Lots of buzzing around Pakistan. Some of the latest. And a friend who watches this all e-mails:
There are reports that OBL was near Queta. Then that he had moved 240 kilometers north to the Toba Kakar mountains, on the border with Afghanistan, south of Waziristan. He was in nearby Angoor Adda, another report said, where there was a shootout with AQ guys last October and some of them were captured. Just across the border in Afghanistan is the Barmal district, which is heavily Talibanized and a natural escape route.
Meanwhile, Tenet was in Pakistan, Rummy in Afghanistan. Musharraf, whom the bad guys have been intent on killing lately, had given the tribal chiefs until Feb 20 to hand over the foreigners they were protecting, and many of them did. Others asked their guests to leave. And now Pakistan is enforcing the deadline. Over the border, our special forces are said to be deployed forward. They are the hunters, the Pakistanis are the beaters. The idea is to dislodge the quarry and get them moving and vulnerable. Last month the Pakis undertook a similar operation nearby. My guess is we were watching to see what escape routes were being used, and this time we’ll have people waiting.
So if it goes down, it will happen quickly, like the SECDEF said the other day.