kfundingsland@minotdailynews.com
Kim Fundingsland/MDN
Young hunters prepare for a Youth Pheasant Hunt conducted by Pheasants For The Future of Minot. The organization is one of many in the region that is being affected by the coronavirus pandemic.
Coronavirus has severely cut into the scheduled activities on many fronts, including the annual banquets and fundraisers of area wildlife and sportsmen’s organizations. For some, it will be the second such cancellation due to COVID.
Although participation in outdoor activities has seen a large increase during the coronavirus pandemic, unfortunately, most indoor programs have been canceled, crushed due to COVID concerns.
we ll talk to reza later throughout the program about how long he might have been there, what his movements have been over the past ten years and we re learning now. fascinating. it s fascinating nine years, eight months the search going hot and cold, the closest they got was tora bora and to have it be in this, as he said, a garrison city a huge military presence. we would like to bring in hala gorani from cnn international joining us. we re broadcasting on international and you re joining us. welcome. thank you very much, good to be with you. of course the news of osama bin laden s death sparked reaction and in the case of washington, d.c., celebration and new york as well with the twin towers to the gates of the white house where people waved flags, sang the national anthem and chanting usa usa. listen.
this organization has a lot of forces, a lot of rivalries, different ideologies, different agendas. bin laden was able to unify al qaeda by launches this jihad against the united states. he was able to say it was he wanted to get back to a seventh century muslim empire which was borderless, which was extremely, you know, apparently attractive to many people. what i want to ask you about, paul, we ve covered this so long, nine years, eight months, you know, since 9/11, trying to get our hands on him, how surprised are you this is where he ended up, abbottbad, a military, garrison city as reza describes it, not in the border of afghanistan as people talked about. there s increased surprise that officials had indicated he could be in pakistan proper, hinting elements have known where he was. the fact that he was killed in this settled area of pakistan in this compound, this million
could it be possible that no military officials were aware of what s happening in there. that s a question that s going to be asked in the coming days and coming weeks. there s been a lot of speculation over the past decade ever since 9/11 where osama bin laden was hiding, a lot of speculation focused on the pakistan/afghanistan border. pakistani officials both civilian government and military officials, had repeatedly denied that osama bin laden was in pakistan and they called on to the u.s., look, if you know where he is, tell us and we ll help you find him. so ultimately, indeed, it does look like he was hiding in pakistan, not where most people thought he would be in the mountainous areas along the afghanistan border, but in a relatively modern affluent, garrison town of abbottbad. reza sayah, osama bin laden has supporters in pakistan and no surprise there.
the pakistani city of abbottbad. it s a major tourism hub. let s bring in reza sayeh on assignment in libya but has covered this story extensively as well. we re talking about this city, startling to some seem, because there was a pakistani military presence in that city. how could they not have known that s where bin laden was choosing to hide? yeah. i think that s a question that the military officials in pakistan are going to be asked in the coming days and weeks. abbottbad is a garrison city, a military city, lot of military facilities there, military academies, this is a place many military officials go to retire and the civilian population who lives there is a population that caters to the military, so there s going to be a lot of questions, if, indeed, someone came in and built a large facility like this, with huge walls, and huge security, how