Posted on 03/08/2003 2:23:37 AM PST by kattracks
With the world on tense alert as war with Iraq looms and the chase after Osama Bin Laden grows hotter, news organizations reported yesterday that two of Bin Laden's sons had been captured in Afghanistan.The report - attributed to a Pakistani security official - sounded exactly like the sort of result many hoped would come from last week's capture of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, alleged mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks and one of the few in Bin Laden's inner circle.
Even without official U.S. confirmation, financial markets around the globe rallied on the news.
But the White House and the CIA dismissed the claims as nothing more than wishful thinking.
"We have no information to substantiate that report," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said, referring to a deadly raid in Afghanistan in which seven Al Qaeda fighters were killed.
Col. Roger King, a U.S. military spokesman at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan, said he wasn't sure there even was a raid in the area.
"As far as I know, we don't have anybody operating in that vicinity," King said.
It was the second time in two days that news reports claimed a success in the war on terror that never happened. Several media outlets reported erroneously on Thursday that Bin Laden himself had been captured.
U.S. forces are spearheading a search for Bin Laden in the rugged and lawless area along the Pakistani-Afghan border.
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