Osama captured?

Before anyone gets too excited about this, remember that Iranian radio regularly broadcast interviews with neo-Nazi leader (and Turner Diaries author) William Pierce before he died, so it might not be the most credible source in the world - even if, as AP reports, they were the first to announce the capture of Saddam Hussein.

Pentagon and Pakistani officials on Saturday denied an Iranian state radio report that Osama bin Laden was captured in Pakistan's border region with Afghanistan "a long time ago."

The claim came at a time when Pakistan's army was hunting al-Qaida suspects in a remote tribal region along the border with Afghanistan, believed to be a possible hiding place for the al-Qaida leader.

There have been reports that military forces believed they had identified bin Laden's general location and had him encircled, but Pakistani officials have denied any specific knowledge of bin Laden's whereabouts.

Iran's state radio, quoting an unnamed source, said that U.S. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's visit to the region this week was in connection with the arrest.
[...]
Iranian state radio quoted its reporter as saying the arrest happened a long time ago.

"Osama bin Laden has been arrested a long time ago, but Bush is intending to use it for propaganda maneuvering in the presidential election," he said.

Frankly, I think Bush would be gloating about Osama's capture (or, more likely, the recovery of Osama's body) within minutes of it actually happening. And even if he was trying to cover it up until a convenient time to announce it, I simply can't see something like this remaining bottled up for more than a few days.

Posted by damian at February 28, 2004 11:22 AM