WASHINGTON, 22 January 2003 — Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden escaped from Afghanistan by giving his satellite phone to his Moroccan bodyguard, who served as decoy for US forces tracking the signal, the Washington Post reported yesterday.
Abdallah Tabarak was captured at Tora Bora in eastern Afghanistan in November 2001 and sent to the US base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where he is now a leader among fellow Al-Qaeda and Taleban detainees, senior Moroccan officials told the newspaper.
“He agreed to be captured or die,” one official said. “That’s the level of his fanaticism for Bin Laden.”
Tabarak, 43, used Bin Laden’s phone while moving around the cave complex at Tora Bora that was besieged by US and pro-US Afghan forces.
“It wasn’t a lot of time, but it was enough. There is a saying: ‘Where there is a frog, the serpent is not far away,’” said the Moroccan officials who have interviewed Tabarak and other Moroccan prisoners at Guantanamo.
Bin Laden is believed to have fled Tora Bora to neighboring Pakistan. Despite several messages attributed to him since his presumed escape, there is no definitive proof to suggest whether he is alive or dead.
A US reward of $5 million for his capture still stands.
The Moroccan officials said US forces in Afghanistan did not know who Tabarak was when they captured and sent him to Guantanamo. His mug shot, sent around the world, was immediately identified by Moroccan officials, they added.
They said they had since established his role by examining the satellite telephone he had and through interviews with other captives.
They said the ploy that allowed Bin Laden to escape was widely known and celebrated among the prisoners at the military prison in Guantanamo.
Tabarak, the officials said, has the respect of fellow prisoners and has ordered them to hold day-long fasts to maintain some semblance of a command structure at the camp in defiance of US attempts to break and isolate them.
“He has charisma, and all the combatants at Guantanamo are deferential to him,” a Moroccan intelligence officer said.
The Washington Post said US officials have acknowledged the fasts at Guantanamo and that some prisoners have emerged as leaders, but would not provide further details, including identifying Tabarak. (AFP)
