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Politics : Don't Blame Me, I Voted For Kerry -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: laura_bush who wrote (4598)	3/1/2004 12:28:53 AM
From: ChinuSFO	Respond to of 81568

Pentagon denies Osama caught By Jules Crittenden Sunday, February 29, 2004 An Iranian state radio claim that Osama bin Laden was arrested ``a long time ago'' and is being held for President Bush [related, bio] to use as an election-year October surprise was flatly denied by Pentagon and Pakistani officials. The claim comes amid a Pakistani military campaign in the remote tribal border region where bin Laden is suspected to be hiding. It follows a British newspaper's unconfirmed report two weeks ago that U.S. and Pakistani forces have bin Laden cordoned off in the mountainous area. The Iranian radio report stated: ``Osama bin Laden has been arrested a long time ago, but Bush is intending to use it for propaganda maneuvering in the presidential election.'' It claimed Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld's Afghan visit this week was linked to bin Laden's arrest. Pentagon spokesman Larry Di Rita, who traveled with Rumsfeld this week, said, ``I don't have any reason to think it's true.'' Pakistani Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed called the report ``baseless'' and said, ``We have neither arrested Osama nor have we any information about him.'' Adil Najam of Tufts University's Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy said ``conspiracy theories'' that bin Laden has been arrested frequently surface in the region. But he said it is not plausible to believe the secret could be kept, or that U.S. officials would risk the public relations nightmare such a revelation would produce. ``It would be impossible to pull it off,'' agreed Larry Goodson of the U.S. Army War College. But Goodson suggested Pakistani officials, unwilling to see the United States lose interest in the region, might prefer not to capture bin Laden, or to hold him in secret to hand him over at a time of their choosing. But Najam said the Pakistani government is under such pressure to produce bin Laden after the recent crisis over the sale of nuclear secrets, and two years of fruitless searches, that they would be unlikely to withhold the news. news.bostonherald.com