Bin Laden is sure to be caught, says US general
Scotsman
OSAMA bin Laden is probably alive and will be caught just like Saddam Hussein, said the top United States general yesterday in a rallying speech to troops in Afghanistan.
General Richard Myers, on a one-day Christmas visit to the country accompanied by the comedian Robin Williams and other US entertainers, said the al-Qaeda leader was probably hiding in rugged tribal lands on the Pakistani-Afghan border.
"It's very difficult to find individuals," said Gen Myers, the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, at the US headquarters in Afghanistan at Bagram, north of Kabul.
"But what will happen is, with absolute certainty, if bin Laden is still alive - and I think most suspect he is - that he will be captured some day, just like we captured Saddam Hussein.
"Some day he will be brought to justice, just like Saddam," added Gen Myers.
Common wisdom, he continued, had it that bin Laden was somewhere in the Afghan- Pakistani border region, "where he has some support, where he can buy support, and probably very difficult terrain".
Gen Myers earlier visited Iraq, where Saddam was tracked eight months after his rule was ended by a US-led invasion.
In Afghanistan, he said he was pleased a key national assembly meeting, or Loya Jirga, to approve a new constitution had so far passed off without incident, despite threats by guerrillas of the ousted Taleban government to disrupt it.
"We have basically a pretty stable country, and the incidents we have are actually isolated terrorist incidents."
"That doesn't mean tomorrow that we aren't going to have a car bomb attack ... but the security situation has dramatically improved." |
