This...

You have to consider all of the circumstances. Assuming the basics of the information we have are true, we have a guy who lives in a cave and wears sandals. His best technology is an untraceable cell phone. Then you have the technology and might of the US military complex. A couple dozen alphabet agencies, wire-tapping, spy satellites, drones, smart bombs, the best snipers in the world, the best aircraft, the best personnel, you name it.

Am I to seriously believe that 21st Century technology from the most advanced nation on earth, took 10 years to catch Fred Flintstone riding on his pack mule? If that is the case, then the entire country should be outraged at the utter failure of the advancements and assets listed above. That could be considered no less that a complete, disastrous failure and there ought to be at least a thousand high-level personnel held accountable for pissing away a couple trillion $ on absolutely nothing.

Based on the evidence presented we could have set down a few tracking dogs with a dozen "survivalists" and tracked the fucker on foot and spent a million dollars or so and had just as much success.

The shit our government expects us to believe is appalling. The sad part is, the majority of the people believe this garbage.