"Bin Laden's right-hand man slips net"

[KeepItReal]

"A BULLETPROOF LandCruiser at high speed bursting out of a tribal compound in Pakistan's South Waziristan region was just the latest infuriating setback in the US's quest to bring down the top of the al-Qa'ida tree.

The car, followed by two armoured vehicles and a phalanx of heavily armed militants able to wipe out dozens of crack troops sent to blast the terrorists from their nest, is believed to have contained Ayman al-Zawahiri, right-hand man to Osama bin Laden. "

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,9018516%255E2703,00.html

Now if you believe that a huge-ass LandCruiser can hit the gas and get away in spite of all our surveillance capability and attack aircraft and Predator drones that can file laser-guided Hellfire missiles at vehicles and buildings, I got some sweet oceanfront property in Nevada for ya.

I heard on NPR this morning that the U.S. military was providing "technical assistance" to the Pakistanis, including the use of surveillance aircraft.

[leftchick]

1. total BS...

but it will make the murkins watching the play by play all day on faux/cnn/msrnc happy!

[liberalnurse]

20. The whole thing was a "show"......

a fictitious scam to make *bush look like he is winning against terror.....

I never bought the propaganda. In light of the Spain bombing and the Iraq coup aniversary....what else would they do?


The media has no shame.

[worldgonekrazy]

101. yup

total "wag the dog" style. frankly i don't think obl (or his "right hand man" for that matter) will ever be caught, at least not alive. he is a) too important to the neo-cons and the cia and b) knows way too much. mark my words, if he is "caught" he will either be dead or locked away under so much security that he never has a chance to spill the beans.

[saigon68]

124. They should have used this to catch him

This net continues to be perfect for the younger explorer! Features include:
A large and deep net bag
A smooth hardwood handle
Soft, yet snag and tear resistant netting
Can be used for insects and minnows
12" long handle with rounded end
Age 3+

[displacedtexan]

47. Right! And Land Cruiser doesn't keep sales records?

Who ordered the bullet proof SUV?

Show me the receipt!

Show me the assembly line workers!

Show me the customs/shipping records!

This smells!

[The Zanti Regent]

123. but it's NOT October

You know how the Nazi Republicans think. It's just TOO EARLY to catch this guy!

[Piperay]

126. It was all fake

just to distract attention from the bombings in Iraq.

[TheWebHead]

2. Powell and international news media was in town

and Musharraf didn't want to talk about the instability in his country with the selling of nuclear secrets and the assassination attempts. He changed the headline by floating this Zawahiri fiction, but they need to come up with an excuse for his "escape" after Powell left along with the media he had in tow.

[varun]

44. exactly...

...this has been a pattern since 911.

Everytime a high ranking US official visits Musharraf, he produces one or two Al Qaeda leaders promptly...

[opihimoimoi]

3. Oh well, what else is ne, . Come, we go drink coffee, eat donuts

[xchrom]

6. can i have chocolate donuts?

i want chocolate donuts to go with my u.s. technical assistance.

[opihimoimoi]

7. Bwahahaha, chocolate donuts coming up

nother cup?

[Cooley Hurd]

4. The (other) one that got away...

If this is true, this would be the second time a top Al Qaeda leader has flown the coop (Osama escaped during the battle of Tora Bora according to several sources).

I kinda doubted the Pakistani Army (and the INI) was going to allow al-Zawahiri's capture. I knew it... :(

[Barrett808]

9. As long as we rely on ISI and the Pakistani army, they'll keep "slipping"

Although Pakistan and Saudi Arabia are the actual sponsors of international jihadi terror, their business partners in the Bush mafia will continue to call them "good partners in the War on Terror."

[54anickel]

28. I think you're right. I caught part of an interview a while back of some

woman from Pakistan who said the PM knew exactly where OBL and his group were, but that Musharef (sp?) would not allow his capture until he was dang good and ready if at all. OBL was a useful tool for Pakistan to get what it wanted from the US.

[DinahMoeHum]

34. How can the US tell whether some people in ISI are al Qaeda

sympathizers or not ??

That's the danger in relying on local troops when you don't know their language or their culture.


:evilfrown:

[mobuto]

36. From what I understand of the ISI

the trouble isn't finding the people who are Al Qaeda sympathizers, its finding those who aren't.

[worldgonekrazy]

103. read chossudovsky's "war and globalization"

the isi has been used by the cia for the past two decades to channel funds and other support to al-qaeda. the cia could not, of course, have a direct link between them and al-qaeda getting out (especially post 9/11), so they have to go through pakistan's intelligence agency which is in virtual cahoots with al-qaeda.

[Comadreja]

69. Only reason they cooperate at all

is the massive $$$$ bribe of (B)millions out of our treasury to buy off the locals. Amazing...typical dirty neoCON American political methods applied on an international policy.

[worldgonekrazy]

102. as long as the cia has a say in anything, he won't be caught

don't forget, this man was regarded as a key "asset" to the united states throughout the eighties and the early nineties. while they claim this is not the case anymore, there is simply nothing to substantiate that. i believe he is far too useful for them (mainly as a villain) to ever be compromised...unless he should outlive his usefullness in which case he will end up dead.

[T Roosevelt]

5. Guess they're gonna drag this out awhile

that way when they finally capture him it will look like something big...

[UpInArms]

8. so was

Schwarzenneger starring in this barnburner?

[Stuckinthebush]

10. Wow...that sounds like a movie!

I don't believe it for one second.

[Don Claybrook]

11. Oh....my....god

Will anyone actually believe this garbage? I don't make it to many feature movies, but someone please tell me, was this lifted directly from the latest Bruce Willis, Jackie Chan, or Arnold Schwarzeneggar movie?

The evil mastermind slipped away when he was completely surrounded, against all odds. We'd better add another 500 billion to the defense budget and crack down on domestic civil liberties, pronto, before it's too late!

Do you think they'll get him in the sequel, scheduled for an October release?

Or will they get him sooner, so that we can have another #2 man with an Arabic sounding name come October?

Rocky kept finding new opponents to fight. James Bond did too. And it sounds as if the * administration has such contempt for us that they'll give it a try too.

Freakin' amateurs. Spain is very smart not to have let the FBI in on that investigation. If they had, we'd already be announcing that the Double-Secret #2 Al Qaeda Mastermind had planted the Madrid bombs himself, before being whisked away by Osama in a supersonic blimp. I'm glad that Spain took the novel approach of actually arresting the guilty, rather than writing fictional stories.

Mark me disgusted, yet again, but not real damned surprised.

[UpInArms]

25. has Ron Howard started

making pictures again? :evilgrin:

[Don Claybrook]

30. Hey, UpInArms.....here's what I've been thinking about

Since I read this thread, I've just been seething. And I think I figured out why I'm so angry.

It's not that the Bush Administration would try to get away with the obvious lies. They do that every day. I'm angry (once again) because this shows just how much they despise the American people. In order to continuously make up this kind of garbage and serve it to us on a big, steaming platter, requires that they believe we're as dumb as rocks and completely manipulatable. It's almost a parallel of the stereotypical misogynist male telling a woman that he won't ________ in ___ ______ and that he'll respect her in the morning, all the while planning to yuk it up and tell tales to the other frat guys. Maybe that's not an apt comparison, but it sprung to mind. It just screams contempt and complete disrespect for the American people, like everything else they do, and I'm really tired of it.

[UpInArms]

33. Don, I rather liken it to

the Santa Claus story -

how long do you deceive your children with a fairy tale that convinces them that shit just falls through the chimney and costs nothing?

When a child starts to question the story and the parent continues to deny the truth (that they are paying for the presents), at what point is it an insult to the intelligence of the child?

All you who believe in Tinkerbell, clap your hands. That was my mantra during the RayGun administration.

So now we have a completely deluded populace (due to corporate media whore lies) and people get to believe that movies are real and war is a game and no one pays for the deficits and debts and you can eat the value of your home and bills don't have to be paid....

The circle-jerk daisychain of lies is of a magnitude that boggles my mind.

[Fovea]

75. I hear he will be played by John Malkovich in the feature film

n/t

[pfitz59]

12. The Right-winger at work was gloating all day yesterday.......

about how the US had Osama's #2 guy surrounded. Didn't rise to the bait. I knew it was all a show-piece for Colostomy Powell's benefit...

[skypilot]

71. You should have simply told him...

...that it wasn't the US but the Pakistanis that had him surrounded and Pakistan was not even allowing American troops in the country.

[Aidoneus]

13. ha

After all the hype.. just like Omar speeding off into the sunset on his Harley.

Shahzad's next report should be interesting.

[Calico Jack Rackham]

18. Bulletproof Landcruiser my ass

This has to be the biggest crock of shit i've heard in awhile. Why didn't they just report that thunderbolts from Allah rained down from the sky and destroyed the Pakistani forces. LOL

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

14. Pakistan doesn't have motorized vehicles?

No trucks of their own?
No helicopters?



Pure unadulterated bs.

[patricia92243]

15. Why am I not hearing about this all over the news?

[Florida_Geek]

16. What a fucking posed picture.

No helmets, no protective vests and the phototag in the way of incoming rounds.

But it is from Fox.

[RedSock]

76. same photo on ny times website

http://www.nytimes.com/

[SoCalDem]

86. They don't seem to know where the "enemy" even IS..

Talk about a circular firing squad:eyes:

[mouse7]

121. ...or we are witnessing a miracle of almost epic proportions.

How do you dig an entrenched fighting position in the desert and not manage to get your uniform dirty? Look at those berets? Not a speck of dust on them.

No dust on the rifles either? They are shiny from applied gun oil. How do you keep an oiled rifle free of dust while digging a trench in the desert?

[flakey_foont]

17. Huh?

thought he was surrounded

[mobuto]

29. No he wasn't

this reporter doesn't have a clue. He embellished an earlier, AFP story. According to the AFP, this happened three days ago, before the siege. But this reporter is based in Washington, not Waziristan, and isn't interested in letting the truth get in the way of a good story.

[PATRICK]

19. Same thing with Saddam's capture

It was so "imminent" that it was predicted, expected and bungled way past several conveniently exploitable dates until they finally uncovered him at Christmas time.

So at least this pattern shows incompetence, wishful thinking, arrogance and pie in face eagerness. Maybe there is an underlying plot to shave the capture somewhat closer to election or maybe it IS luck against tepid Pakistani "cooperation".

Since this is likely the actual number one man of Al Qaeda the failure is absolutely inexcusable.

[tlcandie]

21. Agreed... can't even do that in the USofA!!!!

Baloney! Yet more crap!!!

[mobuto]

22. This story appears embellished

The reporter, who is based in Washington, compiled several wire reports for maximum dramatic effect. The language is over the top and not suitable for someone who's never seem to come within ten thousand miles of Waziristan.

The original AFP report said that, far from being "the latest infuriating setback," the LandCruiser was actually spotted leaving three days ago, before the well-reported seige. In fact it was because of this engagement that Pakistan did send 7000 troops to the region.

[kera]

115. hi

would you please explain to me what happened with this lancruiser, the thread assumes that we know the story thanks a lot

[NJCher]

23. scoff! Just look at the byline

Bin Laden's right-hand man slips net

By Joe Esterhaz, New York correspondent and Agencies

March 20, 2004



A BULLETPROOF LandCruiser at high speed bursting out of a tribal compound in Pakistan's South Waziristan region was just the latest infuriating setback in the US's quest to bring down the top of the al-Qa'ida tree.

Cher

[mobuto]

32. Exactly!

Another report listed this guy as their Washington correspodent. Obviously he wasn't there, and the language is 1) inaccurate (if you read the original AFP report) and 2) filled with dramatic embellishment. This guy has clearly seen too many Steven Segall movies.

[peekaloo]

38. Is that the 'Showgirls' screenwriter????

LOL

[mobuto]

39. Bwahaha

The guy, whoever he is, is an idiot. The story was strange enough to begin with, but he screwed it up even more so.

[worldgonekrazy]

104. hey now, paul verhoeven is a fine director/writer

yeah, he certainly made a huge fucking dud in "showgirls." but did you know that he also did "total recall" and "starship troopers", amongst others? those two movies are about as subversive as they can get.

[UpInArms]

42. this guy is a fiction writer

Jagged Edge(Film)
Actually this predates "Basic Instinct". Joe Esterhaz wrote both.

http://www.scene4.com/html/qreviewsmar2004.html

[markses]

In a little known fact

Joe Esterhaz - screen-writer of Basic Instinct and others - actually broke the My Lai massacre story for the Cleveland Plain Dealer. He was the first to write a story on the event in the US press.

[UpInArms]

57. that's all well and good

but this "news story" has all the makings of a screenplay

[markses]

61. Was not commenting on the contents of this story

Which strike me as ridiculous. Also, mobuto is correct to call this an amalgamation (or an agglomeration, or a just plain old mess) of previous stories.

Nevertheless, the guy that wrote Basic Instinct broke the My Lai massacre story. It's a fun piece of cultural knowledge, don't you think?

[UpInArms]

64. it is interesting markses

and truth does spring from surprising places on occasion :)

[matcom]

24. FREEPERS GOT THE STORY POSTED

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1101185/posts

keep it monitored :D

[Jacobin]

27. Josh Marshall called it yesterday

On the other hand, I don't think you can avoid noting that Secretary of State Colin Powell has been in the neighborhood, most recently in India. And today, the day we hear this announcement, happens to be the very day when Powell came calling in Islamabad with the news that we're designating Pakistan a major non-NATO US ally, which carries not only prestige but significantly facilitates the purchase of US arms.

One needn't assume that the Pakistanis aren't being honest with what they're saying. But I don't think you need to be too imaginative to believe that with Powell in town with a prize in hand there'd be a great desire to put the best face on what may be very ambiguous evidence.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/

[saigon68]

79. F**king Priceless

From the FREEP KINGDOM



To: treeclimber
What are we chasing these guys with? Butterfly nets?

2 posted on 03/19/2004 6:53:59 AM PST by guitfiddlist
< Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies >

Bwa WA HA

Butterfly nets!!!!!!

[Uzybone]

94. LMAO

this is the funniest thing Ive read in a long long time.....from a damned freeper no less.

[cmd]

26. I suppose Bill Clinton was driving

It will end up being his fault.

[worldgonekrazy]

105. i can see it now, a photo circulating of clinton driving the landcruiser

window rolled down, arm outstretched, with his signature thumb move upraised in victory. and on the bumper? a kerry for president in 2004 sticker.

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

31. That sure is one evil SUV.

[struggle4progress]

99. No kidding!

The footage would make a great commercial! Beat the heck of that trite stuff with SUVs driving up cliffs!

Maybe our next homeland security program will provide an SUV for everybody who can afford the gas!

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

110. Even better, SUVs of mass destruction.

You're welcome Mr Rumsfeld.

[rocktivity]

35. The joke's on me, then

Yesterday, I wrote "Even Bush is smart enough not to risk a failed battle on international television. The high value target--or his body--will be brought out of the rubble shortly. The rest is stage management." When I learned that Colin Powell was on the premises and that CNN had alrady scheduled an interview with Musharraf, I thought that sealed the deal. About twenty minutes later, CNN reported the capture had been made.

But when I got home from work, they said the battle was still going on, but air support was due from the US in the morning. And now the news is that "the high-value target" managed to get away? Well, I've certainly made a fool of myself. Not only was I wrong about the stage management, I was wrong about Bush--he ISN'T smart enough not to risk a failed battle on international television!

:headbang:
rocknation

[mobuto]

37. The problem is that the high value target

left the stage three days ago, according to the AFP. The New York-based reporter screwed up his chronology by not reading the wires closely enough.

[saigon68]

116. Elvis has left the Building

LOL

[Almost_there]

40. Has this reporter ever been to Pakistan?

Is his pen name Jayson Blair or Stephen Glass? This article seems to be a little fishy. Either he is trying to scoop the world from a New York / DC office, while reporting to his fellow Australians, or he got a bit sauced and saw an episode of Dukes of Hazzard while listening to the radio reports. You know those cross over dreams...

Bo and Luke Duke just managed to escape evil Boss Bush and Roscoe P. Musharreff... <insert Dukesofhazzardhorn.mp3>

~ALmost

[not systems]

108. Or Jack Kelley

USA Today said Friday that an examination of the work of journalist Jack Kelley found strong evidence that the newspaper's former star foreign correspondent had fabricated substantial portions of at least eight major stories.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/a/2004/03/19/national0639EST0498.DTL

The newspaper also said "the evidence strongly contradicted" other published accounts by Kelley: that he spent the night with Egyptian terrorists in 1997; met a vigilante Jewish settler named Avi Shapiro in 2001; watched a Pakistani student unfold a picture of the Sears Tower and say, "This one is mine," in 2001; interviewed the daughter of an Iraqi general in 2003; or went on a high-speed hunt for Osama bin Laden in 2003.

[Crachet2004]

41. I think they are trying to build name recognition for this al Zawahiri guy

They would like to capture Bin, to give Bush a boost in the polls...but you have to replace him with another Demon, or the War on Terror is over.

And the Powers that Be really want to keep that scam running as long as possible, to milk the American People for as much as possible...like the Cold War.

There is no replacement for OBL right now, which is why I know he is in no immeninent danger of being captured.

But I have been hearing that al Zawahiri was the real brains behind 911, etc... in the mainstream press-so if they can just build up a little more name recognition for him, they will then be able to drag Bin in by his scraggly beard sometime in late October.

Right now America does'nt really give a damn about al Zawahiri. Capturing him would be worth about one point for one week.

[webtrainer]

87. They sure showed Zawahiri's picture on CNN a lot . . .

my daily Tivo of Crossfire was pre-empted by this bull****

Wolf was soooo salivating and breathless . . . I knew it was a scam.

I was fast forwarding and the same photo of the guy was shown at least twenty times in a 30 minute wankfest.

The Pakistani general was so obviously non-commital to the idea they were about to catch him, but it goes back to Wolf or whomever and they act like they don't really listen to what was said, repeat the same lines over and over and over. When they do that, it's an automatic response on my part to know that they are making up the story completely.

Sad. This blatant propaganda is getting real old for me.

I wonder if the general public is catching on to the idea that they're crying wolf?

[nodictators]

97. "Wolf was soooo salivating and breathless ..."

Clowns like Wolf and all the others are just failed B-movie actors. It just like those Roving Reporters who were sent to Iraq to bring us the (faux) news that the WMD were "found." They huffed and puffed and lied through their teeth.

[Turbineguy]

43. This story will have to wait until after Chimpy's speech.

[Kbick]

45. Kerry would have caught him on his Snowboard

[jmcgowanjm]

46. This story was big enough to move the Dow about 50 pts. yesterday

Nothing else was even allowed on CNN.
PMNews led w/ it.

Breaking News! Breaking News! Breaking News!

Something was covered up. Iraq? Venezuela?
Poland? Scalia?

Whatever, the key is that this was blatant.
BushCo doesn't care. We're nothin' but Cannon
Fodder Units.

And Somethin's Comin' Home to Roost.

[PassingFair]

48. No, Wait, Sorry... Our Mistake...

That was an old Starsky and Hutch episode. We now return you to your regular propaganda...

[saigon68]

127. Kick

[jmcgowanjm]

49. CNN'sPentagon Starr: DC was caught by surprise w/ Zawahiri Claim

BullShit! BullShit! BullShit!

Here at CNN our Creds mean nothing to us.
Really, the USSR's Pravda had alot going for
it that we've always admired.

CNNHeadline, at 9:44 AMCentral is still saying Zawahiri is trapped.
Come on guys, get w/ the program.

[Teaser]

51. Which leads me to believe it was

complete crap staged for Powell. Perhaps Al Zawahri was never there to begin with.

This whole "escape" may be a set up to explain to the US why Pak didn't get him after all.

Time will tell.

[mobuto]

52. No, its just being set up

by a former screenwriter based out of New York, who's sitting in a hotel bar somewhere reading wire reports, and embellishing them. This guy just managed to screw up the details of an AFP report from Pakistan, that's all.

[Teaser]

56. No, I mean the whole operation.

That was the set up. I suspect there was never any evidence that AZ was there at all.

In fact, if you read these Asiatimes articles

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/FC20Df02.html
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/FC19Df01.html

as well as the following Agonist post (the Stratfor excerpt):

http://www.agonist.org/archives/014453.html#014453

you get a pretty good idea of what may actually be happening.

[Ms. Clio]

62. What are you talking about?

The link for this story by the OP is
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,9018516%255E2703,00.html

and has the byline "Rodney Dalton."

Guess because he's based in New York, though, he can't accurately report the news.

Interesting that you're suddenly so concerned with reporting from people actually on the ground in the area, when during the Aristide coup, you kept telling us to wait for "more information" than the reporters and witnesses on the scene were providing.

[mobuto]

65. ???

My problem with the Aristide business was that for several days, the only source was some old man interviewed by French Radio who claimed to have been Aristide's gardener, and while he may or may not have been right, it wasn't exactly responsible to treat that man as an authorative source. This reporter here is just reading AFP wire reports. The AFP wire reports may or may not be accurate, but this guy isn't even transcribing them correctly (he doesn't mention anywhere that this happened three days ago), and he's adding colorful language that seems unsupported by the facts reported elsewhere, let alone his extreme distance from the events.

[tridim]

73. Yakov Smirnov should come up with a new act

He could use all his old material and simply replace "Soviet Union" with "America". Works for the patriot act too.

[JohnOneillsMemory]

50. Mel Gibson and Tina Turner are in hot pursuit!-cue John Williams soundtrak

I mean, can you hear the 'Star Wars' or 'Indiana Jones' theme music?

[TeeYiYi]

53. OMG. Was it BLACK? . . .

. . . the only thing that would make this sound even more daring and mysterious is if the elusive BULLETPROOF LANDCRUISER escaping at bursts or high speed was BLACK.

It was a BLACK BULLETPROOF LANDCRUISER . . . that came bursting out from BEHIND THE GRASSY KNOLL! :eyes:

TYY

On Edit: typo

[analogman]

54. He got away!?!?

I'm shocked...flabergasted even! Oh well, just send some more of your money to Halliburton, oops, I mean the government, and they'll go find this guy again.

[librechik]

55. I don't believe a word of this

from the beginning it seemed phony. Whose word do we have that the people they are fighting are actually AlQ? the same liars who still want to sell nuke technology to anyone with the cash. I thought yesterday's spectacle of all the newsnets preempting everything (except the Chimp in Chief) and waiting breathlessly for the culprit to be produced at exactly 4 minutes before the hour in time for top of the hour coverage... it was sad.

Oops! Now that I know Joe Esterhaz wrote it, I STILL don't believe a word! Ha ha...

[9215]

58. I'm going to go buy one of these

These guys can outrun a Predator drone!!

[jmcgowanjm]

59. The whole thing was setup for BushOnLive NowAllChannels

Fucking Unbelievable.
Time:10:00AMCentral

[fob]

60. Our Lady of Blessed Acceleration, don't fail us now!!!!!

SUV's are now WMD's

[htuttle]

63. "We're 106 miles from Peshawar, we have full tank of gas..."

"...a half pack of Bidis, it's dark out, and we're wearing burkhas."

"Hit it."

[matcom]

66. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

NICE!!

[Almost_there]

68. LOL

Oh, that's a good one. Are they a banned band since you can't play any tunes in Al Queda...

[fob]

98. Nice! More quotes from the bush* brothers...

Are you the police?
No ma'am we're on a mission from god.

You guys no "warhide"?
The old Rowdy bush* tune?
Yeah
Hit it!

Rollin' rollin rollin, though the dreams are stolen, Warhide!

[chelsea0011]

67. Newscoverage 24-7 for nothing? What a bunch of boobs!

Is there anyway any TV news people will cover Medicaregate? I quess not. More important to hope for news of captures and Crooked's speech soundbites.

[Ravy]

70. Hello, OnStar??? Can you recommend a nice Italian restaurant

for myself and a phalanx of my closest friends?

[Comadreja]

72. Just what do one of these high profile captures prove?

So they caught Saddam and humiliated him on TV to the delight of the public. Bush got to play his favorite role for a few days...gloating over a criminal's capture or execution. Doesn't the public notice that it changed absolutely nothing? the violence has gotten ten times worse since Saddam was caged. How many Fox boobs think that even catching Bin Laden will stop the spreading terrorist holocaust? These Al Quaeda et al cells are not a top-down organization, and can act completely independent of anyone that the US claims is their "leader."

[varun]

74. Powell told Musharraf...

...its not October yet!

You are not following my orders right. Now get back to other distractions like AQ Khan.

[devinsgram]

77. Yeah they really wanted to get him, didn't they

What pathetic excuse.

[saigon68]

80. He escaped the man with the butterfly net

[DrWeird]

78. This looks really bad for Bush.

We were busy fighting a war in Iraq while the Pakistanis let Al Qaeda slip away.

[Sideways]

90. Ah Shit Captain These Dudes In Caves With SUVs Are Bastards

Caves? OMFG do you guys think the Bin Ladens and their buddies reside in caves? The fucking richest family in Saudi Arabia lets one of their own live in a cave? NOT.

Oh no and what the fuck else is the Bush cabal going to throw at us? The shit is piled high and deep. But the best these ass hats can come up with is an escape in an SUV?

I'm sorry but I have to dig up my junior high diary I'm sure it is worthy of a Nobel Peace prize. The angst is really rich.

[a_random_joel]

81. IMPORTANT: Freepers are saying this is from two days ago,

although it is dated March 20th...

Just a head's up.

[mobuto]

83. No it isn't

Its from three days ago. This guy is simply rewriting portions of an AFP story that describes an event that happened three days ago, before the siege. Its clearly bullshit - this writer is in New York, not Pakistan, and has clearly had one too many Martinis.

[Teaser]

88. What part is bullshit?

The story of the escape, or the timing of the escape?

Do you think AZ is still there, or do you think him long gone?

I'm having trouble figuring out what you're saying.

[mobuto]

89. I don't know if "AZ" was ever there

Nobody ever said so officially. The problem with the story is two-fold. One, the reporter uses flamboyant language in his description of the attack which is just not appropriate for a guy ten thousand miles away, especially when it is absent from the wire reports.

Second, the article strongly implies that "AZ" fled from the besieged citadel today. That isn't apparently the case. The wire report indicates that the LandCruiser was spotted three days ago, before the siege began.

[Caution]

82. If there had been 100,000 US troops here rather than in Iraq

Does anyone honestly think this bastard would have gotten away? How about if we had spent 10% of what we spent in Iraq on actually bringing these assholes to justice?

[mobuto]

85. And why, two and a half years after 9/11

are US forces still not deployed in the tribal regions of Pakistan? We knew we needed to do that from Day One, in order to crack down on Al Qaeda. Really, how much time do these incompetents need in order to get "permission" from old Pervez?

[Almost_there]

84. Any additional sources?

Just curious if anyone has seen this turn up anywhere other than this one reporter. CNN, MSNBC, Fox, ABC, BBC, CBS, are all still running with the "we've got someone who might just be related to the friend of someone that knows of a guy who was rumored to have been in the same elementary school" as Al Zawahari...

~Almost

[Minstrel Boy]

91. How shall I hoodwink thee, America? Let me count the ways:

* Osama's family secretly flown to freedom by the US government, while Americans remain grounded.

* The Kunduz airlift. Al Qaeda and Pakistani military advisers, trapped in the Afghan city of Kunduz, are secretly airlifted out of the country by authorization of the US military.

* With Osama "surrounded" on three sides at Tora Bora, US special forces are not given the order to advance upon him, while two Russian-made helicopters descend to his known location, take passengers and fly to Pakistan. "There he goes," said a member of the special forces, who wants to remain nameless. (http://www.fayettevillenc.com/story-archive.php?Template=terrorism&Story=37935)

* Ayman al-Zawahiri... :eyes:

"Missed him by that much"

[Octafish]

92. What Minstrel Boy said.

Courtesy of the Bartcop Collection.

[Uzybone]

93. was there a loud screech

and a high speed chase? Sounds like a Mel Gibson script.

[pacifictiger]

95. zawahiri

is about the same level of right hand man to osama, as cheney is bush's right hand man.

[eablair3]

96. International Herald Tribune - Reuters

Militant may have fled fighting in Pakistan

AFP, Reuters Friday, March 19, 2004

WANA, Pakistan Pakistani troops backed by helicopter gunships fought fierce clashes on Friday with heavily armed gunmen believed to be protecting a top Al Qaeda leader close to the Afghan border.
.
Officials said Ayman al-Zawahiri, the deputy Al Qaeda leader, might have narrowly escaped from the South Waziristan tribal village.
.

http://www.iht.com/articles/511071.html

[David Zephyr]

100. I Guess They'll Be Blaming Bill Clinton For This, Too.

[Nevernose]

109. But this IS Clinton's fault!

See, if Clinton's policy of allowing American merchant shipping between Japan and Pakistan had never been implemented, then the Japanese would never have been able to export that bullet-proof Land Cruiser to Pakistan, and thus, al-Zawahiri would have never been able to escape through 70,000 Pakistani soldiers.

Not buying that, huh? Me neither.

How about this method of blaming Clinton: Ron Brown was murdered, Monica, Arkansas cocaine, Monica, lesbian orgies in the rented Lincoln bedroom, Monica, trashed the whitehouse when they left, Monica, Whitewater, Monica, Paula Jones, Monica. Monica, Monica, Monica, Monica. Monica. How could you possibly argue with this logic? Clearly, the escape of al-Zawahiri is Clinton's fault.

[David Zephyr]

118. Argumentus, You Having Me Grinning Ear to Ear.

:thumbsup:

[DemocraticEnigma]

106. Could very well have been a decoy...

and I'm guessing it was. Remember how I think once in Tora Bora the entire time the US was convinced OBl was there when in reality Al Qaeda was staging the whole thing to make it seem like he was.

[RetroLounge]

107. Didn't I see Travolta do this in Swordfish?

Was Halle Berry driving?

RL

[struggle4progress]

111. Boykin Boykin Boykin ...

This operation has been in the making. Here's an article from two weeks ago
5 March Asia Times
The Peshawar sources confirm numerous local reports that bin Laden and his close entourage have come practically face-to-face with US patrols on several occasions in the past few weeks in Paktika - so they had to find a safer refuge. But it could be a case of out of the frying pan into the fire. US Commando 121, headed by General William Boykin, with input from the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), is preparing to pounce. http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/FC05Ak02.html

Remember Boykin? He's the general who's doing his best to stir up religious animosity and convince everybody that this is a religious war. Recent article:
http://yellowtimes.org/article.php?sid=1796&mode=thread&order=0

<edit>: just goes to show what kind of splendid operation you get when it's planned by a numbskull ideological fanatic

[kera]

112. Hunting of Taliban

Pakistan seems to have has discounted the long experience more than 30 years of taliban fighting against soviet union and afterward

[kera]

113. Albright on CNN

[TEXASYANKEE]

114. X-Files - Final Episode

At least that's what it reads like to me -- Land Cruisers escaping death-dealing helicopters are great speed. Go Mulder! Go Scully!!

[struggle4progress]

117. <delete>

<delete>

[Bat Boy]

119. See? Terrorists drive SUV's!

I told you so, I told you so, I told you so!

[Zynx]

120. I don't trust the source, but I believe we are not going to get him this

time.

[Ilsa]

122. Wasn't Rice saying this morning that

"We can't be sure he's there?" I think the bitch already knew.

Slap one on me: :tinfoilhat: :tinfoilhat: :tinfoilhat: :tinfoilhat: :tinfoilhat: :tinfoilhat:

[pinniped]

125. So what we know is...

- we don't know who the alleged perp in the Land Cruiser was
- we don't even know if there ever was an armoured Land Cruiser
- we don't even know if this incident really took place
- reading stories like this makes me think I live in Bizarro world