Inside The Manhunt: War On Terrorism: Where's Bin Laden in Afghanistan?

• Share

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."