Hunt for Osama Bin Laden Narrowed to 40 Square Miles

[VermontDem2004]

right when the poll #'s drop.




Closing In
Hunt for Osama bin Laden Narrowed to Hostile, Rugged Region of Pakistan


Sept. 8— The hunt for Osama bin Laden has been narrowed to a 40-square-mile section of the Waziristan region of Pakistan, senior U.S. officials told ABCNEWS.

" a very hostile area in terms of geography, mountains, terrain, ravines and two ferocious tribes, the Wazirs and the Mahsuds who dominate the area," said Dr. Akbar Ahmed, professor of International Relations at American University in Washington, D.C.

Authorities are casting a net around the towns of Angoor Ada and Wana in southern Waziristan, which are infested with al Qaeda supporters, but it is a difficult and dangerous area to operate in.

Protected by local gunmen, an ABCNEWS producer, who we won't name due to safety reasons, was able to move through the hostile Waziristan area undetected this summer.

Local residents showed ABCNEWS the mountain homes of known al Qaeda operatives, graffiti praising the Taliban leader Mullah Omar, who is also believed to be hiding in northern Waziristan, and the marketplaces and bazaars where authorities believe that bin Laden and his entourage could get its supplies.

http://www.abcnews.go.com/sections/wnt/US/sept11_OBL_030908.html?cmp=EM1391

[onehandle]

1. If he's alive, they know exactly where he is...

General Rove is watching the poll numbers and will inform them when to pick him up.

August 2004, just in time for the GOP to dance on the graves in NYC?

[symbolman]

2. Hunt for Elvis

Narrowed to 40 square feet, roughly the size he was when he died..

HOW MANY TIMES DO THEY THINK WE WILL FALL FOR THIS?

I love the Daily Show quote: "DO they think we're Retarded?"

[piece sine]

3. He might as well be on Mars

Parts of mountainous western Pakistan are virtually uncharted and mired in myth and mystery. This is cnetral Asia's "no man's land" and aided by indigenous mountain tribes, Osama hide out for what remains of his life. Come Jan. '05, and there's a DEM in the White House, this will prove to be problematic for our new president.

[NewYorkerfromMass]

4. If true why would they make it public knowledge?

they want to give him a heads up and so let him escape? :WTF:

[bobthedrummer]

14. This Seymour Hersh article should be public knowledge IMHO

http://globalresearch.ca/articles/HER206A.html

[Journeyman]

23. And what's this about keeping the producer's name secret? . . .

Just how many Wazirs and Mahsuds from the towns of Angoor Ada and Wana in southern Waziristan watch ABC Nightly News?

[Whoa_Nelly]

37. Exactly what I was thinking

NYfM. How conveeenient that this news comes out right after the chimp's BS speech to put us further into debt, and right befofe Sept. 11. Am sick of the exploitation of 3,000+ people who died all in such a transparent attempt to hold the US public hostage to fear, to hatred, to believing the lies from this administration.

[Rich Hunt]

5. what would they do?

What would they do if they caught him - would they parade him around in a cage so that the world could see that they got him?

I know it sounds crazy, but I no longer trust anything coming out of this administration.

How will we know if they really catch him or not? Anyway, many people in this country want him killed ASAP so we would have no way of knowing for sure.

[dennis4868]

18. I know it sounds crazy, but I no longer trust anything coming out of this

WHY DOES THAT SOUND CRAZY?

[Rich Hunt]

22. you're right, it's not crazy

...but I'll never believe them now when they say they've got OBL. They will have to cart him around the US in a circus train before I believe them.

[Lori Price CLG]

6. They should search the Carlyle Group's board meeting room.

Well, if they really want to get specific, they should narrow the search to the Carlyle Group's (http://www.hereinreality.com/carlyle.html) board meeting room. After all, Osama bin Laden has so much pull with Bush that bin Laden's immediate family was shuttled out of the United States (http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/04/politics/04SAUD.html?pagewanted=print&position=) right after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, despite the fact that all airplanes were 'grounded'.

-Lori

[AntiCoup2K4]

7. I smell a setup

Osama Bin Laden, captured (or more likely killed) on the 2nd anniversary of Reichst. errr uh Northwo.. eh, 9-11 that is.

Geez, what could be more perfect propaganda :puke:

[DemVet]

20. Are you...

....a conspiracy theorist? Got any links to share? I'm interested in this. Thanks.

[JPace]

8. This is the same 40 miles they spun...

after invading afganistan and letting
him escape. If it is the same area
there is absolutely nothing new here.

Smells to be a ploy to distract America
from AWOLs' uninspiring and failing speech
last night.

Sorry Rove.......its not working! You'll
have to go into your bag of fear and control
tactics and drag out something else.

[PATRICK]

17. you're right

This was resurrected as "news" and not even a glimmer of anyone except a newscrew doing anything about it. The reek from 911 continues.

[Minstrel Boy]

9. "Sorry Osama, ol' buddy.

You gotta take one for the team. You know, if there was any way I could avoid doing this..."

[Minstrel Boy]

10. Didn't we hear last week

that Mullah Omar - remember him? - was surrounded? Wha' happen?

[Ganja Ninja]

25. $87,000,000,000.00 is what happened.

Bush need to get people to change the subject so now were back to the old "noose is tightening" gambit. It'll be Sadam's turn next week then some Iraqi or Osama underlings the week after that.

[arcane1]

11. gee, isn't that where our troops stopped and watched...

as helicopters came and picked him up, whisked him to PK?

what perfect, and I'm sure 100% coincidental, timing

:eyes:

[Media_Lies_Daily]

12. Maybe they should be checking the 40 sq miles around the White House.

[StandWatie]

13. *shrug*

He may well be there but I don't know what they think they are going to do to "smoke him out". If mega-millions haven't bought an informer yet nothing is going to find him out there.

[Snellius]

15. We kinda, almost, just about, any day now, really really soon

got him dead or alive. Or at least, we'll get him next time.

[PATRICK]

16. Well, fire the CIA

and use ABCNews. Wonder what kind of protection from our "tireless avenging hunters" Osama gets.

Some newsman will have to drop a camera on his head.

If he is alive. I bet his death is one possible stageprop of a desperate Bush campaign. Better that than getting nuked I suppose.

[Sideways]

19. Er Um Er Osama Is A Bin Laden They Don't Hide In Caves

Those of us living in the Middle East just get a bit of a chuckle when the US/UK media talks about Osama living in caves.

I mean really folks he is part of one of the richest Saudi families. They have not black listed him and for Christ sake he is not living in a cave.

Pervez Mush the fuckwad in charge of Pakistan is a CIA operative. He doesn't know shit about shit.

And Osama hasn't ever lived in a cave. This only happens in CIA propaganda clips. The graffiti bit had me laughing my ass off. Dudes this ain't east LA.

[lumpy]

21. Good to hear from you Mary.

What else is new your way ?

[fla nocount]

29. Greetings Mary T.......where the hell you be? It's been awhile.

I've lurking lately myself. Take care and may the spirit bless.

[Zhade]

35. If you've got some dirt on this...

Share it! I'd love to see some sources - not because I don't trust your assessment, but to show others.

It never did make a lot of sense that he was "Batman".

[Superfly]

24. Update!!

Hunt for Osama now down to 2 square inches. Military authorities are confident they will find him in a heretofore unsearched piece of real estate.

[Wednesdays]

32. Uncharted?

They'll find him on an uncharted desert isle.

With Gilligan...

The Skipper, too.

A millionaire and his wife...

A movie star,

The Professor and Mary Ann...

:evilgrin:

[Robb]

26. Interestingly,

This is about the same size area an adult male black bear considers his "home range".

Therefore, the army considers Osama to be a bear.

Thus, he's currently storing his final deposits of fat before a long winter nap. We won't see him until spring.

Unless, of course, we begin painting our unexploded cluster bombs to resemble clay pots, with the cleverly misspelled code-word on the side, thusly:

http://images.google.com/images?q=tbn:hu8z7KpfsDsC:

It really amazes me how difficult the army tries to make things out to be. Now if only they'd call me...

[Zhade]

36. Hahahaha!

That gave me a good laugh! Thanks, hunny!

[regnaD kciN]

27. That's the good news...

...the bad news is that those 40 square miles might be anywhere in the world!

;-)

[0007]

28. LOL!!

These crock shuckers should know where bin baby was before they got him pinned down to this 40 square mile area,
right? ........and who is it that gives us this information? I thought so!

[Patriot_Spear]

30. Ha-ha good one- everyone knows he's in Saudi Arabia...

Do you really think he's been hiding in a cave for almost two years? ...go ahead, pull the other one.

[Richardo]

31. A 6.3 mile square? Shouldn't take long - like say THURSDAY?

Gee how lucky would that ducky be? On the second anniversary. Just think.

[The Magistrate]

33. He Is Not There

He is in the upper Swat valley, north of Peshawer and east of Jallalabad, bordering on Moslem Kashmir. This is the heartland of Islamic resistance to the West in the region, as well as of the mujahedeen movement into Kashmir in more recent times.

[librechik]

34. a current AP article contradicts this

excerpt
AP Photos ISL103, 105
AP Graphic PAKISTAN OSAMA
By PAUL HAVEN
Associated Press Writer
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) -- Nearly two years after the Sept. 11
attacks, Pakistani troops have begun moving -- gingerly -- into a
remote tribal belt where Osama bin Laden and other al-Qaida
fugitives might be hiding.
But officials say they have no evidence the terrorist mastermind
is there, and a brief military foray last week came up
empty-handed. Bin Laden, they say, has melted into the mountains.
"It has been a long time since we have heard anything" about
his whereabouts, said Brig. Javed Iqbal Cheema, who as head of the
Interior Ministry's crisis unit is in charge of cooperating with
the United States in the war on terrorism. "We have received no
electronic intercepts or anything to indicate where he is."
Under intense pressure from both the United States and
Afghanistan, Pakistani troops have reluctantly moved into several
tribal areas in the ultraconservative North West Frontier Province
-- including Waziristan and Mohmand, hunting for al-Qaida and
Taliban fighters." (more)

and another excerpt:
"A senior Pakistani intelligence official who was deeply involved
in the March 2002 operation that netted one of bin Laden's top
lieutenants, Abu Zubaydah, said on condition of anonymity that
there has been no hard intelligence on the al-Qaida leader for some
time.
"The fragrance of the 'flower' is occasionally smelled .... but
the flower itself has not been seen in a long time," he said,
referring to bin Laden. "Nobody knows with certainty where (he)
has gone."


here's a link

http://www.nola.com/newsflash/international/index.ssf?/base/international-2/1063046344274602.xml


notice how there is NO EVIDENCE to suggest that Osama is within that 40 square mile area they say he is trapped in. I'm not saying he's NOT there, I'm just saying they haven't shown any evidence lately--the implication is that the impetus for this announcemnet is not "new chatter" but "new polls."

[tsipple]

38. Notice They Said "Hunt for Osama"

Doesn't mean Osama is anywhere in those 40 square miles or that they have any hope of finding him. (Isn't this story #7832 on how "we're really close! we almost got him!"? Slow news day, obviously.)

What it does mean is that budget cutbacks can only support a manhunt in an area of 40 square miles. You see, Bush's tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans must be paid, and Osama (who?) really isn't a priority any more. So they're cutting back to 40 square miles now. Next month, when the new fiscal year starts, we'll go to 20 square miles. Pretty soon the search will consist of Vice President Cheney pacing around his undisclosed location to look for Osama, unsuccessfully.

(Note: I'm not slamming our men and women charged with this job who I'm sure are trying very hard, probably without the support they deserve. I am slamming the Washington officials and media who report junk like this story.)

[Sick of Bullshit]

39. In other news, Big Brother has announced that Emmanuel Goldstein

has been cornered in a 40-square-mile section of Eastasia. Meanwhile, Sherlock Holmes has narrowed the location of the evil Moriarty to a 40-square-mile section of Switzerland. Stay tuned as we will be bringing you updates throughout the day.