Closing in on bin Laden?
A few months ago, military personnel in Afghanistan were confidently predicting that Osama bin Laden would be captured by year-end. Yesterday, a State Department counterterrorism official made similar comments:
The United States and its allies have moved closer to capturing Usama bin Laden in the last two months, a top U.S. counterterrorism official said in a television interview broadcast Saturday."If he has a watch, he should be looking at it because the clock is ticking. He will be caught," Joseph Cofer Black, the U.S. State Department coordinator for counterterrorism, told private Geo television network.
Asked if concrete progress had been made during the last two months — when Pakistan has arrested dozens of terror suspects including some key Al Qaeda operatives — Black said, "Yes, I would say this."
"What I tell people, I would be surprised but not necessarily shocked if we wake up tomorrow and he's been caught along with all his lieutenants. That can happen because of the programs and infrastructure in place," he told Geo.
As I've said many times, I think there is something odd about the administration's attitude toward bin Laden. To all appearances, they are content to leave him in peace somewhere in eastern Afghanistan. It may be that bin Laden has been dead for a long time, and they know it. It may be that his communications are being intercepted, so that he is more valuable at liberty than he would be in captivity. But I do hope he is captured or killed between now and November, assuming he is still alive, because it will be so much fun to listen to the squeals of outrage from the Democrats.
