Posted on 01/23/2005 9:23:16 AM PST by unixfox
A New Osama Push
The U.S. State Department has begun a media blitz to remind Afghans of the $25 million bounty for al-Qaeda's chief By TIM MCGIRK
Sunday, Jan. 23, 2005 With the trail of Osama bin Laden gone cold, the U.S. State Department is revving up a new publicity blitz to remind Afghans and Pakistanis of the $25 million bounty for al-Qaeda's chief. Bin Laden is still thought to be hiding somewhere along the 1,640-mile, mountainous Afghanistan-Pakistan border, but intelligence officials in Kabul and Islamabad say there has been no trace of him for the past 20 months. By the end of February, the White House is expected to double the sum on bin Laden's head, to $50 million, acting on legislation passed in November by Congress.
State Department ads began appearing this month in Jang, a widely circulated Pakistani newspaper, offering rewards for bin Laden, his lieutenant Ayman al-Zawahiri, Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar and 11 other suspected terrorists. The ads have elicited an average of 12 responses a day, and will be followed by an advertising barrage on regional radio and TV stations in the borderlands and cities where al-Qaeda's chief might be hiding, according to the State Department.
U.S. reward offers were posted soon after 9/11, but officials concede that little effort was made to circulate the offers widely in the Afghan and Pakistan countryside. Even if a local knew of bin Laden's whereabouts, the informer would face daunting obstacles in contacting U.S. authorities.
The newspaper ads, seen in Pakistani towns, signify a shift in the theory about where bin Laden might be. Congressman Mark Kirk, the Illinois Republican who wrote the bill boosting the reward and who just traveled to Pakistan, says it's possible bin Laden is not in some snowy mountain cave but has melted away into one of the teeming Pakistani cities, as had several other al-Qaeda agents who have been captured. "What we're looking for is some young Pashtun living in a town who knows the value of $25 million and can figure out how to reach us safely," says Kirk. He points out that the lure of a $30 million reward led to the capture and killing in Iraq of Saddam Hussein's sons Uday and Qusay.
From the Jan. 31, 2005 issue of TIME magazine
Go figger
Why put a bounty on his head if no one can do the work to collect it?
If I could, I'd give them bin Laden's head on a stick for free.
Why isn't it a "dead or alive" offer?
Or is it?
I think they paid off the guy who ratted out Saddam and he's of course changed his name and moved to some other country........
These SF guys played contractors and alledgedly "all" contractors must be sanctioned by either our state department or the local goobermints of which neither were in this teams situation.
I'd suggest that if such "permission" or official sanction was granted I'd make a contract to share a solid third the bounty with that goobermint who gets me the get out of jail free pass to work the problem. But who's to trust. Too risky.
I still believe the best way to snag Bin Laden is with the UCAV's that can vulture his rabbit ass 24 & 7. Of course the Paki's and Chinese would squeel pig if the UCAV's wandered out of the Finger region Bin laden is alledged to be squatting these days.......
No good answer to the solution from me.....
I'm in. When are we leaving? I'm thinking .338 Lapua with a really nice Leopold scope zeroed in at about 500 yards.
Now the reason Uncle Sam won't authorize private bounty hunters is many and varied - I wonder if they are also restricted by international treaties doing away with issuing 'write of marquis'.
Good point....
Like I said - that's the Federal Govt for ya.
He's in New York working as a stock broker OR he's a DNA smear in some cave someplace.
That is quite an increase in worth...must be in cattle futures.
It has the makings for a movie...a group of head-hunters making their way through the mountains of whatever country, cave by cave.
Last I heard, Lozzi's group still had that $1 billion hit contract out on him...
I guess this http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1155685/posts?page=1194#1194 is related to ObL and not to Iran.
You have it about exactly right - Simply no easy solutions at this point -
Only viable option....but one that would still take much time is finally allowing US SOF to operate independently in the Pakistan border region - (but even with this we are still looking for a needle in a stack of safety pins). With winter setting in lets hope UBL decided to venture into more comfortable surroundings this season.
what you said.
Seems the Christians In Action would want some NOC's involved in that region actively seeking to "kill" vs just "locate" UBL......
Oh well, as ya state, ideas are cheap, solutions are weak.........Stay safe !
the recipient would need $49 million for security to keep the moslems from killing him.
I still think the reward shoud have been some very low figure ,like $1.35, just to emphasize the true value of a murderer.
yeah, and bill clinton should have to pay it out of his own pocket, for not taking out bin laden earlier!
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