Will Obama Capture Bin Laden?

[garybeck]

Poll question: Will Obama Capture Bin Laden?

We all know Bush looked the other way when he had Bin Laden cornered.

What will happen if/when the US government makes it a real priority to find and capture him?

[Ichingcarpenter]

1. He's dead.... and has been

You need that option.

[garybeck]

4. I added "other" and "skeletal remains found" into the first option.

nt

[librarycard]

2. Don't count Cheney out yet

He still has four more days to get him, or so he says, and we know how hard he worked to "protect" America.

[Occam Bandage]

3. No. Dude's rotting in a cave somewhere.

Has been since, oh, about 2004 by my reckoning. Yours may vary.

[garybeck]

5. check the updated answer #1

it says "skeletal remains found"

[Occam Bandage]

6. Nah. I think "no" fits well.

Obama will continue to search for him, and will search more seriously. He will not find him. I therefore selected that answer. The only people who know for certain that he is dead are a few members of the original al-Qaeda organization; they certainly have no desire to tell anyone that bin Laden is dead. As new terror organizations rise and fall, and as he remains a non-player our intelligence agencies will slowly increase their internal probabilities that he is dead. When we state that we believe he is dead, it will not even be newsworthy. His whereabouts may become the subject of endless speculation decades down the road, and his remains probably won't be found any time soon.

That's my bet, anyway.

[Ghost in the Machine]

7. He's been dead since 2001....

Fox News: "Bin Laden Already Dead"

Wednesday, December 26, 2001

Usama bin Laden has died a peaceful death due to an untreated lung complication, the Pakistan Observer reported, citing a Taliban leader who allegedly attended the funeral of the Al Qaeda leader.

"The Coalition troops are engaged in a mad search operation but they would never be able to fulfill their cherished goal of getting Usama alive or dead," the source said.

Bin Laden, according to the source, was suffering from a serious lung complication and succumbed to the disease in mid-December, in the vicinity of the Tora Bora mountains. The source claimed that bin Laden was laid to rest honorably in his last abode and his grave was made as per his Wahabi belief.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,41576,00.html

----------------------------------------------------------------------

The Death of bin Ladenism
By AMIR TAHERI
Published: July 11, 2002

Osama bin Laden is dead. The news first came from sources in Afghanistan and Pakistan almost six months ago: the fugitive died in December and was buried in the mountains of southeast Afghanistan. Pakistan's president, Pervez Musharraf, echoed the information. The remnants of Osama's gang, however, have mostly stayed silent, either to keep Osama's ghost alive or because they have no means of communication.

With an ego the size of Mount Everest, Osama bin Laden would not have, could not have, remained silent for so long if he were still alive. He always liked to take credit even for things he had nothing to do with. Would he remain silent for nine months and not trumpet his own survival?

Even if he is still in the world, bin Ladenism has left for good. Mr. bin Laden was the public face of a brand of politics that committed suicide in New York and Washington on Sept. 11, 2001, killing thousands of innocent people in the process.

What were the key elements of that politics?

The first was a cynical misinterpretation of Islam that began decades ago with such anti-Western ideologues as Maulana Maudoodi of Pakistan and Sayyid Qutb of Egypt. Although Mr. Maudoodi and Mr. Qutb were not serious thinkers, they could at least offer a coherent ideology based on a narrow reading of Islamic texts. Their ideas about Western barbarism and Muslim revival, distilled down to bin Ladenism, became mere slogans designed to incite zealots to murder.

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9405EFDE1230F932A25754C0A9649C8B63

[Occam Bandage]

8. Read it, and don't buy it.

He continued to publish a number of messages to the world through 2004, and they continued to be the dense, poetic exhortations he was famous for. It was only around '04 that he stopped appearing on video and that his messages lost their literary flourish.

[eridani]

17. There are some who used to translate his speeches who think that everything since 2001 is fake

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_oet&address=358x3185

Robert Fisk disagrees according to a letter I wrote to him. The availability of voicemorphing technology puts any audio in the questionable category.

[tiptoe]

9. Other: If/when Bin Laden captured, he'll testify against Cheney and Bush role in 9/11. nt.

[Occam Bandage]

10. LMAO. nt

[TahitiNut]

11. Of one thing I'm certain - he'll never be taken alive.

That doesn't fit with ANYONE'S agenda. :shrug:

[Skip Intro]

12. The grand illusion continues...n/t

[razors edge]

13. Yeah, with a backhoe and ground penetrating radar. n/t

[Sebastian Doyle]

14. Not unless he can send a Special Forces team into Hell

Because Tim Osman's been there since 2002 or so.

[AndyTiedye]

15. Pushing Up Daisies

He was sick already, and the medical care in Tora Bora isn't the greatest.

[Ani Yun Wiya]

16. Highly unlikely.

1. The Sheik is alive and well.
2. For at least eighteen years, the intelligence, military, police and other agencies of some thirteen countries have not been successful in their quest to capture this fellow and same goes for the Russians and the US in actual combat.
3. A US $25M (or was that $50M) "reward" has no value where this soul is welcome and the blathering of a "new" American president with the same old game plan and ideas is worth even less.

[proud2BlibKansan]

18. Osama is dead

[TWiley]

19. We might already have him ...... it might be a mistake to admit it.

If we proved to the world that we either captured or killed Bin Ladin, then we would also prove that there was a job opening for the most psychopathic applicant. If he is dead, then let them follow a ghost.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

20. No, Bin Laden has been dead for years.

[wildbilln864]

21. UBL is long dead! nt

[treestar]

22. Trail is very cold

Thanks to Bushie.

And even bin Laden deserves some sort of trial. I'm not entirely sure what he is guilty of. There is apparently more proof for the Kenya and Tanzania embassy bombings than for 911.

[warren pease]

23. Only if the "authorities" forget about Afghan caves and concentrate their search...

... around the back 40 at the Crawford sound stage. He'll be the tall guy lying in the hammock, robes exchanged for baggy shorts and a Houston Rockets game jersey, bored stiff and rereading old articles from "Terrorist Today!"

As usual, it's hot as hell, although his hell is somewhat different than the one that's customary in those parts. He's sipping his fifth tall glass of ice-cold, heavily spiked fruit punch, more rum than punch, trying to keep the umbrella some nitwit stuck into a pineapple cube from poking his eye out.

It's almost time for the weekly roast pig fiesta, and his stomach is rumbling right on schedule. Several old Taliban friends are flying in for the occasion, so it's going to be like old home week. There's a lot to be said for working with the Bushies.


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