It has bee roumored that it is an intellligence ploy to trick bin Laden into revealing himself.

On the other hand the dedicated task force to find bin Laden has been disbanded.

 

The detractors say that AQ has changed nature and is now a loosly knt knit community of homegrown thugs.

They are probably right: It was exactly what we wanted: Remove the organisation. Now a competent police force in each country has a much better chance of finding the snotty kids BEFORE they blow something up.

 

The first move is to have a serious chat with the youngsters keeping bad company - and their parents. It helps in many cases - and the terror act stops there. In other cases with more hardned individuals - a close surveillance: Some can't go to the bathroom without the police knows it - keeping track of their cell-phones is a bit of a challenge. A close scrutiny of their business and other income by the most dreadprovoking people on earth: IRS-inspectors. Smashing their sale of smuggled softdrinks (believe it or not: It is rather big money).

A tradesman without invoices; might not be able to explain his turnover; but he might have noticed a change in attitude.

Let me put it like this: If I had reliable and precise information as to ObL whereabouts, dropped an e-mail to the US embassy, my bank account would be much nicer to look at.