[Cap Huff]

"The Americans are also employing 'psychological operations' against bin Laden, allowing news of the new push to leak into the media."

I have come to the conclusion that the weird use of the expression "sands of the hourglass" relates somehow to psyops. It may be that flyers dropped in the region use this analogy. It may also be a case of using OBL's own words against him. Maybe this was an expression he used in a communication he thought was secure, but we intercepted. Once he finds out that his communications have been hacked, he might panic. Maybe it is a way of taunting him (and may just be the reason that Zawahiri tried to taunt back in his tape the other week).

[ASA Vet]

It may also be a case of using OBL's own words against him.
Maybe this was an expression he used in a communication he thought was secure, but we intercepted.

Thus insuring discontinuance of that communications channel,
and the loss of any intel which could have been gleaned from it.

Yep, sounds like something we'd want to do. ;-)

[swarthyguy]

>>>"sands of the hourglass"

A medieval allegory, well understood by these denizens of Araby, whose flowery rhetoric and florid allusions are all too obvious in some of their seminal books and works - titles such as "Under the Shadow of the Lances", "Milestones on the Path", and nom de guerres like "Jihad Falcon".

Osama means Lion and remember his own allegory about people wanting to ride the stronger horse, referring to the appeal of his movement among like minded islamis.