“American special forces searching the Tora Bora cave complex in eastern Afghanistan are collecting dismembered fingers and human organ tissue in an attempt to establish whether Osama bin Laden and other al-Qaeda leaders were killed during last year’s massive assault on the caves,” The Observer reports.

The tissue samples are being collected in forensic bags of the type used by detectives at murder scenes and sent refrigerated to the United States. There FBI scientists are trying to match them with DNA culled from swabs provided by members of bin Laden’s immediate family.

Intelligence sources on both sides of the Atlantic have told The Observer they were ‘virtually certain’ that bin Laden was still hiding in the caves just hours before the main al-Qaeda strongholds fell last December. They based their belief on CIA analysis of communications intercepts from Taliban and Arab fighters, and interrogation of prisoners of war.

See? Pulpy dust on a pulverized rock. Now bring me some tweezers and a ziploc baggy…

[of course, back in December, protein wisdom already alerted you to it’s choice of dipping sauces…

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