U.S. Backs Off Bin Laden Capture Forecast

[numediaman]

Gee, another flip flop:
U.S. Backs Off Bin Laden Capture Forecast

By STEPHEN GRAHAM
Associated Press Writer

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- The U.S. military pulled back Saturday from an earlier prediction that Osama bin Laden would be captured this year, even while preparing its largest force to date for operations along the Pakistani border where the al-Qaida chief is suspected to be hiding.

Catching bin Laden and other top fugitives remains a priority of the expanding American operation in Afghanistan, a spokesman said, but the growing mission is "not about just one or two people," a spokesman said.

"We remain committed to catching these guys. It's pretty much ... just about everything that we do here," Lt. Col. Matthew Beevers said.

But he declined to make any new predictions of when the fugitives might be behind bars.

And this from Daily Kos (is this a real front page?):

[zimv20]

i never did understand the reasoning behind the "captured this year" prediction. gave way to a lot of "he's already in custody" conspiracy theories, too.

[jefhatfield]

i have the distinct feeling that secretary rumsfeld or bush are using the terror war as a moment by moment, blow by blow, pr machine for the administration

fighting terrorists should be a secret operation in order to succeed

but secretary rumsfeld has already relegated delta force and the seals to conventional military duty and long slow deployments *vs quick covert strikes which they are designed for, and he is not very good about keeping secret operations very secret...probably on purpose in a pr sort of way...bush sr used the open and free press to make his war seem safe and successful and it helped bush sr look like a hero

i don't know if W's administration is doing this in order to be the polar opposite of ronald reagan's ultra secret special ops wars he had in the 80s, which reagan got highly criticised for (ala colonel oliver north)