Noose Tightens on Osama; Iraq Secret Agents

ALSO: -- • U.S. Targets 300 Iraqi Secret Agents• FBI: Al Qaeda May Speed Up Plots• Terror Threat … or Chocolate Binge?

Bin Laden May Be Near Capture

By Brian Ross and David Scott

March 6 — Major military operations to capture Osama bin Laden were being planned and launched late today in Pakistan, with teams of CIA agents directly involved as the hunt for America's most-wanted terrorist rose to a fever pitch.

The search is centered on two areas on the border of the Pakistani province of Baluchistan.

One is near the northern city of Chaman, next to Afghanistan, where today planes dropped leaflets reminding people of the $25 million reward for bin Laden.

The other search is south and west where the province borders Iran.

The sudden optimism that the world's most-wanted terrorist may soon be captured, officials say, was sparked by information obtained from Khalid Shaikh Mohammed. Mohammed, believed to be the third-ranking al Qaeda leader and the planner of the Sept. 11 attacks, was captured last weekend in Pakistan.

There have been numerous unconfirmed reports of sightings of bin Laden in the area on both sides of the Pakistani-Iranian border. Mohammed has extensive family roots in the area.

"They definitely have him pinned down to a small area. This will be a major operation," said ABCNEWS terrorism consultant Vince Cannistraro.

American officials say bin Laden's location was pinpointed more than a week ago when he used a mobile phone to call his family, a surprising decision for somebody who knows American satellites can pick out his voice.

Bin Laden's son Saad was recently in the Iranian capital, Tehran, European anti-terrorism officials told ABCNEWS.

"His son, apparently Saad, is in Iran and some of his wives also are in Iran and he has made apparently a big mistake," said Cannistraro.

Mohammed also reportedly told his interrogators with the CIA and Pakistani intelligence that he had met bin Laden within the last month.

Authorities believe information from Mohammed's cell phones dovetails with other information they already had, which leads them to believe they have a very good bead on bin Laden's whereabouts.

Pakistani officials said their military is being mobilized in Baluchistan's capital, Quetta.

Whether or not bin Laden actually can be brought in and tried remains an open question. American officials who have interrogated al Qaeda prisoners say bin Laden would not want to be taken alive.

"I always had this dream of seeing him in an orange prisoners' jump suit that said 'Metropolitan Correctional Center' [in New York City], but I think he will want to shoot it out because he has scripted his own demise,"said Jack Cloonan, a FBI bin Laden investigator until he retired recently. "He wants to be a martyr."

In addition to the frenetic activity, fueling speculation that a move to capture bin Laden may be near is the presence in Pakistan of CIA Director George Tenet, who was there Wednesday to give an award to President Pervez Musharraf for the capture of Mohammed.

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U.S. Targets Hundreds of Iraqi Secret Agents

By John McWethy

March 6 — The United States is launching a campaign, code-named Imminent Horizon, to disrupt and rattle Iraqi intelligence agents around the world, intelligence sources told ABCNEWS. These are people the United States suspects are trying to engineer terrorist attacks against American interests overseas.

The United States is secretly asking for help from more than 60 countries — nations ranging from Bahrain, Yemen and Egypt to Italy and Japan. Intelligence sources say the United States has a list of about 300 suspected Iraqi agents.

The domestic part of this operation has already swung into action in New York. Sources say the United States is expelling two Iraqi diplomats from the Iraqi mission to the United Nations. The diplomats — both attachés — are named Nazih Abul Latif Rachman and Yehia Naeem Suaoud. They have until Friday, March 7, to depart the United States.

Overseas, sources say, most of the suspected Iraqi agents are also hidden in their embassies, using diplomatic jobs as cover. The United States will ask host nations to expel them, just as it is doing in New York.

A much smaller number of suspected agents are said to be posing as businessmen or students. The United States will ask that they be arrested.

If there is no cooperation, sources say the United States will mount its own harassment campaign — letting suspected Iraqi agents know they are now being watched.

In law enforcement terms, it's called "shaking the tree," — creating doubts, trying to rattle potential terrorists.

Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., said he believes there is a definite threat — of increasing magnitude — from Iraqi agents overseas.

"It is more likely that something will take place in another nation involving Americans or American institutions than in this country," said Rockefeller, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee. "I will say this, that our agencies are on top of it."

Two days after the start of the last war against Iraq in 1991, Iraqi agents tried to blow up a U.S. government cultural center in the Philippines. The bomb detonated prematurely, killing one Iraqi and severely injuring another.

In the aftermath, the United States discovered more than two dozen Iraqi agents throughout the region.

And more recently, on Feb. 14, also in the Philippines, an Iraqi diplomat named Husham Husain was expelled for his alleged ties to the Philippine terrorist group Abu Sayyaf.

Sources say the CIA, FBI and military intelligence agencies have worked on this operation for more than a year — a period during which they say evidence has continued to mount that Baghdad intends to strike.

FBI Warns of Sped Up Al Qaeda Plots

By Pierre Thomas, Mary Walsh and Risa Molitz

March 6 — The FBI warned law enforcement agencies that the recent capture of al Qaeda's operational commander Khalid Shaikh Mohammed could accelerate attacks already in their planning stages.

In a weekly internal bulletin distributed to more than 18,000 law enforcement agencies, the FBI lauded the debilitating affect that Mohammed's capture had on the terrorist network, but cautioned that his arrest did not mean agencies could cast their vigilance aside.

"The FBI assesses that the capture of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed deals a severe long-term blow to al Qaeda's ability to plan and carry out attacks against the United States," sources told ABCNEWS the statement said.

"However, in the short-term, the apprehensions may accelerate execution of any operational planning already under, as operatives seek to carry out attacks before the information obtained through Mohammed's capture can be used to undermine operational security"

Al Qaeda leadership was well aware of the pursuit of Mohammed, particularly after he just barely escaped from a raid in Karachi last September, during which alleged 9/11 conspirator Ramsi Binalshibh was arrested, law enforcement sources told ABCNEWS.

Therefore, FBI and CIA officials are working on the assumption that al Qaeda established contingency plans in the event that he were captured, even relegating specific details and tasks to others within the organization.

The bulletin names Mohammed's family members as potential inheritors of his terrorist plans, particularly his nephews, Abd al-Karim and Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali al-Baluchi.

Like Mohammed, al-Karim speaks English and studied in North Carolina, the statement says.

Another notorious nephew of Mohammed is Ramzi Yousef, the operational mastermind of the first attack on the World Trade Center in 1993 who is currently serving 240 years in prison.

Be on the Lookout … for Women With Chocolate

By Jill Rackmill and Chris Vlasto

March 6 — With the arrest of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed this week came information that future al Qaeda operations might include an attack on dams at key lakes and reservoirs.

So when an alert Tennessee Valley Authority police officer spotted a man and his girlfriend taking photos of the Norris Dam at approximately 4 a.m Sunday morning, the FBI's joint-terrorism task force sprang into action.

FBI agents in Knoxville, Tenn., put out an alert asking for help in locating the man, identified as Ahmed Helmy Mostafa, 23, as well as his brother Hatem M. Elsakaan, 26. Both men were wanted on warrants in Virginia for using false information to obtain driver's licenses.

"In our minds, if you're going out to Norris Dam at 4:30 in the morning taking pictures, that's suspicious," said Knoxville FBI Agent Joe Clark "If you have a warrant out for your arrest and you take pictures, that just adds to it."

On Monday, FBI agents in Virginia arrested Mostafa and Elsakaan on the fraudulent identification charge. But the unanswered question remained: why were Mostafa and his girlfriend taking pictures of a dam at 4 a.m.?

On Tuesday, a local reporter tracked down the woman who had been with Mostafa at the dam at 4 a.m. Her explanation for the "suspicious activity" at the dam? It was all about chocolate.

The woman says she had given up eating chocolate for an entire year, and after she got off her early morning shift at work Sunday, she and Mostafa, went out to celebrate.

They went bowling, decided they weren't ready to call it a night, and then headed over to the dam to continue their celebration. "We were having a chocolate fest," she said.

At the dam, Mostafa took photos of his girlfriend holding her reward for abstaining from chocolate: a previously off-limits Hershey bar.

The FBI did not obtain the photos taken at the dam, but ABCNEWS did. While Nestle Crunch bars, Snickers and M&Ms are prominently displayed, the dam can barely be seen in the background.

"I never even thought about national security. That was the last thing on my mind," the woman said, adding that if she had to do it all over again, "I would have just came home, parked in my driveway, sit out here and ate chocolate on my own property."

Mostafa and Elsakaan waived their right to counsel at an appearance in U.S. District on Tuesday, then were led away in leg chains.

While the FBI jumped into action over the case, Special Agent Lawrence Barry said later the case was soley about fake IDs. "There's no information indicating they're tied to any terrorist activities," he said.

— ABCNEWS affiliate WATE contributed to this report