No news is bad news: Osama bin Laden is still at large.
The Daily Jang,
Pakistan
Why bin Laden
Hasn't Been Found
"Looking
for Osama bin Laden by relying on modern technology is like fishing without a
hook. … There is a $50 million reward on offer for him and so far there has
been nothing but silence. We expect no change in the foreseeable future."
EDITORIAL
December 8, 2009
Pakistan - The Daily Jang - Original Article
(English)
The failure of our forces and
agencies to capture or locate any of the Taliban senior leadership in Swat or
Waziristan may show a lack of capacity or competence, but this pales in comparison
to the failure of all concerned to find Osama bin Laden. We may never know what
part we've played in the hunt for the man, but we can be sure that the United
States has deployed every resource at its disposal to find him - and has failed.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Sunday that U.S. intelligence didn't
know where the al-Qaeda leader is and that for years has had no reliable
information on his whereabouts. The U.S. has sophisticated surveillance systems
both on and off the planet that stream live video - systems that can identify
faces and read license plate numbers from satellites in geostationary orbit. It
also has systems aboard long-loitering drones that fly day and night and systems
that can read encrypted e-mails and pluck phone calls from the ether. But
suppose these systems are the wrong tools for the targets they seek? …
From the outset, what the United
States has lacked in its hunt is that most vital of intelligence assets - "humint."
Human intelligence is based on networks of informers that reveal what's going
on inside a targeted organization or group. They are often paid for their work
and run the risk of discovery - with death a likely outcome if they are exposed.
Posted by WORLDMEETS.US
This lack of human
intelligence is perhaps unsurprising, considering the milieu within which bin
Laden exists. He lives in a word-of-mouth culture where messages are passed by people
who have memorized them - and there has yet to be a surveillance system invented
that can read minds. He exists within a social context that, if it so desires,
is largely impermeable to external probing, and is protected by a code of honor
that is hard-wired into the minds of those who shelter him. He and those around
him don't use mobile phones, so it is rumored, nor do they use the Internet. And
the most recent report is that he spends more time in Afghanistan than he does Pakistan
because of the need to avoid the prying eyes of drones that might spot him if
he's out in the open.
Looking for Osama bin Laden by
relying on modern technology is like fishing without a hook - it's unlikely to
succeed. There is a $50 million reward on offer for him and so far there has
been nothing but silence. We expect no change in the foreseeable future.
Posted by WORLDMEETS.US, Dec. 7, 7:18pm
