HASN'T HE EVER SEEN 'COLUMBO'?

Guess it didn't occur to Osama that his videotape mght give away his position. In an item that I haven't yet seen reported anywhere other than --*ulp*-- that journalistic embarassment, the New York Post -- it seems we're narrowing down the search for bin Laden on the basis of forensic evidence:

Military sources said that intelligence agencies began to focus on the Paktia cave complexes in the early phases of Operation Enduring Freedom after receiving reports from Russia and Pakistan that bin Laden reinforced underground tunnel complexes and used them to conduct operations against the Soviet army in the 1980s. ... Suspicions that bin Laden and his henchmen moved back to the region after the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon grew after the release of bin Laden's videotaped anti-Western diatribe on Oct. 7. Government geologists identified the limestone rocks behind bin Laden and reported they showed distinctive formations unique to the smaller mountains in the Paktia region, sources said.

Too bad you never spent an idle weekend watching Columbo reruns on A&E, Osama -- you'd know that the criminal is always too clever by half.