Does Anyone Besides Me Believe Osama Is Already In Custody?

Well I hate to go against my friend Rick, but it is precisely because the conspiracy theory involved the current U.S. president and presumes 'dirty tricks' by his re-election campaign that it belongs in Politics and not in Philosophy and Debate.

As much as I would like to believe that UBL has been caught, I don't believe it.

- If Richard Nixon couldn't keep Watergate a secret
- If Bill Clinton couldn't keep Lewinsky a secret
- If George Bush couldn't keep Abu Gharib prison a secret

You think this bunch in Washington could keep UBL's capture a secret?

There has been some speculation and reports in European news sources that OBL has indeed been caught.

It's hard to know what the truth is. Saddam was captured by the Kurds and held until we could bring him up from that hole. It was a nice PR moment but the truth behind it never did get revealed.

Look for a July surprise and it could very well be OBL although at this point is capture isn't as meaningful had it been done 3 years ago. The Bush administration may have overplayed their hand on this one.

We shall see, but if OBL shows up in July or Oct I think we will know the answer.

Redheat wrote:

There has been some speculation and reports in European news sources that OBL has indeed been caught.

It's hard to know what the truth is. Saddam was captured by the Kurds and held until we could bring him up from that hole. It was a nice PR moment but the truth behind it never did get revealed.

Look for a July surprise and it could very well be OBL although at this point is capture isn't as meaningful had it been done 3 years ago. The Bush administration may have overplayed their hand on this one.

We shall see, but if OBL shows up in July or Oct I think we will know the answer.

It's interesting how you turn speculation into fact.

McGentrix wrote:

Redheat wrote:

There has been some speculation and reports in European news sources that OBL has indeed been caught.

It's hard to know what the truth is. Saddam was captured by the Kurds and held until we could bring him up from that hole. It was a nice PR moment but the truth behind it never did get revealed.

Look for a July surprise and it could very well be OBL although at this point is capture isn't as meaningful had it been done 3 years ago. The Bush administration may have overplayed their hand on this one.

We shall see, but if OBL shows up in July or Oct I think we will know the answer.

It's interesting how you turn speculation into fact.

]

What part of "I don't know" were you unable to comprehend? If I was contending it was "FACT" then I wouldn't have said "don't know" now would I?

Redheat wrote:

McGentrix wrote:

Redheat wrote:

There has been some speculation and reports in European news sources that OBL has indeed been caught.

It's hard to know what the truth is. Saddam was captured by the Kurds and held until we could bring him up from that hole. It was a nice PR moment but the truth behind it never did get revealed.

Look for a July surprise and it could very well be OBL although at this point is capture isn't as meaningful had it been done 3 years ago. The Bush administration may have overplayed their hand on this one.

We shall see, but if OBL shows up in July or Oct I think we will know the answer.

It's interesting how you turn speculation into fact.

]

What part of "I don't know" were you unable to comprehend? If I was contending it was "FACT" then I wouldn't have said "don't know" now would I?

You said "Saddam was captured by the Kurds and held until we could bring him up from that hole." as though you are stating fact rather than speculation.

I can fully comprehend "I don't know", watch...

I don't know why you continue with this charade of spouting lies and pretending they are truths.

See? I understand completely.

The first media account of the December 13 arrest was aired by a Tehran-based news agency.

American forces took Saddam into custody around 8.30pm local time, but sat on the news until 3pm the next day.

However, in the early hours of Sunday, a Kurdish language wire service reported explicitly: "Saddam Hussein was captured by the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan. A special intelligence unit led by Qusrat Rasul Ali, a high-ranking member of the PUK, found Saddam Hussein in the city of Tikrit, his birthplace.

"Qusrat's team was accompanied by a group of US soldiers. Further details of the capture will emerge during the day; but the global Kurdish party is about to begin!"

In the intervening few weeks that troublesome Kurdish story has gone around the globe, picked up by newspapers from The Sydney Morning Herald to the US Christian Science Monitor, as well as the Kurdish press.

While Washington and the PUK remain schtum, further confirmation that the Kurds were way ahead in Saddam's capture continues to leak out.

According to one Israeli source who was in the company of Kurds at a meeting in Athens early on December 14, one of the Kurdish representatives burst into the conference room in tears and demanded an immediate halt to the discussions.

"Saddam Hussein has been captured," he said, adding that he had received word from Kurdistan - before any television reports.

Pakistan and the US Friday stepped ahead in bilateral cooperation on, inter alia, anti-terrorism while the American coordinator on counter-terrorism has claimed in a separate briefing that the arrest of Osama bin Laden was close now.
Sources close to the Pak-US Joint Working Group told The Nation that Pakistan has asked for more logistic support in a bid to man the extensive counter-terror and counter-narcotics activities.
"Primarily, Pakistan has stressed the immediate need for helicopters and air-surveillance equipment required as pre-requisites to the international fight against terrorism," sources said requesting anonymity.
The Joint Working Group also decided to work in an acceleration on the modalities of the extradition treaty which the two sides require as a need of the time while exchanging various wanted personalities on the respective sides, the sources said. The officials of the law-enforcement agencies in Pakistan would also get training in the US under the bilateral programme governed by the Joint Working Group.
According to an official handout, the two sides agreed to hold the next session of the Group in Washington next year. "The two sides held in-depth discussions on issues relating to the law enforcement, counter-narcotics, counter-terror, mutual legal assistance, trafficking in persons, and capacity building and training. Both sides expressed their satisfaction with the level of cooperation and re-affirmed their determination to further improve such efforts and to work closely in the mutual interest of both the countries," it added.
It was the third meeting of the Pak-US Joint Working Group on Counter-terrorism and law enforcement which was attended by Interior Secretary Tariq Mehmood from Pakistan side while the US Coordinator for counter-terrorism J Cofer Black led the American delegation. Later, in the day the US-Coordinator told a select group of journalists that they were very close to the capture Osama bin Ladin but was not sure when Washington would be able to actually nab the world's most wanted man.
"Are we closer to getting Osama bin Laden, yes" Black told a questioner at the American Center. "Our President has told us that we are going to catch Osama bin Laden," he added. "When exactly,  can't say. Could be tomorrow. Could be later. Programmes are in place," he maintained.
By saying that both sides reviewed ways that US can more efficiently and effectively cooperate with Pakistan, he confirmed the expected increase in logistics support to Islamabad from the Americans.
Reiterating his President's statement, he said, "I understand the President Bush in the Republican Convention said 75 per cent of the al-Qaeda leadership of the 9/11 period has been arrested, detained or killed."
This is not only an American success but an overwhelming success of Pakistan in the global war against terrorism. According to the US Coordinator, that the US-led coalition has removed 100's of al-Qaeda terrorists from the scene making innocent people safe.

Report: US counterterrorism official says bin Laden capture near
A top U-S counterterrorism official reportedly says The United States and its allies are moving closer to capturing Osama bin Laden.

Dawn and The Nation, two English-language dailies in Pakistan, quote Joseph Cofer Black, the U-S State Department coordinator for counterterrorism.

Black, who briefed a group of Pakistani journalists after talks with officials yesterday says there's no way to predict exactly when bin Laden and other top al-Qaida fugitives will be nabbed.

But he says everything is in place and a capture could happen in a day or a month or anytime.

Bin Laden and his top associate are believed to be hiding some place along the long and rugged border between Pakistan and Afghanistan, although there appears to be no solid intelligence on their exact whereabouts.