If this report is true it would explain why U.S. officials were publically predicting his capture last month.
According to the article:
Quoting “a US intelligence source,” it said bin Laden and “up to 50 fanatical henchmen” were inside an area 16 kilometres (10 miles) wide and deep “north of the town of Khanozai and the city of Quetta”.
“He is boxed in,” the unidentified source was quoted by the tabloid as saying, adding that US special forces were “absolutely confident” that he could not escape.
According to the source, bin Laden moved into the area, “in the desolate Toba Kakar mountains,” about one month ago from another area 240 kilometres to the south, the Sunday Express said Saturday.
Whether his capture would mean the world is a safer place is another matter. I’d say that would be a dangerously naive analysis of the development.
Factor this kind of development:
“We need our Arab brothers around us. Now, we cannot discuss this matter with them at all, but in the future, we’ll see,” said Mohsen Abdel Hamid, in response to a question from a Baghdad consultative council member.
Shaza Hadi al-Obeidi had asked Abdel Hamid about the status of territory, once linked to Iraq, such as Jordan and Kuwait, at an extraordinary meeting of the 37-member consultative council.
A Jordanian government spokeswoman said Amman would demand an explanation of Abdel Hamid’s comments.
“If the comments attributed to the current president of the interim Governing Council are confirmed, Jordan will demand clarifications from Iraq,” Asma Khodr said in Amman.
“We are convinced that these remarks do not reflect the opinion” of the Governing Council, she said.
Consider the continued injustice in Israel and U.S. interventions in the Caucusus, among other places. Capturing OSB will not end terrorism.
But it will make for great election fodder.