The United States admitted that the trail had gone cold in the hunt for Osama bin Laden and that it was unclear even if he was dead or alive. After bombing the mountains of Tora Bora for days in the belief that the al-Qaeda "mastermind" was hiding there, the Pentagon said that intelligence âchatterâ had gone quiet and that he may have escaped the area. A senior Pentagon official said that âanybodyâs guess is the latest thinkingâ on bin Ladenâs location. As the air assault on the area was scaled back and special forces joined Afghan fighters in moving from cave to cave in the White Mountains in search of final pockets of resistance, the fear was that bin Laden had escaped, possibly to Pakistan.
(Yawn!) Really? What a surprise. |