Although no time frame has yet been provided, this story is just breaking on the internet.

BBC News:

A top al-Qaeda figure suspected of having close ties to Osama Bin Laden has been taken to the US-run Guantanamo Bay detention camp, the Pentagon says.

Reuters via Yahoo News:

The detainee, Muhammad Rahim, helped prepare the Tora Bora caves used as a hideout for bin Laden in Afghanistan in 2001, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said.

Rahim also attempted to procure chemicals for a plan to attack coalition forces in Afghanistan and to recruit people with access to U.S. military facilities, Whitman said.

(h/t Macsmind)

I heard this on Paul Harvey while driving in to work this morning. Andrew M. Grossman and Robert Alt have an opinion piece in today’s Washington Times that includes this suggestion:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi simply refused to schedule a vote on a bill to make those authorities permanent — a bill that had passed the Senate with strong bipartisan support. Instead, the House spent its last day in town before Mrs. Pelosi jetted off to her daughter’s wedding working on an unenforceable resolution to thumb its nose at the Bush administration.

The House’s liberal leadership, in short, put political grandstanding above national security, wasting time with show hearings featuring Roger Clemens and debating a politically driven contempt citation. Perhaps if Osama bin Laden were juicing with steroids, we could get the House to take the terrorist threat seriously.

Isn’t it comforting to observe the priorities of congress?

Nancy Astor: “If I were your wife, I would put poison in your coffee.”
Sir Winston Churchill: “And if I were your husband, I would drink it.”

Blue Crab Boulevard Grain Of Salt — “Reuters has a report that a French newspaper has announced unconfirmed reports that Osama bin Laden has died. It’s a sort of “I know a guy who knows a guy who heard” type of report and nobody else is reporting this, so don’t go breaking out the bubbly.”

Captain’s Quarters (Ed Morrissey) Typhoid Osama? Well, Maybe — “A leak from French intelligence hit the wires late last night and spread rapidly around the world. The information: Osama bin Laden died in a cave of typhoid last month. However, questions about the reliability of that intel have already prompted the French to admit that they have no confirmation of Osama’s death:”

The Strata-Sphere (A.J. Strata) Bin Laden Dead? — “I would have preferred a public execution, but if the great Muslim Warrior died hiding in a cave then that might be a fitting end to the mad man’s life.”

GOP Bloggers (Mark Noonan) Democrats Demand Voter Fraud Continue — “Democrats are essentially saying that the effort to obtain ID is so difficult for Democratic voters that requiring ID is like the old Jim Crow poll taxes designed to keep black Americans from voting. Don’t the Democrats realise how insulting they are being towards their own constituents? Or, perhaps we should ask if they really are too dumb to get an ID if they continue to keep voting for people who insult them?”

Coffee is a beverage that puts one to sleep when not drank. ~ Alphonse Allais

Happy 1st Blogiversary to:
The Crazy Rants of Samantha Burns

Go on over and wish her a happy day. Thanks, Sam, for being a part of the Blogiversary Database.

In The Bullpen (Chad Evans) Australian Cleric Calls for 1,000 Deaths — “An Australian cleric, Abdul Nacer Benbrika, wanted to kill 1,000 Australian civilians to please Allah, but this cleric would not actually partake in the killing directly; naturally too I should add. This news emerged in a terrorism trial that includes Australian Shane Kent, a white man who personally met Osama bin Laden and swore an oath to carry out an attack within Australia for the Al Qaida leader.”

Don Surber Liberals and Karl Rove’s fingerprints — “Liberals have been seeing “Karl Rove’s fingerprints all over this” ever since Anne Richards woke up as ex-governor of Texas. Couldn’t be her fault. She had a stack of favorable press clippings from the New York Times, Time magazine and Newsweek. Must be him.” [I meant to point to this post yesterday. Well, here it is today. Jim]

Blue Crab Boulevard Democrats Admit They Are Worried — “Democrats are openly voicing worries that a Lieberman loss will hurt other Democrats. Now they are carefully phrasing it in terms of impact on Connecticut and other Democratic candidates there, but they are obviously thinking bigger, as well. The outbreak of war in Lebanon has made it even more dangerous, of course.”

Pirate’s Cove (William Teach) Sen. Specter Joins The Moonbat Brigade — “Perhaps someone has replaced Sen. Specter’s brain with a Moonbat clone. But, can you even refer to him as a Republican anymore? We want our representatives to be free thinkers, and do the right thing, but he has been going wonky and non Conservative for years now. He is beyond RINO.”

Many people are like instant coffee: the minute they get in hot water they dissolve. ~ Unknown

Dr. Sanity (Dr. Pat Santy) EVEN MORE BIZARRE THAN YOU THINK — “Kim Jong Il’s theories of what belongs to him and how much attention he should be getting from the world, are also the kind of fantasies indulged in by individuals who are [c]onvinced they are the center of the universe.”

Blogs for Bush (Mark Noonan) Vets for Freedom — “While our best and bravest are out there fighting for us, we here at home often feel a bit useless – no matter what we do, we aren’t doing anything close fo what our soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines are doing. Nothing we do, of course, will allow us to measure up to the troops, but we can and should all do what small things we can to support the troops – and one thing you can do today is join Vets for Freedom:”

Wizbang (Kim Priestap) New Bin Laden Tape to Be Released — “According to the New York Daily News, a new Bin Laden tape will be released to correspond with the anniversary of the 7/7 London bombings:”

Mark in Mexico Mexico election – liveblogging the District counts — “The 300 federal election District Committees are reporting their vote package counts. Remember, they are not counting vote by vote. The votes from each casilla (poll) are sealed in “paquetes” and may not be opened except in 4 very special cases.”

Ah! How sweet the coffee’s taste is,
Sweeter than a thousand kisses,
Milder than sweet muscatel.
Coffee, coffee, I must have it,
And if someone wants to treat me,
Ah, my cup with coffee fill! ~ Johann Sebastian Bach (Koffee Kantate)

Right Wing News (John Hawkins) Andrea Clark Has Passed Away — “I’d like to send my sincere condolences to Andrea’s friends on family in this difficult time. I know it has to be tough for them right now, but at least they can take some comfort in the fact that because they fought the good fight, Andrea had a fighting chance in the end, instead of having her life support cut off.” [Amen. Jim]

SoCalPundit (Kevin) How President Bush Can Unite Republicans And Win The Mid-Term Elections — “If President Bush can change course on immigration, away from the amnesty-like, not-securing-the-border plan he currently prefers, them Republicans will not lose seats in the November elections.”

Right Truth (Debbie) Osama’s Publishing Pamphlets — “Osama bin Laden is being credited with publishing a pamphlet calling for Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf’s death, calling him a “slave” of US President George W. Bush. So Tony Blair is our puppet and Musharraf is our slave.”

Red Hot Cuppa Politics (FrauBudgie) “Dear President Bush: Please forward this letter to 5 people … ? — “So, President AllMyJihad’s written a letter to President Bush, to recommend new ideas, at least according to the WashingtonPost. Now, I guess it’s newsworthy because it’s the first time in decades there’s been any communication directly from Iran to America — we broke off diplomatic relations with them back in the seventies. But, I guess in the light of current events, AllMyJihad might have some things to get off their chest.”

A Lady’s Ruminations (Lady Jane) “Her cries — ‘Ah, ah, ah’ — can be heard above the ‘Allahu akbar’” — “This sort of thing happens, not because we invaded Iraq and Afghanistan, nor because of anything the West has done or not done to the Middle East, but because Satan exists and works through weak and evil men. These men don’t care about anything that is right or good in this world. They seek only to dominate through cruelty, terror, and wickedness. We did not create them . . . but we will stop them.”

Give a frontiersman coffee and tobacco, and he will endure any privation, suffer any hardship, but let him be without these two necessaries of the woods, and he becomes irresolute and murmuring ~ U.S. Army Lt. William Whiting, 1849

California Conservative (Gary Gross) And Then What? — “Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi, AKA the Dim-witted Duo, along with Congressional Democrats, are promising to capture bin Laden, a neat trick if they could pull it off.”

Red State (Leon H. Wolf) McCain-Kennedy: A Good Bill Or, In Which I Don My Asbestos Shorts — “I have come to a very simple conclusion: despite the demonization of this bill as a “soft on immigration” “amnesty proposal,” this bill is neither of those things. It’s not a perfect bill (no bill is), but it’s a surprisingly good one, and the Republican Senators who voted it out of Committee absolutely do not deserve to treatment they have received in some quarters of the conservative blogosphere.”

Or for a different perspective.

Captain’s Quarters (Ed Morrissey) A Virtual Wall Brings Virtual Amnesty — “[T]he bare minimum necessary for such a program to succeed is border security successful enough that it forces those who want to enter the US to do so through either legal immigration or the guest worker program. And that is precisely where the Senate bill fails, and fails miserably.”

SoCalPundit (Kevin K.) Oh, The World Owes Me A Living… — “Judging by the riots going on in France in the last few days over a new law, making it easier for employers to dismiss young workers during the first two years of employment, French kids apparently think that they not only deserve a good job with good pay and lots of vacation time, but plenty of job security as well.”

Dr. Sanity (Pat Santy) DOGMA , DENIAL, AND DIBS ON THE KOOL-AID — “Just a few days ago I predicted that the left would be unable to deal with the information coming out in the recently released Iraq documents:”