The hunt for Bin Laden

The new issue of Time magazine has a couple of interesting pieces on the hunt for Osama bin Laden. The magazine reports that US counter-terrorism officials have decided that the way they are most likely to catch bin Laden—who some in the CIA think many only have months to lives because of kidney disease—is to catch some of the more junior members of the al Qaeda leadership. To that end, the Pentagon is seeking an executive order from President Bush which would expand the military’s authority to launch cross-border raids into Pakistan from Afghanistan. However, others in the Administration worry about the political effects such raid might have on Pakistan. One senior Pakistani official tells Time that:

“If they do a raid and they find No. 3 or No. 4 or No. 5 but don’t get bin Laden, it’s going to be a real problem”.  

The Federally Administered Tribal Areas in Pakistan are rapidly becoming the new Afghanistan, al Qaeda’s new base.