for a moment, consider how close to reality the following fictional reports from our freelance reporter O. Wells III might be….

One Month Ago: This reporter has learned that following the horrific bombing at the Moscow Airport, during a private exchange between Russia’s President Medvedev and the US President Obama over the signing of the nuclear arms reduction pact, the Russian President has offered President Obama “any and all means available” to rid the world of the terrorists in Afghanistan……

Two Weeks Ago: The World Health Organization has sent a team of infectious disease specialists into an undisclosed region of the Helmand Province near the Afghan Pakistan border.  An anonymous source is reporting that the WHO has received reports of illness and death among the poppy field workers, describing rapid onset of fever and skin rashes that could be blisters or pustules…..  In unrelated news, local broadcasts have indicated that US and allied troops suddenly left the area several weeks earlier…..

One Week Ago:  Undisclosed sources at the WHO regional testing laboratory have confirmed that samples taken from patients in the Helmand Province of Afghanistan point to a smallpox epidemic that has an epicenter in the mountains of the Afghan Pakistan border…..

Today: We have received reports confirming that Osamba Bin Laden and a number of high ranking Al Qaeda officials along with numbers of Taliban troops are among the dead identified in the Helmand Province smallpox epidemic….WHO officials are reporting that the source of the epidemic is likely to be related to the practice of Al Qaeda and Taliban soldiers to hide weapons in the graves of old cemeteries in the region and speculation that one or more of those graves contained bodies of people who had died of smallpox before the eradication of smallpox in the region…..Officials have denied any linkage of the epidemic to reports that a drone was seen criss-crossing the area releasing a cloud of dust just after foreign troops left….Military officials say the drone was smoking from an engine malfunction and that it was later recovered and repaired…..