IS OSAMA BIN LADEN IN PAKISTAN?

In the news:

"A British Sunday newspaper is claiming Osama bin Laden has been found and is surrounded by US special forces in an area of land bordering north-west Pakistan and Afghanistan."

Click here for information what's going on in the area called Balochistan, near the Pakistani-Afghan border.

UPDATE 02/22/04: Watch the program, The Hunt for Osama Bin Laden, on Discovery Channel at 9 P.M. EST.

UPDATE 02/23/04:

From the Washington Times [via telegraph.co.uk]:

"The Pentagon is moving elements of a supersecret commando unit from Iraq to the Afghanistan theater to step up the hunt for Osama bin Laden."

UPDATE 02/25/04:

Maybe I should change the title to IS OSAMA BIN LADEN IN AFGHANISTAN? In the news: "Wanted al-Qaeda terror network chief Osama bin Laden and his top aide, Ayman al-Zawahri, had moved out of Pakistan and were believed to have crossed the mountainous border back into Afghanistan."

More news: "A son of Osama bin Laden's top lieutenant, Ayman al-Zawahri, has been captured by Pakistani forces, one of Pakistan's leading newspapers reported today."

UPDATE 02/28/04:

Is Osama bin Laden dead, captured, or on the run? Or maybe he is on a tour in Euro-land and recruiting new members to the al-Qaeda network? What's your guess? For regular updates, go to the section called "Global War on Terror" @ the Command Post.

UPDATE 03/07/04:

From The Telegraph:

"A son of Osama bin Laden's deputy has given crucial information on the whereabouts of al-Qa'eda leaders after being captured by Pakistani forces in a lawless frontier area close to Afghanistan, intelligence officials in Islamabad have revealed."

From The New Yorker:

"“We’ve got to get Osama bin Laden, and we know where he is,” the former senior intelligence official said. Osama bin Laden is “communicating through sigint”—talking on satellite telephones and the like—“and his wings have been clipped. He’s in his own Alamo in northern Pakistan. It’s a natural progress—whittling down alternative locations and then targeting him. This is not, in theory, a ‘Let’s go and hope’ kind of thing. They’ve seen what they think is him.”"

UPDATE 03/09/04:

From Newsweek, March 15 issue:

"The hunt for bin Laden is an unprecedented confrontation between 21st-century technology and age-old guerrilla tactics. While the elusive terror chieftain hides in mountain caves and scurries along mule trails, Task Force 121 "bytes" away at him and his chief deputy, Ayman Al-Zawahiri, with the best the Information Age has to offer. Using powerful software called Analyst's Notebook, which helps to piece together data on criminal and terror networks—Special Forces command just ordered up more copies—military and intelligence officials are increasingly confident they are narrowing bin Laden's whereabouts."

Here is an excerpt from Daniel Pipes' article, Capturing Osama:

"While Bin Laden personally symbolizes militant Islam and his continued ability to elude coalition force inspires his Islamist followers, his capture or execution would have a mainly psychological impact by demoralizing those followers. His elimination would certainly be a blow to his movement, but one it could readily recover from it. "His capture won't end terrorism's danger," Robert Andrews rightly noted in a recent USA Today article.

Ending terrorism requires more than targeting terrorists, their leaders, or their organizations. It requires recognizing and defeating the body of ideas known as militant Islam or Islamism. The war cannot be won until politicians and others focus on this ideology rather than on terrorism, which is merely its manifestation."

UPDATE 03/10/04: U.S. may up high-tech ante in bin Laden hunt.