I respect www.strategypage.com as a source of information a lot more than I do British tabloids. And this is what they have to say on the subject of bin Laden.
February 22, 2004: Apparently, the use of Special Forces and CIA agents along the Pakistani border for the last two has peeled away the layers of protection that kept them from knowing where Osama bin Laden and Taliban leader Mullah Omar have been hiding. Pakistan has 70,000 troops stationed along the Afghan border in the tribal areas where bin Laden has been hiding. The Pakistanis will apparently coordinate their operations with coalition forces (especially American and British commandoes) in order to nab bin Laden once the snows melt. In the meantime, even the media has gotten reports of bin Laden, and fifty bodyguards, being seen around the border town of Quetta.
This looks promising. The only thing I have a problem buying is the "wait til Spring" stuff. It seems to me that the winter snowcover would actually restrict Binny’s range of free movement. |