I don't buy it. They would be playing up Osama at every opportunity if he was in their grasp to sweeten the surprise. Bush would have initiated the talk about him in the debates. Until Kerry brought it up he remained Osama bin Forgotten.

very good point Ron

If we get Osama he won't be alive. No we he just gives up.

The CIA and Pentagon will do Bush no favors.
Won't happen

The CIA and Pentagon will do Bush no favors.
Won't happen

That is a good point Ron...
Rove couldn't have planned the "Bush not talking about Osama" strategy so his capture would be a complete suprise..could he?

Does anyone really think that the Bush camp could negotiate with China in a meaningful way? Even if it were true, I doubt that the Chinese would trust Bush to follow through on a promise.

It's a chilling thought though.

I don't know but if they pull OBL out of cold storage for the October surprise, I won't be shocked. Outraged, but not a bit surprised.

Here is an election poll that needs help. Spread the word.

MSN Choice for President

bunk. this story is bunk. it is factually challenged.

there is a low-grade Muslim insurgency in China with occasional bombings. what are they fighting for? They are fighting for political independence/autonomy, and/or the right and freedom to practice their religion, culture and language, and/or against human rights violation, and/or for better economic opportunities, and/or for more political participation and decision-making, and/or against ethnic prejudices, and so on.

This article said that Bin Laden "was granted asylum in return for his guarantees that the guerrilla war of the Muslim Chinese against the Chinese nation would end."

Are the muslim chinese idiots? Bin Laden gets asylum and the Muslim Chinese get ... nothing. None of the things that they were fighting for. And how is Bin Laden and his 50 body guards going to impose his decision on 36 million Muslim Chinese?

There's no "October Surprise," and certainly no suddenly captured Bin Laden. The fact that Bush dances around the issue rather than brag about it shows something. I mean if he were on the verge of being caught, I'd be braggin mighty loud.

Bush??????

Living up to his promises???????

Bwahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What fucking planet does this moron live on??

Bush living up to promises. That's the funniest shit I've heard all week....

I wonder, assuming this story is true, if this has anything to do with the announcement made earlier this year regard troop realignments. As noted in the CNN article ( http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/08/16/bush.troops.home/ ), Bush previously announced that we were moving thousands of troops out of Europe and Asia.

What planet does this moron live on??
Bush living up to promises. That's the funniest shit I've heard all week" Jake

Two Tax cuts even though only one was promised, prescription drug benefit as promised, No child left behind as promised, etc. etc.. Jake, you never told us you were a time travler, welcome back to planet earth.
Chevy

I've commented a couple of times at my blog on this story (links below). Basically, I don't believe the "October surprise" portion of the *El Mundo* story for two reasons. One is that it's too thinly sourced. The other is that the author, Gordon Thomas, has a reputation as something of a rightwing conspiracy theorist.

But since *El Mundo* was willing to accept the quote from the senior Pentagon official as being a valid quotation (which of course is not the same as validating the underlying claims), it raises an interesting question why some senior official would be promoting the idea of a China/Bin Laden collaboration.

My blog post links:
http://journals.aol.com/bmiller224/OldHickorysWeblog/entries/2014
http://journals.aol.com/bmiller224/OldHickorysWeblog/entries/2039

Highly entertaining - but absolutely insane. I'm quite willing to believe that Bush would like to pull an al-Qaeda rabbit out of the hat. But from China??? Gordon Thomas's imagination is just a little bit too fertile. Someone who has written 34 books hasn't left himself enough time to check his facts - and every single checkable fact I have read in Thomas's delusional tracts has proved to be false. Incidentally, Thomas also believes that the US is using "holographic portals" to travel through time. That theory is about as likely as bin Laden being in China.

Did i say Gordon Thomas had written 34 books? Sorry, that should have been 53. Not that that makes it any better.