"We intend/expect to catch OBL within the year."

[krkaufman]

Just heard this on CNN Daybreak (1/28 5:30am CST)...

Prediction by US Military spokesman in Afghanistan, Brian Hilferty:

"Osama bin Laden and Mullah Omar are still threats to the world, and we intend to catch them within the next year."

[Joe the Revelator]

1. and this years Mr. October is.....

well now know that they already have him...

[MaineDem]

2. Yup, my thought exactly!

:mad:

[krkaufman]

7. Yes, what about that "Die Welt" story?

Yes, this prediction of capturing OBL does seem suspicious.

Possibilities:

• set expectation of an "imminent" capture, so as to deflect criticism during the campaign, regardless of whether he's already been caught or not;
  
• he's already captured, and they're waiting for the best political moment to announce it;
  

Whatever happened to the Die Welt story that OBL had already been captured?


Followup questions for Chimpy: If you (Bush) can now predict that you'll have Osama within one year, and considering that you redirected planning activities and 90+% of our resources to Iraq to topple Saddam, doesn't this mean that you could've caught OBL by early 2003, had you remained focused on Afghanistan and Al Qaeda?

[asthmaticeog]

11. Bingo

"he's already captured, and they're waiting for the best political moment to announce it"

Exactly what I was thinking - until I realized that every time this administration has announced a specific timetable (or dollar amount) for anything, it's been tragically wrong.

[greatauntoftriplets]

3. I guess my National Guard nephew is being sent there....

...to face war so * can get re-elected. Jeez.

[mikehiggins]

10. Good guess, Auntie. You got it. eom

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

4. and if we hadn't been sidetracked by Iraq,

the likelihood is they'd both be captured by now. Hope they get them-and OBL and Omar tell their captors that they had nothing to do with the infidel, Saddam.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

5. Translation, for the maladministration-impaired:

"We have been tasked to catch him before the election"

[isbister]

6. The candidates should be addressing this head-on

By noting that he's been on the loose for years and even if he's caught tomorrow bush has some explaining to do to the American people for allowing our resources to be diverted.

[krkaufman]

8. Yes, they need to prepare for the possibility (eventuality)

Yeah, all Dem candidates and politicos need to prepare for the likelihood that Bush will:

• capture Osama, or
  
• ramp-up forces b/4 the election to feign interest in catching Osama, or
  
• rely on a promise/expectation of catching Osama, thereby lessening public fear and artificially increasing confidence in his efforts. (we're stupid)
  

[spooky3]

9. Celebrity imposter services could make a big score

if they could come up with a good OBL lookalike by October.