How in the world does the accidental apprehension of Eric Rudolph by a rookie cop in Murphy NC, who didn’t even know whom he was arresting,

“(send) a clear message that we will never cease in our efforts to hunt down all terrorists, foreign or domestic, and stop them from harming the innocent”,

as Ashcroft crows? San Diego Union Tribune [Next we’ll be hearing he has links with al Qaeda, since all terrorists apparently do…]

Also consider for a moment the Christian Science Monitor‘s take on the capture, FBI usually does get its man, even if tardily. I remember realizing as a kid watching some TV cop drama, perhaps Dragnet, that the “crime does not pay” message was a desperate social fiction of those invested in maintaining the illusion of law ‘n’ order as it broke down around them. As Rafe Coburn points out,

“The most interesting thing… about this case is that it demonstrates just how hard it will ever be to capture someone like Osama bin Laden or Mullah Omar in Afghanistan. It took us over six years to capture Rudolph, and in the end he was captured by accident by local law enforcement. I don’t see the sheriff of some town in the badlands of Afghanistan picking up Osama bin Laden rummaging through a dumpster.”

While the New York Times observes today that Sympathy for Bombing Suspect May Cloud Search for Evidence, it also evidently clouded the search for the man himself for all these years. Although he was foraging for food when discovered and has lost perhaps 50 lbs., he was also obviously sheltered, supported, and well-fed for much of his fugitive time rather than living the survivalist existence in the mountains assumed by the focus of the federal manhunt.