Iranian radio recently announced on one of its Pastho-language broadasts that Osama bin-Laden was captured quite some time ago by the U.S., and is being held to maximize the returns such a capture would net the Bush Administration, reports Sunday's The Australian.
The U.S. Government's response:
A Pentagon Central Command spokesman in Tampa, Florida, said: "I have no reports on us capturing OBL, Osama bin Laden. We don't have anything on that."
While the Australian calls this a "denial", what's interesting here is the CentCom spokesman's choice of words: He's neither confirming nor denying any such capture. What he is asserting is that he does not have in his possession, nor does his office have in its posession, of any such report on that subject. Pretty slick, huh?
If it's true, this news item does raise some serious problems.
1) Why is Iran trying to report this story at this time? We do know that many times the capture of a terrorist is not reported, so that the counter-terrorist agency can continue to recieve intel and steadily capture the entire terror apparatus. Additionally, any backers or state-sponsors would not be aware of this capture, any the Coalition folks would then gain a strategic edge. Assuming OBL is captured, and his network compromised, why would Iran attempt to interfere with our counter-intelligence operation? More to the point, is it in their self-interest to do this?
2) Will the attempt to manipulate OBL's gain help or hurt the Administration? At first glance, a win is a win, and everybody loves a winner. However it seems to me that any such attempt to keep things quiet would backfire on the Bushies. Many in the ABB crowd have suggested that Bush has a credibility gap *cough* *Time Magazine* *cough*, and the GOP party line up to this point is that the Jackass party has consistently placed partisan politics ahead of national secruity needs. Furthermore, wouldn't the capture of OBL signify the end of the need for waging a Global War on Terrorism? Couldn't it be used to emphasize the point that, "Now is the time to return to social-democrat domestic issues, such as..."? And, for this to be a winning strategy, wouldn't they have to wait for Thrusday, October 28th?
3) Or, would they parade OBL out in chains at the G.O.P. national convention? Or better yet, during the inaguration? The American transformation in Rome would be complete: Bush would have a Triumph!