I have maintained since March of 2002 that Osama bin Laden had been captured at about that time, and that he's being held captive until such a time as would benefit Bush's campaign. So it was curious to hear in February that the military was predicting capture of bin Laden by the end of the year. My first thought, of course, was "Well, duh! End of the year... November... elections!" A couple of month's ago, we heard more rumblings in the media about high-level Al Qaeda operatives being surrounded by Pakistani troops.

Well, the excitement in the media that welled up when Pakistan launched an assault on the Pakistani-Afghan border in late February quickly subsided.

However, in yesterday's Talking Points Memo, Josh Marshall wrote:

"Just to pass on some added information, about which we'll be saying more. There is chatter in Pakistani intelligence circles that the US has let the Pakistanis know that the optimal time for bagging 'high value' al Qaida suspects in the untamed Afghan-Pakistani border lands is the last ten days of July, 2004."

When is the Democratic National Convention?

July 26 - 29.