US Commandos 'Closing In' On Bin Laden

The Telegraph (UK) ^ | 2-24-2004 | David Rennie

[netmilsmom]

Can we get our hopes up on this?
The first I heard of this was from Arab news.

[Grut]

Ah, it takes me back to the days of my youth and the "light at the end of the tunnel."

[DugwayDuke]

Of course, with all this publicity, one can only wonder if this is simply a ruse designed to make Bin Ladin make a mistake liking running or communicating to reveal his position.

[tiamat]

I'm worried that all of the talk and speculation wil jinx it...How many times have we heard, "We have Osama surrounded" only to found out later that it wasn't so?

[Starve The Beast]

Can we get our hopes up on this?

I refuse to do so. It's too easy to say this, and we've had our hopes dashed before. Let's concentrate on the victories we're winning now, and treat the capture of bin Laden (if it ever comes) as a wonderful surprise.

[Reelect President Dubya]

He's dead, Jim.

[js1138]

But like a dead democrat, his political philosophy lives on.

[Broker]

Dead and well in Pakistan.. Walking dead. Rummy in Iraq. He wants to be close. The geopolitical climate is ripe.

[MrsEmmaPeel]

Next week. We find him next week at 8am EST, but news isn't released until a couple days later. 2 weeks tops before we know for sure.

[Capt. Tom]

Ah, it takes me back to the days of my youth and the "light at the end of the tunnel."

[MrsEmmaPeel]

That picture of yours really likes to soak up the bandwidth!

[jwalsh07]

[commish]

Sounds like we may be getting close. I was taking all the reports of having him "Surrounded" with a grain of salt. But, if we are sending Task Force 121 in country, then something is getting ready to go down.

Of course, if he is captured the Dems will just start the "We have had him all along, and he is being brought out now because Bush is behind in the polls ..blah blah blah yada yada yada WAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH"

[Don'tMessWithTexas]

The special ops forces assigned this duty are truly outstanding. Their whole mission is to seek out and capture high value targets. The fact that the Paki leadership is concentrating troops in this area is a major development.

[gogipper]

Man, weren't the sixty's radical? Hand me a toke dude!

[THX 1138]

It is impossible to overstate the important of catching bin Laden to the American public, whose anger and grief over the September 11 attacks has not faded.

...unless, of course, they are liberals, who seem to walk around pretending it never happened...

[Ursus arctos horribilis]

I read the other day Musharraf had given the tribal leaders along the Paki/Afghan border an ultimatium:

Give up the Taliban and al-Qa'eda or the Paki army was moving on them. He then said and even if we don't, they will, with the "they" being the Americans in Afganistan. Said tribal leaders are fishing them over right and left. The news is out, it is not nice to piss off Uncle, especially during an election year.

[sdk7x7]

Saddam's Captors Turn Their Eyes on Bin Laden.

The US is moving a secret commando unit from Iraq to Afghanistan to step up the hunt for Osama bin Laden, it was reported in Washington today. A Pentagon official told the Washington Times there were two reasons for repositioning parts of Task Force 121: First, most high-value human targets in Iraq, including Saddam Hussein, have been caught or killed. Second, intelligence reports are increasing on the whereabouts of bin Laden, the terror leader behind the September 11 attacks. “Iraq has become more of a policing problem than a hunt for high-value Iraqis, the official said. Afghanistan is the place where 121 can do more.” Task Force 121 is a mix of army Delta Force soldiers and Navy SEALs based at Joint Special Operations Command in Fort Bragg, North Carolina There are also reports in Britain that SAS units have been deployed to Afghanistan. Military sources told the Times that reports of al-Qaida terror leader bin Laden’s movements are becoming more numerous as the fugitive Saudi multi-millionaire, hides in the mountainous terrain straddling the Afghan-Pakistan border. Task Force 121 was part of the team that raided an Iraqi farm and found Saddam hidden in a hole. Speculation that the United States is close to finding bin Laden heightened last month when military officers in Afghanistan predicted that the terror leader would be killed or captured by year’s end. “We have a variety of intelligence, and we’re sure we’re going to catch Osama bin Laden and Taliban leader Mullah Omar this year,” Lieutenant Colonel Bryan Hilferty, spokesman for US forces in Afghanistan, said last month. “We’ve learned lessons from Iraq, and we’re getting improved intelligence from the Afghan people.” Bin Laden’s capture would be a major boost to President George Bush during election year.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Bump!