So I was checking out the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted list today just to see who’s new and what’s changed, and I saw Osama Bin Laden (or Usama as the Fibbers have him tagged) and I wondered, what’s the point of including him on the 10 most wanted list? Am I to be vigilant as I shop for new socks at Target to make sure he’s not slinking through the food court?
I’ve always thought of the Most Wanted list as a PR tool for the FBI. They put those on there who’s capture is soon likely to make themselves seem to be stopping the worst offenders out there. I doubt highly that the FBI is about to desend on Pakistan in blacked out SUV’s any time soon, so what purpose does this seem to serve? I’m not really going GQ on here, as I figured this was more an opinion stlye inquiry.
Slight hijack- did anybody else notice that in the movie “Hannibal,” Dr. Lecter’s face appears right next to Osama Bin Laden’s on the Ten Most Wanted List that Giancarlo Giannini brings up on his computer?
Well put Clurican, I often wondered the same myself. I have concluded it is symbolic – he is after all Public Enemy No.1 and all that… having said that, people like Bulger and Lopez-Oroco are not (really) expected to be inside the U.S. anyway so there is some precedent
The FBI list is pretty much publicity. It’s basically a way to keep some attention focused on these people. Eric Rudolph, who was recently arrested and is winding his way through the federal legal system, was on that list for quite a while himself.
These people are wanted for serious crimes: child porn, drug distribution, multiple murders, that sort of thing. OBL is specifically wanted for the embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania, but he is a “suspect” in other terrorist attacks.
Oh, and the price on his head is up tp $27 million. The Airline Pilots Association and the Air Transport Association have generously ponied up an extra $2 million.