intriguing, indeed.
Bin Laden Tape Puts Pakistan in Quandary
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/world/10057111.htm?1c
...excerpt...
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - The envelope containing terror mastermind Osama bin Laden's latest message to the world was dropped into a letter box in an upscale neighborhood of the Pakistani capital, the second purported al-Qaida video to come out of this nation in little over a week.
Officials cautioned on Saturday that the tape's release to the Arabic television channel Al-Jazeera's Islamabad office does not prove that bin Laden is in Pakistan. But its appearance was nonetheless an embarrassment to a nation that bills itself as a key ally in Washington's war on terror, and that has spent months focusing its troops on a swath of tribal communities along the Afghan-Pakistan border where the fugitive al-Qaida leader has reputedly been hiding.
Ahmad Muaffaq Zaidan, Al-Jazeera's bureau chief in Pakistan, said the tape was dropped off at the gate of the station's office Friday, just hours before it aired.
"The guard brought it to me along with other mail. It was in an envelope, I opened it and it was a big scoop," Zaidan told The Associated Press. Zaidan immediately sent the tape to Al-Jazeera's headquarters in the Gulf nation of Qatar.
Pakistan has sent tens of thousands of troops to the long and porous border with Afghanistan, concentrating on forbidding North and South Waziristan, where bin Laden and his top deputy, Egyptian surgeon Ayman al-Zawahri, are both believed to be hiding.
Scores of soldiers and civilians have been killed, but the operations so far have not netted any major fugitives, leading to charges that the sweeps are conducted as a political show to curry favor with Washington, which has given Islamabad billions of dollars in aid since President Gen. Pervez Musharraf threw his support behind the anti-terror effort.