What do shock jock Howard Stern and the gem business have in common? Gary Bowersox, owner of GeoVision and an expert on gems from Afghanistan, made a surprise phone call to the Howard Stern radio show on the morning of Jan. 22. Bowersox claimed to Stern that he knows where Osama bin Laden is hiding out and offered some specific coordinates.

“If you know where Osama is, why don’t you tell the government?” asked Stern. “I have,” said Bowersox, “but it’s a political thing.” Bowersox, who’s been traveling to Afghanistan for the past 30 years, knows the area and the people very well. He, like others who live and travel near the Pakistan border, believes Osama bin Laden is with the nomadic Waziri tribe in Pakistan, just southwest of Peshawar, in Waziristan along the Afghanistan border. Since Pakistan’s President Musharraf is on shaky ground politically, it would be against U.S. interests to enter Pakistan to capture the al Qaeda leader, Bowersox told Stern.

Whether or not he knows where to find bin Laden, Bowersox does know where to find Afghanistan gems, and his new book, The Gem Hunter, True Adventures of an American in Afghanistan, recounts his adventures in that country, including the dangers, the people, and the terrain.

For more information about Bowersox, visit his Web site at www.Afghan-gems.com.