By Matt Kelley
Associated Press
WASHINGTON – President Bush pledged anew today that Osama bin Laden will be taken “dead or alive,” no matter how long it takes, amid indications that the suspected terrorist may be bottled up in a rugged Afghan canyon.
The president, in an Oval Office meeting with Thailand’s prime minister, would not predict the timing of bin Laden’s capture but said he doesn’t care how the suspect is brought to justice.
“I don’t care, dead or alive – either way,” Bush said. “It doesn’t matter to me.”
“I don’t know whether we’re going to get him tomorrow or a month from now or a year from now. I don’t really know. But we’re going to get him,” the president said. “The American people must understand that I have no timetable in mind. There’s no – I don’t have a calendar that says, ‘Gosh, if he’s not gotten by this certain moment, then I’ll be disappointed.’ “
A senior defense officials said U.S.-backed Afghan fighters, heavy airstrikes and Pakistani troops may have cornered bin Laden with al-Qaida forces in the Tora Bora area.
If bin Laden is with his al-Qaida forces – and Pentagon officials acknowledge he could be elsewhere – he has few good options.
Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld, making his third trip to countries near Afghanistan, was leaving midday today for Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia en route to a NATO meeting in Brussels.
“He is going to meet with senior officials in those countries to discuss the war on terrorism,” said Pentagon spokeswoman Victoria Clarke. “It’s important to discuss with the leaders in the region and continue to reaffirm what it is we are trying to accomplish.”
Afghan tribal fighters claimed to have located a cave today that a top Afghan commander said was recently occupied by Osama bin Laden.
Eastern alliance defense chief Hazrat Ali said his troops had also surrounded a large number of al-Qaida guerrillas on a mountain ridge. There were unconfirmed battlefield reports that bin Laden might be among them, he said.
Bush said U.S. troops had helped liberate Afghanistan of the Taliban regime and will eventually get bin Laden.
“He may hide for a while, but we’ll get him,” the president said.
Al-Qaida forces are corralled in the Agam and Wazir valleys, two parallel canyons between high mountain peaks. Afghan opposition forces are blocking the north ends of both north-south valleys and advancing on the al-Qaida forces.
The southern ends of both valleys cross the border into Pakistan, where that country’s military has arrayed troops to block escape. Pentagon officials say the Afghan opposition forces are several miles from the Pakistan border.
To go north, an escaping al-Qaida member would have to fight his way through Afghans enraged at his support for the brutal Taliban regime and motivated by the promise of a $25 million U.S. reward.
Going south would bring the al-Qaida “right into the arms of the Pakistani military,” the U.S. defense official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Traveling east or west would mean traversing snowy mountain peaks under constant U.S. surveillance with equipment that can pick out a person’s body heat against the wintry backdrop.
Navy Secretary Gordon England said he hopes bin Laden is surrounded. Even if he is, however, the war against terror will last a long time, England said.
“Even if we do have him surrounded, it’s not the end,” England said Thursday night on CNN’s “Larry King Live.”
Rumsfeld and other military officials have stressed they aren’t sure where bin Laden is. They say he could be elsewhere in Afghanistan but believe he may be in the Tora Bora area.
Al-Qaida troops are fighting “like there’s something there worth fighting for,” the official said. Also, opposition fighters have reported spotting bin Laden in the area.
Rumsfeld said there has been “something above a modest increase” in the number of special operations troops near Tora Bora.
The special operations forces are acting as spotters for U.S. planes strafing and bombing al-Qaida positions while Afghan tribal forces advance in the snowy canyons. Rumsfeld said U.S. troops are now doing more than acting as advisers to the Afghan forces, but he offered no details.
To effectively call in airstrikes against al-Qaida forces, the U.S. troops must position themselves close to the battlefront. Thus they could become engaged in direct combat, as some did earlier in the war during battles for control of the city of Mazar-e-Sharif.
Other U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the few dozen U.S. troops in the Tora Bora area are prepared to engage in direct combat if necessary and to take possession of senior al-Qaida leaders.
The defense secretary said some bin Laden loyalists in Afghanistan already have escaped to other countries to regroup and probably rearm.
He offered no specifics, but said intelligence reports offer conflicting assessments of whether bin Laden himself has escaped into Pakistan or remains in Afghanistan’s mountainous east, where tribal forces aided by U.S. and British commandos are fighting pitched battles.
Copyright ©2001 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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