US, UK teams search quake rubble for Osama Bin Laden

[ECH1969]

PESHAWAR: An MI6/SAS team has joined US Special Forces in earthquake-devastated Balakot to search for Osama Bin Laden among thousands of victims still buried, British newspaper the Sunday Express reports.

US President George W Bush approved a full-scale surveillance operation along the remote Afghan-Pakistan border where extremists have training camps. The team, flown in from a high-security base in Afghanistan, is equipped with imagery and eavesdropping technology, high-tech weapons systems and MI6 linguists to try to locate the most wanted “terrorist” in the world.

Security officers in London and Washington are anxious not to discuss whether Bin Laden is dead or has escaped the devastation from the 7.6-magnitude earthquake. But days before it struck, an American satellite had spotted an Al Qaeda training camp in a remote area and obtained high-resolution close-ups.

A senior intelligence officer in Washington told the Sunday Express: “One of those photos bore a remarkable resemblance to Bin Laden. His face looked thinner, which is in keeping with our reports that his kidney condition has worsened.”

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2005%5C10%5C20%5Cstory_20-10-2005_pg7_7

[The_Casual_Observer]

1. "where extremists have training camps"

After all this time? I thought this was all so "pre-9/11 - now everything has changed" I give up.

[leftofcool]

2. Oh good God!

What a freeking waste of my tax dollars. Everybody knows Osama is in Crawford.

Left of Cool

[acmavm]

8. Crawford? I thought he was roomies with Prince Bandar Bush for goodness

sake.

The guy does get around.

[musette_sf]

10. I was gonna say

try searching the Saudi Royal Fvcking Family Compound.

[MADem]

21. Oh wait! He was recently spotted!

Enjoying a sea cruise.....

[maxrandb]

29. I took a cab ride recently

the driver did look vaguely familiar

[DELUSIONAL]

3. hummmm find a body .. . claim it is Bin Laden's

case closed!

Then bushie can claim -- that "he" caught Bin Laden.

[stevedeshazer]

4. You've got it

How convenient. They can go forward having ridded themselves of the major boogieman without having to account for him.

You know, the guy who was responsible for 9/11 (sic).

The guy who we started all these wars about in the first place.

And Congress still sits on its ass.

[54anickel]

26. Thought the same, but will it do them any good after they kept repeating

that this isn't just about OBL, that he's "immaterial" (since they didn't get him on the first round). I hope the public isn't stupid enough to fall for it.

If this is even true, it sounds like an act of desperation on the part of an administration that is plagued with indictments and falling poll numbers.

[maxrandb]

30. Wrong!!

Then Bush can claim that he and "God" got OBL.

Bottom line is that if he's dead, I say "good riddance". Now if we could just stop the Repulicans from creating more OBL's we'll be fine.

[fshrink]

5. I can't even think

about the stupid gloating of the idiot when this guy's death happens. Assuming that he's not kept alive virtually of course...

[aquart]

6. Could this be more inappropriate?

[WePurrsevere]

7. Hmm...wouldn't now be a politically "fortunate" time for BushCo to"find"

Bin Laden? It would sure would be an excellent distraction from all these recent and upcoming indictments.

::sigh:: Maybe I'm wearing a :tinfoilhat: but sadly I've grown cynical enough to not put it past these RepubliCON traitors to have had Bin Laden in custody for years and saved his "capture" for a "rainy day" and man is it starting to POUR for RepubliCONs now.

[tocqueville]

9. of course the satellite took a pic when OBL was sunbathing

lying on his back...

what a lot of BS

[leesa]

11. OBL died of kidney failure in 2001. This is such BS.

I knew they would take him out of the freezer soon. Will Merkans swallow the nonsense once again?

[Andrushka]

12. I think his "lair" would have stood up to the quake...

[pinniped]

18. Has anyone ever seen pics of the inside of this mythical lair?

Hydroelectric power, who sold them the turbines?

[Akoto]

25. The mythical lair is ... underground!

[EuroObserver]

13. Oh yeah. Lots of dough for this...

Meanwhile in the real world, NATO just agreed to send 300 or so mostly Spanish engineers to help out a bit...

Will try to find link in English...

[strizi64]

14. Hahaha

So, they can bomb any place in Iraq or Afghanistan within some minutes but they can't bomb Osama within days? I don't buy that. Problems at home? Yeah, let's get a crushed paki who looks a like....

[NVMojo]

15. I thought this was an Onion story when I first saw the headline ...

[muriel_volestrangler]

22. The Express can sometimes be just as reliable as The Onion

The thing to remember is that it's quite possible the tabloid has made this up from scratch, and that there's not a word of truth in it. They know that no official will bother showing it's not true; so they can say what they like about it (because they can always claim the search was unsuccessful).

Alternatively, some 'contact' in the military (which may just be a corporal) might have sold them it (literally, for a small fee) and they've taken his word - after all, it makes for a good story for their kind of reader. Or there might be something to it - in the disruption in the area, they may have thought they might spot him having to move.

I'm not convinced a satellite could take a good enough photo to say bin Laden is looking thinner in the face than normal - the resolution required for that from a couple of hundred miles up is very high.

[EuroObserver]

23. Absolutely. The Brit "Express" is certainly rarely a reliable source.

(Hi muriel_volestrangler).

Update: just heard through Spanish radio that, while there is apparently still bargaining going on, NATO may have decided to send not only the 300 Spanish military engineers (like, Sappers), but also some 700 more from other member countries... making the total a nice, media-friendly, 1000.

Ummmmm.

[CJCRANE]

16. Surely

it would have been easier to search for him before the earthquake?

[Generarth]

17. Why don't they ask one of their business partners where he is

and of the bin ladens would do but the brother who was sitting in on the Carlyle meeting on 9/11 in Washington with Georges dad would probably be the best one.

I just read a couple of things. One that Osama applied to live in the UK and the other that David Shaylor accused the Brits of attempting to hire Al Queda to knock off Ghadafi.

[pinniped]

19. The most wanted terrorist in the world is in CA fundraising from the...

fundies.

Gimme a B, gimme an S!

--“One of those photos bore a remarkable resemblance to Bin Laden. His face looked thinner, which is in keeping with our reports that his kidney condition has worsened.”--

Maybe it was a photo of OBL that the photo is purported to contain.:crazy:

[HuffleClaw]

20. oh what a complete waste of time

i doubt a 'we found the head of bin laden' stunt would fly though. the REAL bin laden would issue a video the next day and make 'em look like the complete fools they are.

[Lochloosa]

24. I didn't know there was an earthquake in Crawford...

must keep up w/ the news better

[Zorra]

27. Well - at least, after 4 years, they finally decided to look for him...

...it's a start, anyway.

[Bridget Burke]

28. Great priorities.

Tens of thousands have died in the quake & millions are homeless.

If this "search for Osama" is real--it's a dreadful waste of resources that might actually help people.

[warrens]

31. There are children freezing to death in Pakistan

And we send our troops to look for bin Laden? That's sick.

[The Roux Comes First]

32. Think We Used Enough Dynamite, Butch?

I just want to know how we triggered that earthquake. Hopefully it did not involve nucular devices!

But the blunderbuss to kill a flea theme is uncannily bushputian. Like undertaking a gazillion-dollar bloodfest of an invasion when a simple assassination - or even continued sanctions - would do.

I suppose my theory has a few minor credibility "issues," but nothing like the issues set aside in runup to Iraq war.

[newyawker99]

33. LMAO!! This story made my day.

:rofl:

[Zhade]

34. Osama bin Flattened?

NT!