U.S. Denies Iran Report of Bin Laden's Capture

[JDY]

If this is true, everyone needs to know about it:

U.S. Denies Iran Report of Bin Laden's Capture

TEHRAN (Reuters) - The U.S. Department of Defense denied reports by Iran's official IRNA news agency on Saturday that al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden has been captured.
IRNA quoted a story on Iran's state radio Pashtun service which reported "a very reliable source" as saying bin Laden had been captured in a tribal area of Pakistan.

A senior U.S. defense official denied the report, telling Reuters it was "another piece of stray voltage that's passing around out there."

Washington says Bin Laden masterminded the September 11, 2001 suicide hijack attacks in the United States, which killed nearly 3,000 people.

The Iranian correspondent responsible for the report told Reuters the radio had also reported bin Laden's capture a year ago. But said a new source had told him on Friday the al Qaeda leader had been seized "a long time ago."

"It could be one month ago, it could be one year, but he has been arrested," he said.

While declining to reveal his source or how his source knew of the capture, he said: "My source said it and he knows it."

He said the reason U.S. officials had denied the report was so that they could time the release of the news of bin Laden's capture to help boost President Bush's chances of re-election at presidential polls in November.

The U.S. military said this month that U.S.-led troops in Afghanistan were moving toward coordinated operations along the border -- "a hammer and anvil approach" -- to prevent fleeing al Qaeda fighters from escaping simply by crossing from one country into the other.

Pakistan, a key ally in the U.S.-led war on terror, has stepped-up efforts in recent weeks against al Qaeda and Taliban fighters as the 10,600-strong U.S. force in Afghanistan gears up for a spring offensive against Islamic militants.

© Reuters 2004. All Rights Reserved.


Reuters Story Link

 

[chris1gill]

My friend in Pakistan emailed me a few days ago with this information. It isn't clear whether they actually have him in custody, or, if the area in which he is in is just surrounded... The pakistani military in the NW border of Pakistan in conjunction with the US troops in Afghanistan have a 16km area surrounded, within that area is where they believe he is....

So, whether they have him, or whether they almost have him isn't known (other than rumour's among the Pakistani's) But, the rumour is that even if they have him, the information won't be made public until closer to the November election...

This is just what my Australian friend who lives in Pakistan part time has told me... She's mailing newspapers along for reading..

It's interesting regardless...

 

[Mermaid02]

It would be nice if we "had him" but I'm not sure I believe news out of Tehran or Pakistan.

 

[ChefBilly]

I'm not sure if there's an insinuation of a conspiracy theory, but I don't care who gets the credit as long as we get that *******.

I hate it when people - elected or otherwise - put party loyalty head of national security.

 

[Keli]

This report actually makes me kinda laugh. I think only those folks that live outside of the US and don't understand the level of freedom that we actually enjoy would suggest such a thing.

I don't believe we could actually catch osama with only a very small group of our military knowing about the mission and it's success. There would be many soldiers that knew and their families and friends would know via email and phone calls within minutes.

Look what happened during the Iraqi war, the military had to seriously speed up it's notification of family members when soldiers were injured/killed because we were finding out that info before official notification in this day of instant communication.

That same level of communication is set up in Afghanistan. If our military had captured osama it would have been discussed on yahoo message boards in depth within hours, lol.

 

[Alice28]

I follow the news pretty closely; from what I understand, we are very close to him---have the area surrounded, but it's very difficult terrain to go in and capture him. (Rugged, mountainous, etc). i hope they do catch him asap; not only because he's slime, but for selfish reasons....DH's Nat'l Guard troop is on the slate to go to Afghanistan next year. I think if Osama is captured this year, the U.S.'s presence in Afghanistan will decrease and he probably won't have to be gone for 18 months, if at all.