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Rumsfeld believes bin Laden and Omar still in Afghanistan
( 2002-01-17 10:06 ) (7 )

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said on Wednesday that he believes the elusive Osama bin Laden and Mullah Muhammad Omar are still in Afghanistan.

"We still believe they're in the country," Rumsfeld said. "We're still operating on that basis."

Asked at a Pentagon news briefing whether he would concede that Mr. bin Laden, who is accused of masterminding the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, and Mullah Omar, the Taliban spiritual leader, had simply "vanished," the Secretary rejected that term.

"They know where they are. They know who they are. They know we're looking for them," Rumsfeld said.

For a moment, the secretary seemed to lose patience with the subject. "Pursuing this is fruitless, orally," he said, quickly adding that the American-led military campaign in Afghanistan still includes pursuing Mr. bin Laden and Mullah Omar on the ground.

Rumsfeld said he continued to see a lot of intelligence on the possible whereabouts of the two men. "It's all specific," he said. "Most of it is wrong, but it's all specific."

Asked whether he was confident that the United States would eventually capture the two, he said, "I certainly believe we will."

Mr. Rumsfeld said, as he had many times, that the campaign in Afghanistan is about much more than capturing two terrorists. "We've tried from the outset not to personalize this," he said.

That may be true, from Mr. Rumsfeld's standpoint, but President Bush said just after the Sept. 11 attacks that the United States wanted Osama bin Laden "dead or alive."

In recent weeks, speculation about Mr. bin Laden, and to a lesser extent Mullah Omar, has raised the possibilities that they may have escaped to Pakistan, may still be hiding in Afghanistan or may already be dead and entombed in the caves that American bombers have obliterated.

With essentially nothing new to say about Mr. bin Laden and Mullah Omar, Mr. Rumsfeld reiterated the theme that the campaign to root out terrorism is more ambitious than ousting the Taliban and smashing Al Qaeda's terror network.

"If we have to go into 15 more countries, we ought to do it to deal with the problem of terrorism," Mr. Rumsfeld said, "so we don't allow this problem to damage and kill tens and thousands more people."