U.S. general: Time ‘running out’ for bin Laden

[rodbarnett]

Commander in Afghanistan says effort to root out al-Qaida renewed

WASHINGTON - The commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan said Tuesday that his troops are stepping up efforts to capture Osama bin Laden and ousted Taliban leader Mullah Omar, maintaining that the "sand in their hour glass is running out."

Briefing Pentagon reporters via teleconference from Bagram Airbase in Afghanistan, Army Lt. Gen. David Barno said the United States and Pakistan are improving cooperation in efforts to eradicate al-Qaida elements, using a "hammer and anvil approach" that will drive the terrorists out of Pakistan and across the Afghan border.

Barno also confirmed reports that the Pakistani military has entered tribal areas of the border region in the last two months in an effort to uncover and disrupt terrorist operations.

"I think that's one of several new initiatives that I see the Pakistanis undertaking that are very encouraging and I think will have effective results," he said.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4285932/

[still_one]

1. So why wasn't this done sooner

[tom_paine]

3. It was

Bin Laden is on ice, wating for HIS part in the Stalinist Charade of July-Oct. 2004 entitled "Bin Laden Captured/Raygun Dies".

Watch the Soviet-level predictability.

[Jackpine Radical]

2. Yup. Time is running out.

The election is approaching, and no later than October 15 they must drag Bin Longgone from the hidey-hole where they are keeping him.

[MrBenchley]

10. After November Osama's business partner won't be in the White House

and the war on terrorism might finally focus on Bin Laden.

[waterman]

4. Is there an online pool somewhere? I'd love to see where folks are

putting their dough. All it takes is a David Gregory type to stuff that question right up there butts... "Can you tell us that he is absolutely not in custody at this time?"

[DoYouEverWonder]

13. Or in a freezer somewhere?

n/t

[JohnOneillsMemory]

5. Isn't M. Moore publishing a book detailing the Bush/bin Laden/Saudi

connection this summer? With the usual array of mainstream interviews so he can spread the word?

The rest of us should keep up a letter writing campaign to newspapers detailing how Saddam and bin Laden are CIA employees for decades.

This can minimize or end the utility of the bearded October Surprise and make the GOP convention in NYC displace Chicago '68 in the national memory.

[Sagan]

6. they better get him...

It will be their only hope to stave off the political disaster that will overcome the neocons when Iraq slides into bloody, religious and ethnic civil war.

[Jacobin]

7. Nah. He has until mid-October....long enough for a bounce

[damnraddem]

8. Gen. Barno better get with the program!

He's supposed to come up with bin Laden next October, not now. Too bad, Dubya! LOL!

[JohnOneillsMemory]

9. Read this British account of bin Laden protected by US commandoes in 1999.

http://www.prisonplanet.com/analysis_watson.html

"In the spring of 1999, a British couple called Alan and Cindy
Thompson were driving through Pakistan, in the very area that they're now talking about as being bin Laden's location. After driving for 11 hours on dirt roads they came to a checkpoint and were detained by
armed Pakistani guards.

The next day the Dawn newspaper, one of the
biggest newspapers in Pakistan, reported that this couple had found
the secret lair of Osama bin Laden. More interesting is that they
reported that this location had been visited by US consulate officers, British, Australian, and Swiss ambassadors, and that it was guarded by a team of US commandoes.

After the couple were picked up by the British embassy they were invited to a garden party where all the British ambassadors and aid workers were bragging that they were stationed in the same area as bin Laden's secret hideout.

After the couple got back home to England they saw a newspaper article calling for the capture of bin Laden. This was a few months
before Clinton signed an executive order mandating bin Laden to be killed on sight. The couple immediately contacted Scotland Yard in
London; they contacted the FBI and the Pentagon and in every case got nothing. No response, no request for an interview. Nothing."

[Festivito]

11. Had Bush* looked for OSL after Clinton left...

... we'd already have OSL and still have a WTC.

But, PNAC wouldn't have had their Pearl Harbor.

[muriel_volestrangler]

12. Perhaps Pakistan already has bin Laden

and that's why they're getting a free ride for running the nuclear supermarket. They'll bring him out, dead or alive (but dead would be safer for everyone) when Bush and Rove think it suits the polls best.

[DoYouEverWonder]

14. We can't afford to let Pakistani fall apart

Pakistan actually does have nukes and if we let the Pakistani government fall because of this crisis, then it will be even worse. This is a real damned if you do, damned if you don't situation.

But this is also why, Bu$h may never get Osama bin Forgotten and/or the Mullah Omar. They are the other aces up Musharraf's sleeve and Musharraf will have a civil war on his hands if he lets W take either one. Remember we all thought they would plant and find WMD's in Iraq by now and they couldn't even pull off an easy operation like that. In reality, maybe we are giving Bu$hCo too much credit, they probably don't have a clue where Osama is.

[maggrwaggr]

17. that's why we should have invaded Pakinstan after 9/11

if we were serious about the "war on terror" and if they were actually telling us the truth, we would have.

[jpgray]

15. We had BETTER damn well be ready for this

The newsgasm should cause power outages and computer failures when it happens. :(

[radfringe]

16. by my calculations

Bin-Laden has until October "surprise"