Where in the world is Osama Bin Laden????

     It is 2:00 AM on a early Monday morning and I am laying in my bed waiting for a call from a friend in trouble back in New Orleans. My text message ring goes off at at 2:18 AM and I expect it to be my friend. I read the preview and it is a text message alert from CNN that I receive for my journalism class. The text reads: "CNN Breaking news- NATO official: Osama bin Laden is hiding in northwest Pakistan."
     "Great!",  I thought. "Now why doesn't it read: 'Osama bin Laden captured by U.S. military in northwest Pakistan.'"
     I wrote a status about the alert on my Facebook and questions started to pop in my head. Why was he not captured? How do they know this information? Who from NATO discovered this information? Why Pakistan? The questions went on and on in my head. I decided that the topic was great enough to do my own research. CNN posted a video on the web of the incident, which was my first account of this information: http://cnn.com/video/?/video/world/2010/10/18/am.starr.bin.laden.hunt.cnn
     According to CNN, a disclosed NATO official claims bin Laden and his second in command, Ayman al-Zawahiri, are living close to each other in houses in northwest Pakistan. What we believe, and obviously so do the military, is that they live in caves moving from Afghanistan and Pakistan. They bomb these caves day in and day out to destroy the groups of al Qaeda only killing the men of those groups. If this information is true, they are strategically placing themselves amongst citizens in order to make the U.S. look bad if they were to murder innocent people. I hate to sound like an ignorant person when I say this, but citizens are killed during war time. It is just the reality of war. In my opinion, you might as well just bomb the area. But I leave that to open discussion. There is more to this story though.
    My next question was, " Why do they not just go and attack?" They know where his location is and he is public enemy number one and has been for a decade. Any leads for someone like that should be taken seriously. According to cnn.com, there had been many reports of where bin Laden is and they all have ultimately been wrong. He moves everywhere around Afghanistan and Pakistan monthly. Tracking him down to one spot would be difficult. I still believe though that the U.S. has the military intelligence and tools to find him. If a three year old kid can find Waldo amongst millions of characters, you should be able to find where one man is. The question is why not?
     According to Peter Bergen (http://www.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/10/19/bergen.finding.bin.laden/index.html?hpt=Mid), he believes that the U.S. are not positioned to infiltrate militant groups because they have too many pure Americans. He believes the U.S. needs to train people closer to the ancestry of the Middle East and send them as trainees for al Qaeda. If they do not prove they have infiltrated al Qaeda, President Obama must make budget cuts. He also believes al Qaeda is not capable of putting someone in our intelligence group. I believe this is a little far fetched. I can see why he thinks that, but maybe al Qaeda is capable of placing a rat in the agency. We underestimated them to pull off a full scale attack even after intelligence had all ready infiltrated messages from al Qaeda to Taliban saying they declared war on us and planned an attack. How much easier can it be? In my opinion, I think they are very capable of doing this even though they have diminished some since 9/11. If they can pull off an attack on our soil, they can sure send somebody to work for the CIA. If they can send men to convince flight instructors that all they need to learn is to fly, not take off or land, they can sure convince the CIA that they are good people. A big difference I know, but imagine how many spies are in the agency right now from European powers. If they fly from Pakistan, we automatically think they're good, right? Better than Afghanistan, which is where I am led to believe most of al Qaeda is located. Well not exactly.
     Pakistan is directly east of Afghanistan and west of China. They have allied the U.S. in the fight against terrorism in the middle east and for the most part seem to be successful. However, as they fight off terrorism, they want to be the super power of the Middle East. This has been a battle since Biblical times on who controls it. This fight will never end until the end of the world probably. They keep remaining there innocence in not holding al Qaeda related groups in Pakistan, but they could think of bin Laden and the Taliban as bargaining chips for control of the region. They see India as a threat because they are Taliban and Taliban has controlled Afghanistan in the past. Pakistan wants them be more like their government. If they give him to us, they obviously want something in return. We are the number one country in the world, right? But maybe he is not in Pakistan.


     So where is Osama? Well it still seems unclear to us. I feel like he could be hiding in Pakistan and if reports are correct, let's go after the son of a bitch! He needs to be brought to justice and soon before he dies of old age. I would love to see in my lifetime that he is brought to justice and get the treatment he deserves. In a story that has continued over the decade, we must remember why we are trying to catch him. Remember the victims of 9/11 always and forever.