An intense manhunt will ultimately net the US' No. 1 enemy, Osama bin Laden, but there is no telling how long the hunt might take, the chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff said during a visit to Afghanistan.
General Richard Myers denounced bin Laden's latest taped message, saying its barbarity was a reminder that US forces are involved in "a fight for freedom and civilization."
PHOTO: REUTERS
Two and a half years after their al-Qaeda group organized the deadliest terror attack in history, bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri, are still at large and believed hiding in the craggy mountains along border dividing Pakistan and Afghanistan. A dragnet involving thousands of troops has also failed to track down Taliban leader Mullah Omar or renegade Afghan warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar.
Catching the men is considered a top priority and would be an enormous boost to US President George W. Bush ahead of the November elections in the US -- the reward for information leading to bin Laden's capture was recently raised to US$50 million.
Myers insisted during his visit Friday that he has not grown frustrated at the military's inability to locate bin Laden and his deputy, or at the terror leaders' success at smuggling anti-American audio messages out from their hiding places.
"We will be successful against al-Qaeda and their leadership, but I'm not going to put a timeline on it, because I just can't tell you," he told reporters at Kabul airport before departing. "One or two people hiding in very tough terrain where they have either paid for their security or have sympathizers ... this is very difficult work."
Buoyed by the capture of Saddam Hussein in Iraq, the US military had boasted in January that it was sure it would catch the al-Qaeda chiefs by the end of the year. It backed off those predictions last weekend.
In the past month, Washington has ordered 2,000 Marines to Afghanistan to beef up a US-led force that had already numbered 13,500 soldiers -- taking troop strength to the highest level it has been since the ouster of the Taliban at the end of 2001. The forces, from the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit, have been arriving since late last month.
The military has vowed a sweeping spring offensive to crush remaining Taliban and al-Qaeda holdouts ahead of Afghan presidential and parliamentary elections scheduled for September. Myers said the election, and an anticipated uptick in terrorism during the spring thaw, were the main reasons for bringing in the Marines.
He said he did not feel any additional troops are needed in Afghanistan or Iraq.
In the audio tape, which the CIA has said appeared to be authentic and recorded in the past week, bin Laden offered European nations a truce if they pull troops out of Muslim countries -- and threatened violence against the US and Israel.
Myers said the tape "just reminds us once again what kind of extremism we are up against, and it is useful to have a reminder every once in a while about the type of threat we face and how serious it is to those who want to live in a free and democratic environment."
"This is really a fight for freedom and civilization in many respects," he added.
Asian perspectives of the US have shifted from a country once perceived as a force of “moral legitimacy” to something akin to “a landlord seeking rent,” Singaporean Minister for Defence Ng Eng Hen (黃永宏) said on the sidelines of an international security meeting. Ng said in a round-table discussion at the Munich Security Conference in Germany that assumptions undertaken in the years after the end of World War II have fundamentally changed. One example is that from the time of former US president John F. Kennedy’s inaugural address more than 60 years ago, the image of the US was of a country
‘UNUSUAL EVENT’: The Australian defense minister said that the Chinese navy task group was entitled to be where it was, but Australia would be watching it closely The Australian and New Zealand militaries were monitoring three Chinese warships moving unusually far south along Australia’s east coast on an unknown mission, officials said yesterday. The Australian government a week ago said that the warships had traveled through Southeast Asia and the Coral Sea, and were approaching northeast Australia. Australian Minister for Defence Richard Marles yesterday said that the Chinese ships — the Hengyang naval frigate, the Zunyi cruiser and the Weishanhu replenishment vessel — were “off the east coast of Australia.” Defense officials did not respond to a request for comment on a Financial Times report that the task group from
BLIND COST CUTTING: A DOGE push to lay off 2,000 energy department workers resulted in hundreds of staff at a nuclear security agency being fired — then ‘unfired’ US President Donald Trump’s administration has halted the firings of hundreds of federal employees who were tasked with working on the nation’s nuclear weapons programs, in an about-face that has left workers confused and experts cautioning that the Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE’s) blind cost cutting would put communities at risk. Three US officials who spoke to The Associated Press said up to 350 employees at the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) were abruptly laid off late on Thursday, with some losing access to e-mail before they’d learned they were fired, only to try to enter their offices on Friday morning
STEADFAST DART: The six-week exercise, which involves about 10,000 troops from nine nations, focuses on rapid deployment scenarios and multidomain operations NATO is testing its ability to rapidly deploy across eastern Europe — without direct US assistance — as Washington shifts its approach toward European defense and the war in Ukraine. The six-week Steadfast Dart 2025 exercises across Bulgaria, Romania and Greece are taking place as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine approaches the three-year mark. They involve about 10,000 troops from nine nations and represent the largest NATO operation planned this year. The US absence from the exercises comes as European nations scramble to build greater military self-sufficiency over their concerns about the commitment of US President Donald Trump’s administration to common defense and
RSS