Is Bin Laden Dead or Alive? US, Pakistan Not Sure

"No Trace" of al-Qaeda Leader, State Dept Vows to Keep Looking
by Jason Ditz, April 27, 2009

www.antiwar.com

Since his March broadcast on al-Jazeera, al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden has seemingly vanished off the face of the earth, with neither US nor Pakistan spy agencies detecting a single trace of him. This has added to the speculation that he may have died.

“The question is whether he is alive or dead,” Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari said, “there is no trace of him.” Zardari also said his advisers feel there is substance to the rumors of bin Laden’s failing health, and that “they obviously feel that he does not exist any more but that’s not confirmed.”

US State Department spokesman Robert Wood likewise admitted that they likewise “have no information that indicates that Osama bin Laden is … frankly dead or alive.” He insisted in the meantime the US would continue to operate under the assumption that he was alive and keep looking for him.

The enigmatic Saudi has been on the FBI’s ten most wanted list for over a decade, and US officials have repeatedly speculated that he is located somewhere along the mountainous border between Pakistan and Afghanistan. At this point though, that seems to be nothing more than a guess.

punditman says...

Remember this guy? Public enemy number after 9-11. The whole issue of bin Laden's whereabouts and the apparent inability of the most sophisticated security and surveillance apparatus in the history of the world—to capture him or to prove definitively of his demise—always leaves Punditman mystified. Punditman has heard about or read most of the theories surrounding his fate: he died in the battle of Tora Bora in 2001; he was wounded at Tora Bora but escaped; he died of massive organ failure in April 2004; he died in Pakistan in August 2006 after contracting a case of typhoid fever; his videos are faked; he's a CIA stooge; he's camped out in a teepee at the end of an old logging road in Wawa, Ontario, living on moose meat and trying in vain to hitch a ride out of there...

None of it ever adds up. They can land on the moon, read your license plate from space as they peruse your email and tap your cell phone, but they can't find some 6' 4" bearded dude who lives in caves and huts and who—from many reports—is not exactly the picture of perfect health? Punditman has always thought that somebody was up to something when it comes to Osama bin Laden. What do you think?

Scott Horton Interviews Eric Margolis

www.antiwar.com

Eric Margolis discusses the widening of the hopeless U.S. occupation of Afghanistan into Pakistan, America’s siding with the formerly pro-Soviet Tajik and Uzbek forces against the Pashtuns, the hatred of U.S. actions by most of the people of Pakistan, the relative lack of danger that Pakistan’s nukes could get loose or be used, how Americans don’t recognize they are living in an empire, U.S. plans to invade Afghanistan before 9/11, why the U.S. let Bin Laden escape and the AQ Kahn nuclear black market network.

MP3 here. (26:27)

Award winning author, columnist, and broadcaster Eric S. Margolis has covered 14 wars and is a leading authority on military affairs, the Middle East, South Asia, and Islamic movements. He is the author of War at the Top of the World. See his website.

punditman says...
I urge everyone who regularly reads this blog, as well as those who stumble in here, to take the time to listen to the above Eric Margolis interview, especially those of you who support the current NATO mission in Afghanistan and who think that the Afghan War is a "good war" compared to Iraq.

Exhaustive review finds no link between Saddam, al Qaida

By Warren P. Strobel, McClatchy Newspapers Mon Mar 10, 7:08 PM ET

WASHINGTON — An exhaustive review of more than 600,000 Iraqi documents that were captured after the 2003 U.S. invasion has found no evidence that Saddam Hussein's regime had any operational links with Osama bin Laden's al Qaida terrorist network.

The Pentagon-sponsored study, scheduled for release later this week, did confirm that Saddam's regime provided some support to other terrorist groups, particularly in the Middle East , U.S. officials told McClatchy . However, his security services were directed primarily against Iraqi exiles, Shiite Muslims, Kurds and others he considered enemies of his regime.

The new study of the Iraqi regime's archives found no documents indicating a "direct operational link" between Hussein's Iraq and al Qaida before the invasion, according to a U.S. official familiar with the report.

Keep Reading...

punditman says...

Indeed, one of the justifications given by the criminals in the White House to invade Iraq, was an implied link amongst Iraq, al Queda and 9-11.

Here are a few reminders of the tricksters at work:

Here's Dick Cheney on Meet the Press on December 9, 2001, "it was pretty well confirmed" that attack mastermind Mohamed Atta had met with a senior Iraqi intelligence official.

Then, in 2003, Cheney said the following:

"If we're successful in Iraq, if we can stand up a good representative government in Iraq that secures the region so that it never again becomes a threat to its neighbors or to the United States, so it's not pursuing weapons of mass destruction, so that it's not a safe haven for terrorists, then we will have struck a major blow right at the heart of the base, if you will, the geographic base of the terrorists who had us under assault now for many years, but most especially on 9/11."

Here's George W., in his speech aboard the aircraft carrier on May 1, 2003: "The liberation of Iraq is a crucial advance in the campaign against terror. We've removed an ally of al Qaeda and cut off a source of terrorist funding."

And here is Dubya last July:

"The same people that attacked us on September the 11th is a crowd that is now bombing people, killing innocent men, women and children, many of whom are Muslims," he said."

And many, many other examples--of how they deliberately tried to connect Iraq to 9-11.

Punditman always knew these were directly misleading statements, or in many cases, outright fibs-- meant to be implanted into the minds of a population suffering from media impoverishment. Thanks in the ensuing years to the power of the internet, for making things a little less impoverished.