O.T. Original Terrorist

So Osama has checked back in with the American infidels, offering a truce (why didn't we leap at that, I'm sure he's on the up and up) and claiming that his fighters are preparing new attacks. What I want to know (along with 9/11 widow Kristin Breitweiser) is, why haven't we found this guy yet? Every time one of these tapes come out there is a "chain of custody." In other words, bin Laden hands the tape to someone, who hands it to someone, who hands it to someone, who hands it to someone, who gets it to the al Jazeera headquarters in Pakistan. This has been going on since at least 1998. How has the largest and most robust intelligence apparatus in the world not penetrated this?

It's been over four years since 9/11. That's a real long time. We vanquished Hitler within four years. Tojo. Mussolini. Kaiser Wilhelm. Milosevic. It's astounding that we have made seemingly no progress against the clear leader in the so-called War on Terror.

It's almost as if the leader of the free world doesn't care about catching Osama:

“So I don’t know where he is. You know, I just don’t spend that much time on him. … And, again, I don’t know where he is. I — I’ll repeat what I said. I truly am not that concerned about him.”

It's almost as if the President thinks it's politically expedient to keep bin Laden out there as a convenient boogeyman. Hmm...

Yet the most immediate political effect will probably be a boost in support for President George W Bush.

The commander-in-chief has been under intense pressure in recent weeks, accused of trampling on civil liberties in pursuit of terror suspects.

His defence has been that America is a nation at war.

So Bin Laden's latest threats to launch new attacks on the US will only serve to underline this argument.

Strange days indeed...