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December 4, 2004

Bin Laden's hideout is touted as tourist site

Reported in the New Telegraphonline - UK, Dec 4.

Capitalism has a future in Afghanistan.

The Afghan authorities plan to invigorate the country's fledgling tourist industry by developing Osama bin Laden's Tora Bora mountain hideout as a visitor attraction.

Dr Hassamuddin Hamrah, the man in charge, believes that the caves which once housed bin Laden and his fighters, together with the remains of mangled Russian tanks and crashed helicopter gunships from the 1980s, will prove a tourist magnet.

But he said the plan was being undermined by scrap metal merchants from across the border in Pakistan who were taking the wrecked military hardware. "We wished to keep the artillery, tanks, aircraft and also the military posts and front lines. But the Pakistanis have frustrated our plans," Dr Hamrah said.

(Click on image to enlarge)

"They were coming and buying the metal scraps so a lot of people took these things to Pakistan. The things we thought existed have been taken away."

It is a popular saying in Logar province, south of Kabul, that the Russian artillery shells were not cold before the high quality steel was being sold across the border to the scrap dealers.

"We have plans to make a tourist site at the Tora Bora caves. Many Americans wish to go there," Dr Hamrah said.

"Our main problem is lack of budget so we are approaching the private sector. We request that anybody, any company, who is interested should contact us."

He added that three Japanese tour company bosses had already visited the site.  Read More...

Now you can bet that the Japanese tour company bosses have their cameras with them. I can see the tour buses already lined up, motors running - filling the air with diesel fumes. The poor Afghans use to have to worry about the Taliban, now they are going to have to deal with tourists. It looks like we've done okay in Afghan country, they've had an election and now they are bringing in tourists to sleep in the Tora Bora mountain air. I can envision caves being turned into cavotels. I hope they remember to clear the place of land mines.   

Posted by Hyscience at December 4, 2004 1:43 AM

• Bin Laden's hideout is touted as tourist site - Dec 04, 2004