I'm wondering if maybe the intel gathered will turn out to be even more important than getting bin Laden. Not meant to minimize the importance of getting bin Laden in any way, just thinking about how much the intel could mean.

I'm sorry, I was kinda gunnin' for citizenship. He renounced his American Citizenship, and no other nation has offered him said citizenship. That makes him a stateless person, under international law, no? And a viable target for anyone, no matter where he is. I say, send in the stealth HELO's. :D

(05-09-2011 02:08 AM)aTxTIGER Wrote:  It isnt hard to forge a passport from most countries.

Some countries hand legit passports out as party favors. Come for the illicit whiskey and the loose women (this is allowed in certain special versions of the Koran you know, special versions only availalbed to monied Princes) and leave with a Syrian passport!

(05-09-2011 06:19 AM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  I'm wondering if maybe the intel gathered will turn out to be even more important than getting bin Laden. Not meant to minimize the importance of getting bin Laden in any way, just thinking about how much the intel could mean.

I would think it would mean a lot, but I wonder how much time they have before the intel is out of date - Al Qaeda knows we have lots of intel now so maybe they move, aliases change, etc.

I'm guessing bin Laden wouldn't have provided us with much info we won't already find in the intel we captured.

(05-09-2011 10:04 AM)NIU007 Wrote:  

(05-09-2011 06:19 AM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  I'm wondering if maybe the intel gathered will turn out to be even more important than getting bin Laden. Not meant to minimize the importance of getting bin Laden in any way, just thinking about how much the intel could mean.

I would think it would mean a lot, but I wonder how much time they have before the intel is out of date - Al Qaeda knows we have lots of intel now so maybe they move, aliases change, etc.
I'm guessing bin Laden wouldn't have provided us with much info we won't already find in the intel we captured.

I wasn't posing it that way, but I think the physical intel is far more useful than whatever we'd have gotten from interrogating a live bin Laden.

Al-Qaeda will recover over time, and in some ways irregular organizations have fewer problems overcoming something like this than do traditional organizations. But I'm guessing we've got some people in a scramble mode, and when you scramble you leave tracks. I'd expect a lot of derivative ops over the next few months, about which I expect we will know absolutely nothing.

(05-09-2011 09:48 AM)Lord Stanley Wrote:  

(05-09-2011 02:08 AM)aTxTIGER Wrote:  It isnt hard to forge a passport from most countries.

Some countries hand legit passports out as party favors. Come for the illicit whiskey and the loose women (this is allowed in certain special versions of the Koran you know, special versions only availalbed to monied Princes) and leave with a Syrian passport!

I have run into a guy here in austin that sells "papers". SS Cards, DLs, Passports from a dozen or so nations, etc. It isnt hard and they arent that expensive.