Possible Al Qaeda-Somalia Link in Afghan Cave
Wed Mar 20, 4:21 PM ET
By Charles Aldinger
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - In a possible long-range link to al Qaeda, U.S. troops searching an icy Afghan cave this week found a global positioning receiver taken from a decorated U.S. soldier killed in Somalia in 1993, the Pentagon (news - web sites) said on Wednesday.
The name of Master Sgt. Gary Gordon, one of 18 U.S. Army special forces troops killed in a firefight with militiamen in Mogadishu nine years ago, was found on both the satellite receiver and a pouch that it was in, defense officials told reporters.
Pentagon officials have long suspected the deaths of Americans in Somalia, detailed in the recent movie "Black Hawk Down," were planned by supporters of fugitive al Qaeda guerrilla leader Osama bin Laden (news - web sites).
Gordon, of Lincoln, Maine, was one of two U.S. soldiers posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor -- the nation's highest military award -- after the Mogadishu action. He was 33 when he died.
Air Force Brig. Gen. John Rosa told reporters at a Pentagon briefing the name "G. Gordon" was on the hand-held global positioning device, which allows the person holding it to determine his exact position within yards (meters).
The device was found in a cave high in Afghanistan (news - web sites)'s eastern mountains near Gardez, where U.S.-led forces this month attacked what were believed to be hundreds of regrouping al Qaeda and Taliban fighters in the five-month-old Afghan war.
"That's a good question -- one we've been doing some thought about," Rosa replied when asked if the device could establish a link between al Qaeda in Somalia and in Afghanistan.
"We've said all along that we suspected al Qaeda of being a worldwide network," he said. "In fact, this piece we currently think originated from Somalia will obviously tie -- could obviously tie -- al Qaeda to Somalia."
SOLD ON BLACK MARKET?
But he also said that the device could have been stolen in Somalia, sold on the black market and then somehow ended up in Afghanistan, where thousands of anti-Western al Qaeda fighters were trained in guerrilla camps.
"This looks like a definite link to al Qaeda in Somalia, although I doubt it would prove that they are still operating there," another senior defense official, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters.
The United States has accused bin Laden of masterminding Sept. 11 attacks on America, and some Pentagon officials have voiced concern that al Qaeda fighters might have fled the current fighting in Afghanistan for lawless parts of Somalia on the northeast horn of Africa.
Rosa, a senior operations officer on the U.S. military's Joint Staff, said the receiver was a "civilianized" version of such devices that are now commonly carried by U.S. troops.
On Oct. 3, 1993, when Gordon was killed, the military did not have many such devices. But those used at the time by hunters and boaters to determine their positions were often bought by American troops.
"Back in '93, the units were a little bit bigger and more cumbersome," the general said.
"And I remember a lot of our special forces folks would buy the off-the-shelf ones, the small ones."