OSAMA IN CHAINS?….Al Jazeera and a bunch of other Middle Eastern news outlets are carrying a report that Osama bin Laden has been captured:
The report on Saturday by the external Pashto-language service of Iranian state radio quoted an “informed source” as saying the alleged arrest took place “some time ago”, but gave no further details.
It went on to claim that US officials were keeping news of the arrest secret and were likely to announce it later in the year – in order to help US President George Bush’s re-election chances in November polls.
The idea that the Bush administration is somehow keeping Osama under wraps in order to spring an “October Surprise” that will guarantee their reelection is a common topic of gossip, but not something that anyone (yet) has been willing to broach in serious news pages ? and for pretty obvious reasons.
So instead here’s a different angle to chat about. This is the second time that Iranian radio has made this charge (the first time was apparently about a year ago). Why? Do they genuinely have sources that believe this? Or is there some other angle to it? What’s in it for them to have people believe that Osama has already been captured?
