Karl Rove decides it's too early

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/nm/20040223/wl_nm/afghan_binladen_dc


Reuters, February 23, 2004, 8:08 AM ET

U.S., Pakistan Deny They're Closing in on Osama


KABUL/ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Osama bin Laden's whereabouts remain a mystery
to U.S. and Pakistani forces as they crank up efforts to flush out al Qaeda
and Taliban rebels hiding near Afghanistan's eastern frontier, officials
said on Monday.

U.S. military officials in Kabul have boldly predicted his capture in 2004,
and Britain's Sunday Express weekly reported that the world's most wanted
man was "boxed in" by U.S. and British special forces in the rugged
Pakistani mountains along the Afghan border.

The newspaper said bin Laden was within a 10 mile by 10 mile area, being
monitored by a U.S. spy satellite.

"As far as the reports of Osama bin Laden's location, I don't take much
credence in them because if we knew where he was in Afghanistan, we would go
get him and if the Pakistanis knew where he was in Pakistan they would go
get him," U.S. military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Bryan Hilferty said.

"We continue to have rumors over the past two years," he told a news
briefing in Kabul, when asked about speculation that bin Laden had been
spotted.

Pakistani officials dismissed the report that located bin Laden in mountains
north of the Pakistani city of Quetta.

"That area is in Pakistan but there is nothing there, life is absolutely
normal -- you can go and see," said Pakistani military spokesman
Major-General Shaukat Sultan. "There is no operation being conducted there
and there are no foreign troops there."

NOT ABOUT INDIVIDUALS

Hilferty distanced himself from recent remarks he made that he was "sure"
bin Laden and Taliban supreme leader Mullah Mohammad Omar would be caught
this year, reverting to past U.S. statements that the "war on terror" was
not only about catching individuals.

"Obviously the global war on terrorism is about much more than a person or
two people, it is about terrorism against people in general," he said.

He also indicated that a planned spring offensive against Islamic militants
was little different from previous operations carried out by the
10,600-strong American-led force in Afghanistan.

Most operations have failed to net large numbers of al Qaeda and Taliban
fighters or top leaders, prompting U.S. officers in Afghanistan to announce
a shift in tactics to civilian-military teams deploying in lawless regions
to oversee reconstruction.

In Pakistan, Sultan described an operation in the semi-autonomous South
Waziristan agency, where al Qaeda fighters are thought to be hiding with the
support of sympathetic locals, as "absolutely normal."

Pakistani troops working alongside tribal forces plan to carry out searches
where they suspect al Qaeda guerrillas may be hiding, after tribesmen were
urged by the authorities to give up militants they may be sheltering.

"This cordon and search operation will specifically be against foreigners
whenever we get any information that X,Y,Z is in that house," said South
Waziristan's top government official, Mohammad Azam Khan.

"The tribal maliks (chiefs) would be present and the whole operation would
be conducted according to the rules and traditions of the tribal area," he
told the private Geo channel.

Political authorities which deal with the fiercely independent and
well-armed tribesmen have asked tribal leaders to surrender more than 80
clan members wanted for harboring or assisting al Qaeda militants.

So far more than 40 tribesmen have been handed over by local leaders, but
authorities say they have lost patience with tribal elders after several key
suspects escaped.

U.S. and Afghan forces have often complained that militants evading capture
in Afghanistan have been able to flee into Pakistan and hide. They also say
that a bloody insurgency linked to the Taliban has been launched from
Pakistani territory.


- - - - -
John Lacny

People of the US, unite and defeat the Bush regime and all its running dogs!



"[C]apital comes dripping from head to foot, from every pore, with blood and 
dirt."
--Marx, Capital, Vol. 1, Chapter 31

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