Washington dément la capture d'Oussama ben Laden

The French press reports things the UK & US press can't or won't - can't because they are fucking partisan Blair-Bush bitch-lackeys.

So here is what I learned today from Libération what this em translated with some supplementary assistance from babelFish:

2004 February 28 (Saturday, 1809h): Washington Refutes Capture of Usama bin Ladin

Saturday, the American Department of Defence contradicted information the Pashtu-language Iranian Public Radio Service Irna disseminated about the arrest of Usama bin-Ladin.

Citing the Pashtu-language Iranian Public Radio Service, what is said to be based on a "very reliable" source, the official agency issued a précis that the chief of Qaîda was captured in a tribal zone in West Pakistan.

When questioned by Reuters, Irna's on-site correspondant specified what the radio announced the capture of the planet's most wanted a year ago. The correspondent affirmed that this time, a new informant gave credible testimony that the alleged instigator of the 20010911 attacks had been captured "for quite some time".

"Whether this happened a month or year ago, nonetheless it already happened," the informant assured the reporter, adding that the American administration had delayed advertising this fact in order to favour George W Bush's electoral push, which will need a new mandate to retain the White House in November.

A senior Pentagon official derisively refuted this information, assuring what this was nothing but a baseless rumour.

In Islamabad, the Pakistani Minister of Foreign Affairs, Kurshiid Mahmud Kasuri, declared during a press conference what he had been informed of this information from Iran but added, "We certainly unable to confirm it."

[snip quote about Pakis being lapdogs of Bush]

The American staff, for its part, announced their intention to launch a spring offensive against Islamicist rebels in Afghanistan as a part of a co-ordinated effort to get their hands on bin-Ladin.

You can read the article in the original French by clicking above. However, can you find anything about this in English? For my part, I've heard shit-all.Fucking using bin-Ladin's capture as a political tool by keeping him under tabs for months and months, maybe even a year? God, when does the shit ever fucking end.