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 ...
He is either dead or being sheltered in Iran.
I think he is hanging out in the hamptons
What?
Maybe the Iranians will bring him forth as the 12th Imam.
He's held out longer than Bonnie Prince Charlie.
Think happy thoughts.
"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." |
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?
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?
Don't worry - the Democraps will find him.
I think you pretty much covered it (at least you would have if Osama weren't room temperature in January).
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........
He's dead, Jim.
Anybody watching the Discovery Channel right now?
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.
So MSNBC tells us the trail's gone cold, hmm? I wonder who told them that, and why.
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