Recently the US has stepped up its efforts to find Osama, an effort which could now be called frantic. Nearly all the special forces that were in Iraq are now in Pakistan and Afganistan hunting Osama with some vigor. A deal seems to have been made with Pakistan to allow US troops unfettered access to the Waziristan region where Osama is rumored to be.
One obvious explanation would be that Bush wants Osama's head on a pike before the election, as that would go a long way toward beating Kerry. Could be, but maybe there's something else going on.
It's becoming clear that A.Q. Khan, the guy that built Pakistan's fission bombs, spread his designs and engineering knowledge far and wide among the terrorist states. Libya, Iran, North Korea we know about, mainly from Libyan documents and testimony. But, oddly, the US is not publicly calling for Khan's head or for him to be tried as an international criminal. Something strange is going on.
Khan's motives are unclear, but suppose he was frustrated with Pakistan's non-use of these weapons in the "Islamic" cause. Sentiment of that sort is widespread in Pakistan. Suppose there are indications that one of his clients was al Qaeda, and that maybe he gave them a working bomb. If so, the US would be "questioning" Mr Khan (who, BTW, seems to be incomunicado after a reported heart attack), and searching frantically for al Qaeda members who might know about such a device and its wherabouts.
Maybe I'm paranoid, but the thought of a uranium bomb silently moving in a freighter's ballast towards the US is not a particularly calming one. If there is such a thing, I hope we find it, and don't particularly care how we do it.