Bin Laden Not Hiding Near Pakistan Border?

Reuters reports that the military chief of northwest Pakistan, who is also in charge of clearing out al-Qaeda militants, says Osama bin Laden can not be hiding in Pakistan's tribal lands on the Afghan border:

Bin Laden and his bodyguards could not go undetected in the rugged tribal lands, although pockets of al Qaeda-backed fighters are battling Pakistani forces there, said Lieutenant-General Safdar Hussain.

"He requires his own protection and the kind of security apparatus he is supposed to have around would give us a very big signature," Hussain told Reuters in an interview in his well-fortified headquarters in the northwest city of Peshawar.

"There is not an inch of South Waziristan agency or the tribal area which we have not swept time and again and if he was here, I assure you he could not have escaped my ears and eyes."

I remain confident that Bin Laden will be brought to justice. I just wish it would happen a whole lot sooner, rather than later.

Comments

[Nitin]

Two contradictory remarks:

First, Lt Gen Safdar Hussain is not exactly the best guy to tell you where bin Laden is. He has been up to some very sneaky things up there in the Frontier province.

Second, he is likely to be correct on this one though. Not a single top Al Qaeda commander has been captured in the mountains. They were all netted in the cities like Karachi, Rawalpindi and Islamabad. That's where the good life is, that's where the kidney dialysis facilities are, and that's were good TV studios are available.

The Bush administration policies has made it imperative for Musharraf not to produce bin Laden; OBL is Musharraf's pink-slip. Once OBL is handed over, the Americans will begin talking about restoring democracy and all that stuff which does not exactly sound appealing to General Musharraf.