[+/-] Bush wants Bin Laden captured during the Democratic Party Convention

The New Republic is reporting that according to one source in Pakistan's powerful Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), "The Pakistani government is really desperate and wants to flush out bin Laden and his associates after the latest pressures from the U.S. administration to deliver before the [upcoming] US elections."

Another source who works under ISI's director, Lieutenant General Ehsan ul-Haq, says that the Pakistanis "have been told at every level that apprehension or killing of [bin Laden] before [the] election is [an] absolute must." What's more, this source claims that Bush administration officials have told their Pakistani counterparts they have a date in mind for announcing this achievement: "The last ten days of July deadline has been given repeatedly by visitors to Islamabad and during [ul-Haq's] meetings in Washington." According to this ISI official, a White House aide told ul-Haq last spring that "it would be best if the arrest or killing of [bin Laden and his aides] were announced on twenty-six, twenty-seven, or twenty-eight July"--the first three days of the Democratic National Convention in Boston.

Yeah, this sounds a bit like a lame conspiracy theory, but Pakistan has a history of assisting Republican't administrations. "In Pakistan, there has been a folk belief that, whenever there's a Republican administration in office, relations with Pakistan have been very good," says Khalid Hasan, a US correspondent for the Lahore-based Daily Times. By contrast, there's also a "folk belief that the Democrats are always pro-India."

Anyway, why now? Pushing Musharraf to go after Al Qaeda in the tribal areas may be a good idea despite the risks. But, if that is the case, it was a good idea in 2002 and 2003.