What is cowardice? Found this article in the Washington Post (exerpt below):
Quote:
Bin Laden has also given the Taliban military equipment, training and some of his best fighters for the battle against the Northern Alliance, the opposition coalition trying to topple the Taliban. When bin Laden first moved to Afghanistan from Sudan, he gave the fledgling Taliban militia $3 million at a critical time in the country's civil war, and he was closely involved in the Taliban's subsequent ascent to power.
The Taliban's protection and shelter for bin Laden have been a key reason U.S. intelligence and military forces have not been able to locate him.
Members of the Taliban often travel in bin Laden's retinue, according to U.S. officials. They say U.S. intelligence has information that he often uses decoy caravans when he switches locations and frequently gathers women and children around him, increasing the possibility that a U.S. attack on him could result in the killing or wounding of innocent civilians. (Emphasis mine).
Bin Laden's entourage is small, 25 people or fewer, sources said. He has no headquarters, though U.S. intelligence identified the location of a house he no longer uses. Satellite photography of the Afghan mountains presents even experienced photo interpreters a daunting task because, as one senior official put it, "One Afghanistan mountain looks like every other Afghanistan mountain."
U.S. intelligence has few, if any, good human sources in Afghanistan, and information that comes through various tribes or factions generally turns out to be unreliable. Said one senior administration official, "It's a treacherous country with treacherous people who buy and sell loyalties." U.S. intelligence agencies believe bin Laden's videotaped remarks released Sunday shortly after the U.S. airstrikes began were recorded at least several days earlier. The tape apparently had been pre-positioned with the Qatar-based al-Jazeera news network with instructions or an agreement that it should not be made available until the bombing began.
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URL of the article:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...2001Oct10.html
Doesn't particularly brave to me, if he has to resort to using women and children to protect himself. Looks like he's not in a hurry to go to paradise either, despite the "70 virgins feeding him honeyed grapes". Maybe it's because he doesn't really believe that himself?