Why did we choose July 4th to announce that we closed the unit searching for Osama bin Laden?

Surely, the Fourth of July should be a day set aside to celebrate ... celebrate our independence from King George (the former "King George") as well as the many wars, battles and deaths suffered in the name of freedom from tyranny.

But today, the CIA announced the closing of Alec Station which for ten years has been hunting for Osama bin Laden and his top aides, advisors and commanders. Admittedly, President Bush told us last year that he really didn't think much about bin Laden any more -- despite hid "dead or alive" statements shortly after 9-11, and so we should have expected that the efforts to find him and bring him to justice would be a "Fourth of July" statement of some sort of independence -- independence from worry, I suppose -- although I personally still worry about Al-Qaida and its leaders.



interestingly, only this week, the CIA affirmed that the voice on the latest audio recording was that of bin Laden, and his words were as threatening as ever.

I believe that even Richard, my brother in Connecticut, would find the timing of this announcement strange -- unless it's simply a set-up to take the New York Times (especially!), dozens of newspapers throughout the US, the AP, UPI, Reuters and maybe even the CIA itself to task for their (obviously) unpatriotic announcements that makes all of these newspapers, press services and Government agencies liable for indictment on charges of treason.

What next?