[Dog]

Look I know I'm FR's optimist on us getting Bin Laden.......and you all tell me to calm down.....but tell me I shouldn't get excited over this ...

Pakistani troops using helicopters and artillery flattened three housing compounds and detained at least 20 people last Tuesday in a remote region where bin Laden and other al-Qaeda fugitives are believed to have hidden recently.

He was there.

[Dog]

See post 19..

[babaloo]

FWIW Julian Phillips has opined this morning that he has been on record that Osama needed to be found and that he thought the US should have dealt with that earlier. What a buffoon. Thanks for playing, Julian.

[ASA Vet]

and you all tell me to calm down

I'm not telling you to calm down dog.
I'm having fun watching you chase your tail. ;-)

[mewzilla]

Sounds like we were waiting for the SAS to arrive, so they could be in on the fun.

[Cap Huff]

Here's another report that repeats a lot of the same information that has already been reported, but there are some interesting items:

Hunt for bin Laden, allies heats up
Posted on Sun, Feb. 29, 2004
SATELLITES, SOLDIERS COMB MOUNTAINS

By John Walcott

Knight Ridder

>>snip<<

In addition, said the officials, who all spoke on the condition of anonymity because the operations are highly classified, U.S. reconnaissance satellites were redirected this weekend to spend more time over border areas near Pakistan's South Waziristan region, where Pakistani forces recently have clashed with what appear to be heavily armed members of Al-Qaida or of Afghanistan's former Taliban military.

However, the officials cautioned that they still had no independently confirmed intelligence pinpointing bin Laden, his second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahiri, or Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar, and on Friday they said the unusually public discussions of intensifying operations are an effort to flush out the 6-foot, 5-inch Al-Qaida leader in hopes that drones, other aircraft, satellites or spies are more likely to spot him if he moves.

>>snip<<

The officials also expressed skepticism about reports that intercepted satellite telephone conversations referring to ``the Sheik,'' a suspected code name for bin Laden, indicate the presence of Al-Qaida members along the border.

``Bin Laden and the people who know where he is stopped yakking on `sat' phones more than five years ago,'' said one official. ``If we can overhear it, it's probably disinformation.''

The officials said they expect that the hunt will end, whenever it does, in bin Laden's death rather than his capture. Both the armed Predator drones and the special-forces teams along the border are authorized to shoot to kill if they're certain they have bin Laden, Zawahiri or Omar in sight, one official said.

>>snip<< Hunt for bin Laden, allies heats up

[swarthyguy]

Remember the news reports about SAS being deployed in Iraq last fall in the Saddam Triangle. And then, bingo, shortly thereafter, Saddam's nabbed.

There were some reports that SAS had a significant hand in that capture.

At the take I have on the news, this means the SAS boys have been hunting in their latest version of Operation Snipe for at least a month or two, if not longer.

EndGame Osama. Now to the Saudis.