Dead or Alive.... Ah Screw It.....

"The most important thing is for us to find Osama bin Laden. It is our number one priority and we will not rest until we find him."
- G.W. Bush, 9/13/01

"I want justice...There's an old poster out West, as I recall, that said, 'Wanted: Dead or Alive,'"
- G.W. Bush, 9/17/01, UPI

"I don't know where bin Laden is. I have no idea and really don't care. It's not that important. It's not our priority."
- G.W. Bush, 3/13/02

Pakistan says trail cold in bin Laden hunt
Reuters
Wednesday, July 5, 2006; 7:27 AM

GENEVA (Reuters) - Reports that Osama bin Laden is hiding along the rugged Afghanistan-Pakistan border are purely speculative and nobody hunting the al Qaeda chief knows where he is, Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said on Wednesday.

"Nobody has any idea where this gentleman is, because if they did, they would use all their resources to go after the individual and try to capture him," Aziz told journalists....

Well, as screwed up as that is nothng beats the administration's spin in the next article:

C.I.A. Closes Unit Focused on Capture of bin Laden
New York Times- July 4, 2006
By MARK MAZZETTI

WASHINGTON, July 3 — The Central Intelligence Agency has closed a unit that for a decade had the mission of hunting Osama bin Laden and his top lieutenants, intelligence officials confirmed Monday.

The unit, known as Alec Station, was disbanded late last year and its analysts reassigned within the C.I.A. Counterterrorist Center, the officials said....

"The efforts to find Osama bin Laden are as strong as ever," said Jennifer Millerwise Dyck, a C.I.A. spokeswoman. "This is an agile agency, and the decision was made to ensure greater reach and focus."

Michael Scheuer, a former senior C.I.A. official who was the first head of the unit, said the move reflected a view within the agency that Mr. bin Laden was no longer the threat he once was.

Mr. Scheuer said that view was mistaken.

"This will clearly denigrate our operations against Al Qaeda," he said. "These days at the agency, bin Laden and Al Qaeda appear to be treated merely as first among equals."

In recent years, the war in Iraq has stretched the resources of the intelligence agencies and the Pentagon, generating new priorities for American officials. For instance, much of the military's counterterrorism units, like the Army's Delta Force, had been redirected from the hunt for Mr. bin Laden to the search for Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was killed last month in Iraq.

Jesbus. CHECK PLEASE!