"A Taliban offers you $500 bucks or its equivalent to look the other way for an hour while the Big Guy slips through. Who's going to know?"

I think he could tell folks he didn't want the $25 million, but $5,000 in a numbered Indonesian account would do it. I'll bet the reward could be negotiated downward.

What I think is that the people with the knowledge don't they believe they could get the money or the green card, or the citizenship which has been offered. I think a Pakistani general would get the money, but that the average schmuck in the hills or in bin Laden's entourage probably believes he'd be shot as soon as he told what he knows. And is probably right, as the person who collected the information would want the reward.

If bin Laden were dead, someone could collect the reward for pointing that out. I seem to remember "dead or alive". Might be safer, too.

However, anyone who knows where to find the body is probably either Taliban or al Qeada, or both. The US government could claim that the reward would only go to supporting terrorism, that they aren't going to give it to a terrorist, and not pay.

There's the off-chance some innocent villager may know. But that fellow doesn't really have access to the people who would want to know, and, again, would probably be killed my some lower-level functionary who wanted the reward for themselves.

In that case, the reward is not really an offer. Don't misunderstand me, I don't think they should pay it to terrorists. It just may not be a realistic offer.

Arf