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Bin Laden trail goes ‘stone cold’
Washington Post ^ | September 09, 2006 | Dana Priest and Ann Scott Tyson

Posted on 09/09/2006 8:22:44 PM PDT by jmc1969

The clandestine U.S. commandos whose job is to capture or kill Osama bin Laden have not received a credible lead in more than two years. Nothing from the vast U.S. intelligence world — no tips from informants, no snippets from electronic intercepts, no points on any satellite image — has led them anywhere near the al-Qaeda leader, according to U.S. and Pakistani officials.

"The handful of assets we have have given us nothing close to real-time intelligence" that could have led to his capture, said one counterterrorism official, who said the trail, despite the most extensive manhunt in U.S. history, has gone "stone cold."

But in the last three months, following a request from President Bush to "flood the zone," the CIA has sharply increased the number of intelligence officers and assets devoted to the pursuit of bin Laden. The intelligence officers will team with the military's secretive Joint Special Operations Command(JSOC) and with more resources from the National Security Agency and other intelligence agencies.

The problem, former and current counterterrorism officials say, is that no one is certain where the "zone" is.

"Here you've got a guy who's gone off the net and is hiding in some of the most formidable terrain in one of the most remote parts of the world surrounded by people he trusts implicitly," said T. McCreary, spokesman for the National Counterterrorism Center. "And he stays off the net and is probably not mobile. That's an extremely difficult problem."

(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: binladen; danapriest; fifthanniversary; gwot; heisinthesaudientity; manhunt; obl
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1 posted on 09/09/2006 8:22:45 PM PDT by jmc1969
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To: jmc1969
Could that be because HE is stone cold?
2 posted on 09/09/2006 8:24:04 PM PDT by msnimje (What part of-- "DEATH TO AMERICA" --do the Democrats not understand?)
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To: jmc1969

He is either dead or being sheltered in Iran.


3 posted on 09/09/2006 8:25:21 PM PDT by operation clinton cleanup
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To: operation clinton cleanup

I think he is hanging out in the hamptons


4 posted on 09/09/2006 8:27:29 PM PDT by al baby
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To: jmc1969

What?

5 posted on 09/09/2006 8:29:39 PM PDT by Andy from Beaverton (I'm so anti-pc, I use a Mac)
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To: operation clinton cleanup

Maybe the Iranians will bring him forth as the 12th Imam.


6 posted on 09/09/2006 8:29:46 PM PDT by tflabo (Take authority that's ours)
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To: msnimje
He's Dead, Jim!
7 posted on 09/09/2006 8:30:02 PM PDT by AFPhys ((.Praying for President Bush, our troops, their families, and all my American neighbors..))
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To: jmc1969

He's held out longer than Bonnie Prince Charlie.


8 posted on 09/09/2006 8:33:28 PM PDT by Doctor Stochastic (Vegetabilisch = chaotisch ist der Charakter der Modernen. - Friedrich Schlegel)
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To: tflabo
"Maybe the Iranians will bring him forth as the 12th Imam."

Think happy thoughts.

9 posted on 09/09/2006 8:33:42 PM PDT by SteveMcKing
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To: jmc1969
This book gives you his address:...........................


A must read book, scary stuff!!!

10 posted on 09/09/2006 8:33:54 PM PDT by danamco
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To: jmc1969

"OK, you tell him we don't have a clue where he is, and I'll go around the back way and blow his head off."


11 posted on 09/09/2006 8:35:46 PM PDT by Nick Danger (www.redeploymurtha.com)
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To: jmc1969

Let me guess... no phone intercepts, because the fact that we could listen to them was disclosed by the New York Slimes, so he stopped doing that. No financial transactions were intercepted, because the fact we were following them was disclosed by the New York Slimes, so he stopped doing that. No detainees provided information under interrogation, because we stopped doing that thanks to disclosures from the New York Slimes. Do I have this about right?


12 posted on 09/09/2006 8:35:50 PM PDT by coloradan (Failing to protect the liberties of your enemies establishes precedents that will reach to yourself.)
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To: jmc1969

Let me guess... no phone intercepts, because the fact that we could listen to them was disclosed by the New York Slimes, so he stopped doing that. No financial transactions were intercepted, because the fact we were following them was disclosed by the New York Slimes, so he stopped doing that. No detainees provided information under interrogation, because we stopped doing that thanks to disclosures from the New York Slimes. Do I have this about right?


13 posted on 09/09/2006 8:35:50 PM PDT by coloradan (Failing to protect the liberties of your enemies establishes precedents that will reach to yourself.)
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To: jmc1969

Don't worry - the Democraps will find him.


14 posted on 09/09/2006 8:36:11 PM PDT by beethovenfan (If Islam is the solution, the "problem" must be freedom.)
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To: coloradan
Let me guess... no phone intercepts, because the fact that we could listen to them was disclosed by the New York Slimes, so he stopped doing that. No financial transactions were intercepted, because the fact we were following them was disclosed by the New York Slimes, so he stopped doing that. No detainees provided information under interrogation, because we stopped doing that thanks to disclosures from the New York Slimes. Do I have this about right?

I think you pretty much covered it (at least you would have if Osama weren't room temperature in January).

15 posted on 09/09/2006 8:39:00 PM PDT by steveegg (Let's make the deeply-saddened Head KOmmie deeply soddened in Nov. - deny the 'RATs the election)
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To: beethovenfan
Not only that, but it's obviously Bush's fault...........

You do know that kerry, Gore and Teddy would have caught him by now with their own bare hands......each individually.

Such great and resolute leaders........

16 posted on 09/09/2006 8:41:01 PM PDT by Lakeshark (Thank a member of the US armed forces for their sacrifice)
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To: steveegg

He's dead, Jim.


17 posted on 09/09/2006 8:41:29 PM PDT by aviator (Armored Pest Control)
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To: Lakeshark

Anybody watching the Discovery Channel right now?


18 posted on 09/09/2006 8:43:48 PM PDT by Just Lori (VOTE!...........or suffer the consequences.......)
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To: coloradan

And if memory serves, I believe one of the writers of this article is part of a National Security "leak" that is presently under investigation.


19 posted on 09/09/2006 8:44:13 PM PDT by digger48
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To: jmc1969

So MSNBC tells us the trail's gone cold, hmm? I wonder who told them that, and why.


20 posted on 09/09/2006 8:44:20 PM PDT by Billthedrill
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