Mullah Omar Captured? Novelist and Cable News Commentator Say “Yes!”

The other day I noticed that novelist Brad Thor reported the one of the world’s most wanted men, Mullah Mohammed Omar had been captured.  I ignored said news (as did, it seemed, most of the Blogosphere and all of the MSM).  After all, he’s a novelist and he writes for Andrew Breitbart’s Big Government, which comes across to me as more a partisan tabloid than an actual news site.

I remain skeptical, but find the story worth noting because Thor has reported again, this time stating that the story has been confirmed!  However, the corroboration comes from Oliver North.  So, a novelist and a cable news commentator are reporting what is arguably on the of the biggest stories in the War on Terror (or whatever you want to call it) since the US invasion of Afghanistan.  No leaks to the Pakistani press, not leaks to the US press and no politicians taking any kind of credit.  This strikes me as highly, highly unlikely.  If anything, the notion that leaked information has found its way only to Thor and North defies logic and basic probabilities.

Quite frankly, North’s write-up reads less like actual confirmation than confirmation that there are rumors that Omar has been captured.  Not exactly the stuff of epic reporting.

Should it prove to be the case that the Thor-North nexus is right and I am wrong, I will be more than happy to say so when the evidence emerges.

FILED UNDER: National Security, Terrorism, World Politics, , , , , , ,
Steven L. Taylor
About Steven L. Taylor
Steven L. Taylor is a Professor of Political Science and a College of Arts and Sciences Dean. His main areas of expertise include parties, elections, and the institutional design of democracies. His most recent book is the co-authored A Different Democracy: American Government in a 31-Country Perspective. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas and his BA from the University of California, Irvine. He has been blogging since 2003 (originally at the now defunct Poliblog). Follow Steven on Twitter

Comments

  1. Exactly.

    This is too big a story to just accept at face value.

    As I said to someone on Twitter this morning, I will believe this story when I see pictures of Mullah Omar sitting in a prison cell. Until then, it’s just a story on one of Andrew Breitbart’s websites.

  2. mpw280 says:

    And the National Enquirer is just a fish wrapper with a trumped up story about John Edwards. You can dismiss the source at your discretion but that doesn’t make it impossible to be a correct story. I am not saying it is true, too good to be true or false but am saying you can dismiss the source because of who he is but that may not make a difference on the information he may have. mpw

  3. @mpw280: As I said, if it turns out to be true, I will retract my statement. However, just because the Enquirer got a story right doesn’t mean one has to check one’s reason at the door with a story like this. I find it almost impossible to accept that Omar was captured and that the only people to whom such information was leaked was Brad Thor and Oliver North and that the only place willing to publish it is Big Government.