Military Mission in Afghanistan Far from Finished
Military mission in Afghanistan far from finished
Osama bin Laden. (AP)
WASHINGTON (AP) - Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaida network are on the run in Afghanistan and their Taliban supporters are in disarray, but the U.S.-led military campaign to crush them is far from over, senior administration officials said Sunday.
Secretary of State Colin Powell and Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, in separate talk show interviews, both said they have no reason to think bin Laden, believed to be the mastermind behind the Sept. 11 terror attacks on the U.S., has escaped Afghanistan.
"I have seen no intelligence or information to suggest" he has left, Powell said on ABC's This Week.
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The Taliban's envoy to Pakistan said Saturday that bin Laden had left Afghanistan, but that has not been substantiated. Later, the diplomat said he meant only that bin Laden was outside areas under Taliban control.
Powell, Wolfowitz and national security adviser Condoleezza Rice all suggested bin Laden's room to maneuver is shrinking, his options narrowing.
"It's getting harder for him to hide as more and more territory is removed from Taliban control," Powell said. "I don't think there's any country in the region that would be anxious to give him guest privileges if he showed up."
Wolfowitz described bin Laden as "in very great danger" of being killed or captured.
"This is a man on the run who's doing his best to hide," Wolfowitz said on CBS's Face the Nation.
Added Rice: "We're beginning to narrow his possibilities for hiding."
Powell said the Central Intelligence Agency has been doing "some rather splendid work with respect to our activities in Afghanistan, working alongside our military forces that are inside in Afghanistan."
The Washington Post reported Sunday the CIA has paramilitary forces in Afghanistan; Powell would not confirm that.
"I think we've got a very fine linkup between our intelligence assets, our military assets, all within the framework of a good political and military strategy," Powell said on This Week. "And it's now starting to show rather significant results."
If bin Laden were to flee Afghanistan, the United States would keep up the hunt, Wolfowitz said.
"We are going to continue pursuing him," he said. "Let's also remember we're going to continue pursuing the entire al-Qaida network, which is in 60 countries, not just Afghanistan and, worst of all,...