Bin Laden 'boxed in' by US soldiers

[rodbarnett]

OSAMA bin Laden is reportedly surrounded by United States special forces in a mountain range that straddles north-west Pakistan and Afghanistan.

<snip>

It continues by saying bin Laden and his men "sleep in caves or out in the open".

"The area is swept by fierce snow storms howling down from the 3000m-high mountain peaks. Donkeys are the only transport."

The US special forces are "absolutely confident" there is no escape for bin Laden and are waiting for the order to snatch the shadowy terrorist leader.

The timing of that order will ultimately depend on President George Bush, the report says.

"Capturing bin Laden will certainly be a huge help for him as he gets ready for the election.

"It will be an even bigger bonus than getting Saddam."

The article goes on to say bin Laden's movements are continually monitored by a US National Security Agency satellite positioned over the land in which the wealthy Saudi is trapped.

http://www.themercury.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,8754564%255E401,00.html

comment : just waiting on* to order the capture....hmmmmmm

[still_one]

1. Anything is possible, but

go to Google, and type in the following:

"bin laden trapped"

Look how many stories have appeared throught the last several years that say the same thing you are saying

[izzie]

12. But were Bush's numbers this low before?

That is what happened to Spot you know. They wagged the dog once to often.

[tom_paine]

2. Just in time to give a further boost after the "Raygun dies" story winds

down.

These people will indeed stop at nothing.

Wait for it (both of the "its")

[Ripley]

3. Wouldn't he kill himself before surrendering?

I cannot see someone like him allowing himself to be captured and tried or just executed on sight. Since his followers are kamikazees, wouldn't he be one too?

[stopthegop]

13. you're kidding ...right?

he sends other people and their kids to die..

[Norquist Nemesis]

4. Get it over with sooner rather than later

Let's not wait for the October surprise. Go ahead, Georgie boy, bring it on! That's going to give enough time to prove that IN FACT, you've NOT made the world safer.

[rodbarnett]

5. Another source : Haaretz

The radio said that the Sunday Express cites the sources as placing bin Laden and 50 trusted associates, in northwest Pakistan, close to the border with Afghanistan.

The leader of the Taliban, Mullah Omar, is said to be among the 50, the radio said.

The Sunday Express says the Al-Qaida leader has been "boxed in" by American and British special forces.

According to Army Radio, official American sources declined to comment on the report in the Sunday Express, which ran the front page headline "Bin Laden trapped like a rat."


http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/396940.html

[ProfessorGAC]

8. Well Duh!

Haven't they been there for about 2 years now? That's not a revelation! Haaretz isn't exactly uncovering anything that wasn't patently obvious.

Exactly where the heck would bin Laden be. Anyone think they were allowing unauthorized air traffic? If they didn't, then they had not a single way to go any further than those mountains.

If we really wanted him, we'd have him by now.
The Professor

[JailForBush]

6. Why would they alert Osama bin Laden to his predicament by releasing

this information to the media? I smell a rat.

[htuttle]

10. Um....

...no shit!

Given that all the other reports from Afghanistan seem to describe a situation where the Taliban have been very successful reforming their military strength, and have been attacking US and 'coalition' forces with impunity for the last year (and getting more active in the last 6 months to where they control several parts of the country), I find it a bit hard to believe that bin Laden and Mullah Omar are just sitting there, encircled. No Taliban re-inforcements have come calling on the US troops doing the encirclement? If not, how have they been able to retake control of several parts of Afghanistan since 2001?

Seems like this rumor is just more 'See! We're going to catch him! So better not criticize Bush on it!' propaganda.

[ex_jew]

7. Timing of the order depends on Bush ?

So every day that goes by without an attempt to make the bust is because Bush doesn't want to ? What the hell sense does that make ? What is he waiting for - a new 9/11 ? Or is Rove afraid that this is too far from the election and the bounce will have dissipated ?

Police don't usually hang around outside the hideout for months at a time waiting for the commander to give the order. This stinks.

[rodbarnett]

9. ...SO WHERE IS OSMA BIN LADEN? (Humor)

...SO WHERE IS OSMA BIN LADEN?
1. Hiding under Joan Rivers' new face.
2. Drinking whiskey in a cave -- in other words bombed back to the stone age.
3. Modeling for a New Jersey thong company.
4. Working on a new show for ABC, "Who Wants To Be A Millionarie Terrorist"
5. Been hired to do a reaaally hostile takeover of Disney...
6. Duck hunting with Vice President Dick Cheney and Supreme Court
...Justice Antonin Scalia (but they say there's no conflict of interest).
7. Baking bagels in Connecticut, but no one recognizes him (he gained 60 lbs
...by eating tons of beef on the Atkins diet).
8. Hired for a hush-hush Mission Impossible job: secretly developing eyebrows
...for Dick Gephardt.
9. Walking from Pakistan to Saudi Arabia (he's afraid to fly since airplanes are unsafe).
10. Working on plan to outsource threats of the West's total destruction
....to telephone operators in India.

http://moderatevoice.blogspot.com

[madrchsod]

11. everyone in the media is

reacting to the German film crews tracking down bin boy. now the us military has to issue statements because they are embarrassed . even if they catch him ,terrorism will not stop.

[radwriter0555]

14. ok, I'm making book. I bet within 10 days there will be a report that says

bin laden "slipped through" and "escaped" and "got away".

All without sighting him of course.

Since us folks who pay attention know that he's been dead since December 2001. Kidney disease. Can't live in a cave with advanced kidney disease.

[lcooksey]

15. Satellites don't work that way

<physics geek>
You can't position a satellite over an area which is not on the equator. If a satellite is in geosynchronous orbit (approx. 22,000 miles up) over the plane of the equator, it will move at the same rate the earth turns, and stay over one place on the equator.

But Afghanistan is considerably north of the equator, so in order for a satellite to be over it, it would have to orbiting at an angle to the equator. So it would stay in the same longitude (think time zone) as Afghanistan but appear to move north and south of the equator as it orbited.

http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/academy/rocket_sci/satellites/geo-high.html
</physics geek>

I think that all of our spy satellites are much lower than geosynchronous orbit, in order to get better pictures. Which means they go around in their orbit faster than the earth turns. This could just be bad science reporting, which is pretty common, but it does add to my skepticism of the story.