Hunt for Bin Laden: Troops follow DNA trail in dead men’s fingers

The Sunday Times (UK) ^ | SUNDAY DECEMBER 23 2001 | JON SWAIN, TORA BORA

[aculeus]

Interesting, if true.

[spanky_mcfarland]

How long before the fingers show up on ebay?

I'll take two, please.

[AngrySpud]

I doubt it's true. You can get very adequate tissue samples by swabbing inside the cheek. It wouldn't be any more "degraded" in a corpse than a finger.

[the_doc]

I see no reason to doubt the finger story. If I were in charge, I would tell the troops to collect fingers and throw 'em in a gunny sack.

Think about how much easier this is versus the sample collection protocol you mentioned. About all you need is a knife and a sack.

[Mariner]

They can match a fingerprint within hours after it's taken. DNA takes days or weeks.

It's apparent the HUNT is on.

[TomGuy]

To some, it began to look as if earlier stories of huge caves fitted with modern conveniences were a fable told by Afghans to gullible journalists in return for large sums of money.

Surely, the professional know-it-all, superior-to-the-rest-of-humanity, we-will-lead-the-masses, journalists wouldn't be hoodwinked...again! (Didn't they learn how to avoid that after 8 years of Clintonics?)

[Mariner]

I'm sure that all US Citizens are eligible for the $25mil reward:)

[eddie willers]

All the signs are that the American goal from the beginning was to kill as many Al-Qaeda fighters as possible.

Plan your work and work your plan.

[TADSLOS]

...and clean as you go.

[redhead]

I'd be interested to know where and how they managed to obtain a KNOWN sample of OBL's DNA for use in the comparison. Does anyone know if such a proven sample exists?

[finnman69]

I can think of some other body parts they should cut off.

[the_doc]

Oh, don't be ugly, finnman69. Anyway, they probably wanted a larger sample.

[TheLooseThread]

"...asking another on his radio why his men were killing Arabs willing to surrender."

The writer of this article makes the assumption that the arabs' offer was legitimate and not fake. Either way, more dead anti-American arabs is a good thing.

[Marianne]

Don't have a link to the source, but it was posted that OBL's family gave DNA samples.

[the_doc]

To be reasonably certain they had managed to kill OBL, they would need only to demonstrate that the DNA from a corpse in question closely matched the markers found in OBL's family members. They wouldn't necessarily need OBL's DNA.

Remember: DNA is the stuff of genes. And I think that our military is just trying to see if they can turn up a corpse with the overall genetic profile of OBL.

[M. Thatcher]

They told of cornering one Arab fighter who had lost both his legs but fought to the death

Just a flesh wound.

[Harp]

I believe they got DNA from family members of Osama. I'm not sure if it was volunteered or what.

DNA from blood family members would be very good evidence for comparison to possible Osama DNA.

[finnman69]

Anyway, they probably wanted a larger sample.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

[Harp]

I'm guessing they'd take a finger also because it's relatively easy to take and anyone who was actually alive and without a finger would be pretty darn easy to spot. ^^

[McGavin999]

One Afghan commander was overheard 10 days ago asking another on his radio why his men were killing Arabs willing to surrender.

I guess the poor simpleton who wrote this didn't understand the lesson of Kunduz/Mazar-i-sharif. He'd probably prefer more Afghan and Americans were slaughtered by being duped into believing the Arabs wanted to surrender again.

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me!