Bin Laden phone swap duped CIA

Osama bin Laden fooled the US troops pursuing him by giving his satellite phone to an aide, who was then tracked by intelligence agencies.

The al Qaeda chief's Moroccan bodyguard Abdallah Tabarak took possession of the phone, which the CIA was monitoring, as American forces closed in on Bin Laden's mountain cave complex at Tora Bora in Afghanistan in late 2001.

Tabarak continued talking into it and was seized and taken away for interrogation, according to the Washington Post.

However, by this time Bin Laden had vanished into the mountains leading to Pakistan.

Critics said that by depending too heavily on local Afghan fighters, US forces lost one of their best chances of capturing the terrorist. Tabarak is now said to be the leader of the more than 600 al Qaeda and Taliban suspects being held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Meanwhile, the US is in a dilemma over Turkey's reluctance to play host to a large American military presence in preparations for a war against Iraq. Polls show 80 per cent of Turks oppose war on Iraq.