The UK Sunday Express reported yesterday that coalition forces have got Osama and his bestest buddies boxed in on the Pakistan/Afghanistan border, and his capture is nigh. Pakistan offers the kind of denials that go along with an ongoing military or police operation that’s close to completion:
When asked if 8,000 para-military troops were being sent to the tribal areas in addition to the 4,000 already stationed there on request from the political administration, Maj-Gen Shaukat Sultan said requirements for operational deployment were determined by the military authorities and no such request had been received from the political administration of tribal areas.
This is a hot story overseas, but not so hot in the US, where CNN coverage is most prominent:
Government sources told CNN the Pakistani army is ready to conduct a big operation against al Qaeda and Taliban elements in the Wana area.
Cynical wags suggest that the Bush Administration doesn’t want to capture Osama until October, but just between you and me I don’t think the timing matters. The Kerry/Edwards/Clark argument against the Iraq operation was that it was a distraction from the hunt for Osama, whose capture would clearly put that saw to rest. The newly-cooperative attitude of the Pakistani intelligence service sprang from the same well as Libya, Syria, and Iran’s new-leafishness so one man’s distraction is another’s incentive.
Hat tip to Sitarama.