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To: Les H who wrote (134665)	11/15/2001 10:54:13 PM
From: Les H	Respond to of 436258

Taliban Brass Talk of 'Handing Over' Bin Laden USA Today Thursday November 15, 2001 U.S. commandos are hunting Osama bin Laden with high-tech surveillance traps, heat-seeking spy planes and suitcases full of cash. As his Taliban protectors collapse throughout Afghanistan, the alleged mastermind of the attacks Sept. 11 on New York and Washington has fewer places to run, U.S. intelligence officials said Wednesday. In a late development, U.S. officials in Islamabad, Pakistan, said a number of Taliban commanders in southern Afghanistan have offered to deliver bin Laden to the United States. The commanders are not among the Taliban top leadership, but intelligence officials believe they have knowledge of bin Laden's whereabouts. Some are asking about the reward of $5 million while others, surrounded by opposition forces, are looking for a way out, the officials said. Meanwhile, officials disclosed that military jets on Tuesday bombed and destroyed a building where top al-Qa'eda leaders were hiding. Several people were reportedly killed. U.S. officials had not determined who was among the dead. On the war front, Taliban forces continued to retreat toward the southern city of Kandahar and its surroundings. U.S. jets moved in to target the fleeing forces. There were reports of uprisings against Taliban forces in the south. The Pentagon reacted with caution. "We don't have enough factual information to assume that this war in Afghanistan is about to end," said Rear Adm. John Stufflebeem, deputy director of operations with the Joint Chiefs of Staff. U.S. officials and leaders of the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance said they believe bin Laden retreated from Kandahar, the Taliban spiritual center, to the remote mountains of Afghanistan's central Oruzgan province, home to Taliban leader Mohammed Omar. Taliban spokesman Mullah Abdullah said bin Laden and Omar are in Afghanistan "and, thanks be to God, no harm has come upon them." Some bin Laden lieutenants may have slipped into Pakistan, a U.S. official said. Intelligence sources said bin Laden could shave his beard, cut his hair and try to slip into Pakistan's Northwest Frontier Province. To prevent his escape, several hundred Army commandos are in Afghanistan interviewing captured Taliban commanders and setting up surveillance gear, such as radar, heat detectors and cameras, U.S. officials said. Many are posted at roadblocks outside Kandahar. Asked whether the troops would engage in battle, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said, "If they're the kind you want to shoot, you shoot them." Teams of two to 12 men are searching abandoned caves, tunnels and buildings for maps, documents or computer disks that could lead to bin Laden, officials said. From the skies, pilots are using heat detectors to locate warm bodies in cold Afghan caves. CIA agents are using cash to bribe sources for information about bin Laden's whereabouts, officials said. Bin Laden has trimmed his once-large entourage to about 100 security troops and supporters, and he is separated from Omar, U.S. officials said. Afghan expert Rahimullah Yusufzai, who has interviewed bin Laden, said, "They will not let themselves be taken alive."