Rumors are flying that increased tension in Pakistan is forcing Osama bin Laden to move across to the Afghan side of the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. With bin Laden’s whereabouts now under near-constant surveillance, any movement is dangerous. While satellites can’t monitor a given area for a length of time (due to the fact that they’re whizzing about in low Earth orbit), Predator and Global Hawk drones can. Moreover, they can see heat through clouds and smoke, meaning that anything in the region that moves can be seen provided we have a drone in line of sight.
As the tension mounts, people tend to take more risks – which is exactly how we caught Saddam. With the tribal leaders in the region realizing that they have more to gain from betraying Osama than keeping him, his capture is inevitable.
