In Afghanistan this
kind of training is not possible,” Omar said.

Bin Laden was last seen in public in February, at his
son’s wedding in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar.