NBC Nightly News November 27, 2001
Bin Laden's hiding place may be an intricate cave in Tora Bora, south of Jalalabad
TOM BROKAW, anchor: Secretary Rumsfeld also said today that American troops are now getting into position to begin what he called a systematic cave-by-cave search for Osama bin Laden in the mountains of southeastern Afghanistan, between Kandahar and Jalalabad. Tonight, NBC's Mike Taibbi tells us what it's like in the caves of that region.
MIKE TAIBBI reporting: We were searching for caves, as close as we could get to where Osama bin Laden is reportedly hiding in Tora Bora, south of Jalalabad, and we found these. The boat that would take us there was three inner tubes loosely lashed together. We crossed the river and then hiked to a 1,000-year-old complex of more than a dozen caves in the same mountain range as bin Laden's reported underground maze but some 20 miles away. Mahmahoud knows the history of Afghanistan's caves and has heard bin Laden's hideout is vast. Mr. MAHMAHOUD: Between 200 to 300 people in different cave that are near each other.
TAIBBI: The empty caves we explored were just as large. This one was some 80 by 50 feet with a dozen chambers off the main room. Tunnels that connected to other caves, manmade water troughs for drinking water or an electrical generator, lookouts and escape hatches in every direction.
If Osama bin Laden is dug in in a cave complex even as intricate as this one, he'll be difficult to find and even more difficult to flush out. But not impossible, experts say. Unmanned drones with thermal imaging cameras can find hidden but inhabited underground structures, and getting an image of them can be done to a point.
Mr. JOHN PIKE (Global Security Organization Director): They're so sensitive that they'll be able to pick out the heat coming out of a tunnel entrance, either from a small campfire or possibly even the body heat from a bunch of soldiers in the back of the tunnel.
TAIBBI: But which caves? We push south toward Tora Bora through desolate terrain and ran into a team of local militia who warned us, 'Go no further.'
Unidentified Man: If you want to go, the place--the place is too dangerous.
TAIBBI: The commander told us his men had flushed an enclave of fugitives from their mountain hideouts. He didn't know whether they were Taliban or Arabs and had come away with their cache of weapons. But the commander is certain bin Laden is up there, somewhere past the children flying their kites, the modern terrorist still hidden in the ancient mountain hills. Mike Taibbi, NBC News, Doranta, Afghanistan.
Copyright 2001 National Broadcasting Co. Inc.
