Buzz buzz

So the big buzz now is that this spring, according to the July 19 issue of the New Republic,

the administration significantly increased its pressure on Pakistan to kill or capture Osama bin Laden, his deputy, Ayman Al Zawahiri, or the Taliban's Mullah Mohammed Omar....

A third source, an official who works under ISI's director, Lieutenant General Ehsan ul-Haq, informed tnr that the Pakistanis "have been told at every level that apprehension or killing of HVTs 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." ... But 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 [any] HVT were announced on twenty-six, twenty-seven, or twenty-eight July" - the first three days of the Democratic National Convention in Boston.

HVTs are "high-value targets." ISI is Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence. The braces in the quote are from the original.

Maybe I'd be more, I don't know, disturbed maybe is the word - I find it hard to be shocked anymore by anything the WHS* do - if it wasn't for the fact that drawing on an item in Josh Marshall's blog I mentioned this nearly two months ago.

*WHS = White House Sociopaths