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| Afghanistan |
| Blinky says hasn't seen bin Laden for years |
| 2007-01-04 |
| Binny, you never call... PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) - Taliban chief Mullah Mohammad Omar has added to the mystery over Osama bin Laden, saying he hasn't seen his ally and fellow fugitive since U.S.-backed forces ousted the Taliban from Afghanistan in 2001. "No, I have neither seen him, nor have I made any effort to do so, but I pray for his health and safety," Omar said in an e-mailed response to questions sent by Reuters. ...blinky@taliban.com The questions were relayed to Omar through his spokesman, Mohammad Hanif, and a reply was received late on Wednesday. Here's one from Al in Pismo Beach, "Did you go over or under on the haj stampedes?" Speculation over the whereabouts and health of bin Laden boiled over in September when a French provincial newspaper reported that he had died of typhoid in late August. Although several governments and intelligence agencies rebutted that report, saying they had no evidence to suggest bin Laden had died, they acknowledged they had no clue to where he was. He's...somewhere. Maybe. The wealthy Saudi-born bin Laden helped bankroll the Taliban after moving to Afghanistan in the mid-1990s, and he was reported to have married one of Omar's daughters to cement their alliance. ...and she was the ugly one, so I owed him bigtime. The United States has offered a $25 million reward for the capture of bin Laden and $10 million for Omar. No, I'm not jealous. Well...not really. Well...maybe. The best guess to bin Laden's whereabouts remains somewhere on the rugged border between Pakistan and Afghanistan, in the ethnic tribal lands where Omar's Taliban counts on support to fight an insurgency against U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan and the government of President Hamid Karzai. Analysts say that while there was no apparent evidence for any meeting between bin Laden and Omar after the September 11 attacks, the two fugitive militants are believed to have remained in contact in recent years."According to my information and the interviews which I conducted in the last two years in different provinces of the eastern and southern Afghanistan, Mullah Omar and Osama bin Laden are in touch, at least (for the) last two years," said Hamid Mir, a prominent Pakistani journalist who interviewed bin Laden shortly after the September 11 attacks. Binny! It's Blinky. Did you catch Boise State the other night on the dish? What a game! Although the Taliban and al Qaeda are seen as allies, Omar said his sole focus was Afghanistan while bin Laden's movement was engaged in a global jihad, or holy war."They have set jihad as their goal, whereas we have set the expulsion of American troops from Afghanistan as our target," he said. Jihad, jihad, jihad! That's all you hear from the guy! Even I gotta say it gets old sometime. To start a political process to end the militancy, Pakistan and Afghanistan plan to organize tribal councils -- known as jirgas -- on both sides of the border. No dates have been fixed. A Taliban spokesman said last month that the group might join the jirgas if asked, but Omar rejected the proposal. "The only people who would participate are those who have sold out to foreign powers. Our participation is absolutely out of the question," the fugitive militant leader said. He reiterated his call for the withdrawal of foreign troops to end the conflict in Afghanistan. "Unless that happens, the war will heat further up," Omar said. Afghanistan says Omar is based in or around the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta, but Omar said he is in Afghanistan. See. Afghanistan. It says so right on this sign the ISI guys put up yesterday... |
| Posted by:tu3031 |
| #13 Jose married Omar's daughter for her "parasites"??? Guess in future any and all marital pre-nupts must have a standardized "preservation of parasites" clause, for the good of humanity = conubial bliss??? |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2007-01-04 21:18 |
| #12 Personally I believe in Schrodinger's Osama. If you drop a thermobaric weapon at random on a cave containing bin Laden and you can't view the results. Is he alive or dead or a quantum state in between? |
| Posted by: bruce 2007-01-04 20:05 |
| #11 :-) |
| Posted by: wxjames 2007-01-04 17:12 |
| #10 You know what they say; jihad is all fun 'n' games until somebody loses and eye. |
| Posted by: Mike 2007-01-04 15:40 |
| #9 So we snatch the Rooters dirtbag, waterboard his treasonous ass and find his conduit to ol' one eye. or we just waterboard him cause he's a rooters dirtbag and call it a day. |
| Posted by: USN, Ret. 2007-01-04 14:57 |
| #8 Classic Tu Stylin inline. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2007-01-04 14:29 |
| #7 dirka, dirka, mohammad, jihad, jihad! |
| Posted by: crosspatch 2007-01-04 13:03 |
| #6 There are a large number of events that Binny would have spoken out about by now - egomaniac that his is (was). The silence is deafening. He's dead. Biggest proof is, no-one is asking where he is. Jihadi's need to hear from their heros. Not even any faked messages from him anymore. He d e a d. |
| Posted by: Thinemp Whimble2412 2007-01-04 11:36 |
| #5 I've got a gift for Blinky for Valentine's Day. It weighs about 15 thousand pounds though so has to be delivered by special air delivery. |
| Posted by: FOTSGreg 2007-01-04 10:35 |
| #4 "He never writes. He never calls. I get zip for Valentine's Day..." |
| Posted by: mojo 2007-01-04 10:28 |
| #3 It just occured to me. Maybe Binny's standing right next to him...but on the wrong side. |
| Posted by: tu3031 2007-01-04 10:18 |
| #2 "Keep an eye out for him, willya?" |
| Posted by: Mike 2007-01-04 10:12 |
| #1 He's dead, Jim! |
| Posted by: DarthVader 2007-01-04 10:04 |