US Close to finding Bin Laden?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081119/ap_on_re_as/as_pakistan

Violating my personal policy to avoid the dungeon, I felt a need to post this article and share an observation....

Article states that the US has performed at least 20 operations in Pakistan since August, including one commando raid. Pakistan is publicly denouncing our military action, but has only responding by downing one of our drones.

Right, wrong, deserved, or not deserved, isn't any attack on Pakistani soil a clear violation of their sovereignty? I mean, wouldn't you expect Pakistan to be REALLY pissed off about this? Seems to me that they are publicly denouncing, but the fact they have barely responded after this many incidents, and civilians killed, means that they must support this action behind closed doors. But since public opinion of the US is so poor in Pakistan they must publicly denounce the US military action.

Why would Pakistan secretly support US attacks within their borders, while publicly denouncing at the same time? There has to be a "prize" that makes allowing the US perform these attacks worth the political capital that they are spending with the public, i.e. the must be getting close to Bin Laden. Or at least that what our government is telling the Pakistanis. I doubt our government would lie about the possibility of finding Bin Laden to the Pakistanis too much, considering that Pakistan is nuc-capable, they just ousted their US-supported dictator, and is still a desperately needed ally in the region.

$20 bucks says Bin Laden is confirmed killed in the mountains of the Pakistan/Afghanistan border in the next 4 weeks.

 

Today at work I read an article that I'm pretty sure was quoting a Pakistani govt official anonymously stating that this is essentially what is going on.

 

I hope by catching him it does as much as catching Saddam.H did !


.......oh wait a sec .


If you can kill an ideology by catching the leader why don't they just capture and kill flava flav.

 

About as close as I am to being a millionare.

 

I don't see what the big deal is. The people that live in that region don't call themselves Pakistani's. The don't recognize the Pakistani government and they don't recognize the border. For all intents and purposes it's just a line on a map. If Pakistan had any presence in the region, military or otherwise, the taliban wouldn't even be there.

 

Yeah, I read an article a few days ago saying the same thing. We're getting to take the battle to the hiding enemy, and Pakistan is getting some help ridding themselves of an element of their society that won't cooperate with their Government. See? Everybody wins. :up:

 

If he were captured or killed in exactly 63 days that would be something.

 

Another "à la Reagan" coincidence?

 

you see though...bin laden is a figment of our collective conscience, do you really want to destroy our imagination? that would be like filleting flounder from the Little Mermaid...terrible.

 

The prize is that on 9/12 they didn't become part of the axis of evil, have their foreign assets frozen and probably get invaded anyway.

The mid-level army commanders and parts of their intelligence agency have funded the Taliban as part of it's cold war effort against India, but they don't really report to the govt, especially now that Musharraf isn't in charge. The govt is a minority coalition and will fall if it loses popular support. It's also nearly broke and needs Western aid. OTOH the people believe being a US ally in the war on terror is a main cause of the bombings within Pakistan.

 

In .021 secs a Google search located this article from December 21, 2003:

NEWSWEEK: Taliban Fighters Say Osama Bin Laden Is Likely to Capitalize On Saddam Hussein's Capture, Using It to Strengthen Anti-U.S. Resistance in Iraq

"Sources say that U.S. manhunting teams in Afghanistan have come close to finding bin Laden on several occasions, report Special Correspondent Sami Yousafzai and Senior Editor Michael Hirsh in the December 29 issue of Newsweek (on newsstands Monday, December 22). A senior Taliban planner and fund-raiser who goes by the nom de guerre Zabihullah says bin Laden had a close call not long ago in which the terror chieftain and his protective entourage scurried into the bushes when a U.S. aircraft streaked overhead as they were walking along a mountain trail. The plane did not see them.

http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/12-21-2003/0002079404&EDATE=

I will believe none of these types of stories. Until I see his head on a pike, the now 7 years of failure in capturing/killing Osama continues to roll on.

 

He's worth more alive than dead. It helps to justify why we are in A-stan to the masses who think we're fighting against a person (Osama) rather than an ideal.

If we were to kill him then who would become our new boogeyman?

 

Sad but that's about the jist of it.

Hell he may already be dead.

 

If the US REALLY wanted him, he'd be dead.

It's probably some Saudi request.

 

Bin Laden is dead.
I'd bet my left nut on it.

 

Baloney. The only terrorist group that wants to attack Western countries is al Queda so it's members have to be captured or killed. Osama will be far less effective as a martyr than he is alive.

 

I believe that with US Gov't and our military forces, we should be able to figure out where Bin Laden is. I feel like Bush will find him before he gets out of office as a "look what I did" to justify his war on terrah.

 

I thought Bin Laden would show up dead on Nov. 2, 2008.

 

Your left nut was encumbered in another wager. How about the right one?