Bin Laden Explored Asylum in Britain

Osama bin Laden sent feelers out ten years ago expressing a strong interest in applying for asylum in Britain, reports the Times of London, but his wishes were rebuffed. The Times article's misleading headline notwithstanding,

Bin Laden never got a chance to make a formal application as Home Office officials investigated him and [then-Home Secretary Michael] Howard issued an immediate banning order under Britain’s immigration laws.

[...]

Intelligence experts say that at the time of the asylum request, bin Laden was not enjoying his exile in Sudan, where he had moved after fleeing Afghanistan. The Sudanese authorities were making noises about expelling him.

The news bin Laden sought to seek asylum there doesn't mean he was any more a fan of the UK than he was (or remains) of his birth nation the KSA. England would simply have been a much better base for him to work on projects like Oplan Bojinka and wage jihad against the West than could be an isolated backwater state like the Sudan.

Living in England also would have given him access to something more dear -- seats (or maybe even a luxury box!) at Highbury to cheer on his beloved Arsenal. (That, of course, was before he was banned from the club's grounds after the Sept. 11 attacks.) As an aside in a post filled with asides, it's worth noting that Lucky Bar in Washington, DC, where I'm often found, has on the wall behind its front bar a page 1 cut from some British tabloid (the Sun, I think) that reads, "Bin Laden is Arsenal fan."

Finally, if the kooks at WorldNet Daily are right -- the maxim is that there's a first for everything, though I'd much prefer they be correct about something else -- none of this matters because we've only weeks to live until bin Laden's henchmen launch their "Great Ramadan Offensive."

[Cross-posted at The Agitator.]