TIME: Where's Bin
Laden?
Monday, March 29, 2004
By MICHAEL WARE / NANGALAM
The men of Camp Blessing know they are bait. They
dangle far from the formidable, heavily fortified
perimeters of other U.S. bases in Afghanistan.
Instead of the hundreds or thousands of troops that
are in the large encampments, there are only a dozen
Green Berets from what is known as Operational
Detachment Alpha (ODA) 936 and a smattering of
Marines. But they are dangling far from safety to
attract a big catch. "This is Osama bin Laden's
backyard," says the team sergeant. "And part of the
solution to tracking him is having guys like us out
here in isolated areas."
Several approaches are being tried to bring bin Laden
and his lieutenants to ground. Pounding suspected
sites is one, dramatized by the Pakistanis last week.
Another is covert manhunts conducted by units like
Task Force 121, the group of U.S. commandos that
aided the capture of Saddam Hussein last year and
that has recently been deployed to Afghanistan. And,
increasingly, the job of persuading locals to provide
intelligence on the whereabouts of al-Qaeda and
Taliban leaders is being carried out in remote
outposts like Camp Blessing along the border between
Afghanistan and Pakistan, where small groups of U.S.
special forces live side by side with local
tribesmen. By extending U.S. influence and trading
favors with tribal leaders, the military hopes to
shake out the kinds of tips that will finally squeeze
bin Laden into the open.
U.S. special-forces commanders recently gave TIME
access to Camp Blessing, located in Nangalam in
eastern Afghanistan. The camp is so secret that it
doesn't even appear on U.S. military and embassy maps
of bases in Afghanistan. Bin Laden reportedly was
spotted within six miles of Nangalam a little more
than a month ago. Villagers claim that a member of
bin Laden's family wed a local girl farther up the
Pesch River.
Camp Blessing, named for Jay Blessing, a U.S. Ranger
sergeant killed in November, is a test of the
"ink-spot theory of counterinsurgency," says Lieut.
Colonel Custer (no first names allowed), the
special-forces commander for eastern and southeastern
Afghanistan. The idea is that as the U.S. brings
stability to places like Nangalam, cooperation from
locals will rapidly spread like ink through blotting
paper. Since arriving three months ago, the men of
ODA 936 have launched numerous reconstruction
projects, ranging from new footbridges to schools and
clinics. Villages that are neutral or friendly
benefit from aid. Those that haven't given up weapons
or that abet the insurgents receive none. "We're
generating the goodwill that engenders willingness to
offer up information," says Custer, "and if bin Laden
shows up, then we're ready to react."
But the Green Berets know they still have plenty of
persuading to do. One night, the residents of
Nangalam turned off the lights in their homes just
before a rocket attack on the U.S. camp. "Someone
knew those rockets were coming," says a commando, who
cannot be named, like almost all the special-forces
members who spoke to TIME for this story. For a base
of its size, Camp Blessing is still tenaciously
guarded. Observation posts lurk high on the ridges
and are manned by Marines on 10-day tours. The Green
Berets make sure their weapons-training sessions are
loud and clear. "When the whole valley hears us
firing 140 rockets in a day, they know we're not
short of ammunition," says the team sergeant. "While
we're a relatively small force here, if you want to
come and mess with us, you're going to get hurt."
With its mix of inducements and force, ODA 936 is
employing the same tactics long used by local
chieftains. It's one thing to find the myriad "angry
guys with beards" and kill them, says Custer, "but
it's much better to co-opt them."
By establishing alliances with Nangalam's villagers,
the Green Berets hope that intel will follow. Similar
tactics worked for them in the 1960s in the Central
Highlands of Vietnam. Last month 27 weapons caches
were turned in to ODA 936 in Nangalam, more than
anywhere else in Afghanistan. Once the troops'
presence is established in the Afghan hinterlands,
U.S. officers believe, the villagers will start to
deny the terrorists sanctuary. Although one Green
Beret says, "It's going to take dumb luck to stumble
across Osama," the special forces are confident that
someone will eventually give him up. "It may be the
opium farmer whose daughter we airlifted to a
hospital who thinks he owes us," says an officer who
serves as the unit's intelligence chief, "and who
comes in with something that we put with 18 other
pieces of the puzzle, and we finally get a clear
picture." They're still waiting for the prey to come
into focus.