Ding Dong, Osama's Dead?

There are rumors in the news, on the internet, and in the blog world that bin Laden has cashed his check. The Start the Revolution blog said: "Not only has he [President George Bush] been telling the world that he is still actively hunting Osama, even though the FBI and the CIA gave up long ago, but now it seems that his good friends the French have gone and spoiled that party too!"

Authorities and U.S. politicians are treating rumors the highly elusive al-Qaeda leader is dead with well-founded skepticism. The whereabouts of bin Laden took a new twist this weekend when a French 'paper published a French intelligence report suggesting he had died a month ago. The governments of France, the United States, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia tried to play down the report, but Saudi sources have previously suggested he may be very sick.

This isn't the first time rumors have circulated about bin Laden's demise. And each time, he has charged back like the Energizer bunny, with new video and audio tapes exhorting the faithful to incinerate America and our allies.

And if Osama IS dead. . .so what? Does this really change anything at all? Does it extricate us from the tragic pickle into which we have insinuated ourselves in the Middle-east? I don't think so. Since there was no Al Qaeda-Iraq connection, it doesn't affect that "operation" much. Does it--if it turns out to be true--affect the mid-term elections? Probably not. While the Dems have beaten up POTUS and G.O.P. for failing to catch Osama, it's hard to see how either side gains much political capital from bin Laden's departure from the scene. . .
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