Just a heads-up to the media.
From the PakTribune (Pakistani paper):
KABUL, October 26 (Online): These days, rumours are flying among foreign journalists here that Osama bin Laden - the world's most wanted man - is about to be snared.
Some journalists are even wagering on the exact day the Al Qaeda leader will be pulled from his hole, mountain, cave or bunker.
Few scribes affirm their assumptions are fuelled by concrete intelligence.
But most admit to basing their claims on sheer speculation - that President George W. Bush will snag bin Laden just in time to clinch the Nov. 2 U.S. presidential election.
Some journalists have gone so far as to assert that the Americans have already bagged bin Laden, but Bush is waiting for the most opportune time to play his ace in the hole.
"George W. is just waiting for the right moment to pull bin Laden out, and show him to the world," a U.S. newspaper correspondent said recently.
"The American public ... will reward him with another term in office."
I must admit that, for several months, I harboured the theory that Bush, in a moment of desperation, would miraculously catch his Number 1 enemy.
My conjecture was formed last February, during an interview with a top Afghan security official in Kabul.
The official told me the Americans could catch bin Laden at any time.
To emphasis his point, he leaned over his big wooden desk, glanced at his wristwatch and said that if the Americans wanted, they could have their man in custody by 3:30 p.m.
It was 3:15 when he spoke.
I asked him why the Americans didn't do just that, to which he replied: "That would mean they would have to leave."
Just saying, is all.