Osama 'not in full command'

2005-12-21 12:24

Robert Burns

Pakistan - US secretary of defence Donald H Rumsfeld said he doubts that Osama bin Laden is in position to assert full command over the al-Qaeda terror network.

Rumsfeld, who arrived on Wednesday morning for an unannounced visit to Pakistan, said he found it interesting that Bin Laden has not been heard from publicly in nearly a year.

"I don't know what it means," Rumsfeld told a group of reporters travelling with him. "I suspect that in any event, if he's alive and functioning that he's probably spending a major fraction of his time trying to avoid getting caught."

He added that he thought Bin Laden would have difficulty being "in a position of major command over a worldwide al-Qaeda operation, but I could be wrong. We just don't know".

The defence chief also discussed a Pentagon announcement that US troop levels in Afghanistan will drop by about 3 500 to roughly 16 500 next spring.

He said the cancellation of a planned deployment there by a Louisiana-based brigade was an example of the way the Pentagon is likely to reduce the American troop presence in Iraq next year.

In an interview aboard a US Air Force C-32 airplane carrying him from Washington to Pakistan, Rumsfeld said when American commanders conclude that a smaller US presence is advisable, some units scheduled to rotate into Iraq will have their tours cancelled.

At other times, units already in Iraq will be sent home early, he added.

Rumsfeld mentioned no specifics on future troop cuts in Iraq, beyond returning to a base figure of about 138 000 next month from the bulked-up 160 000-strong force assembled in advance of the December 15 election.

The Pentagon hopes to drop the total well below 100 000 before the end of 2006. Those moves will depend on the strength of the insurgency, the progress in training Iraqi security forces and steps forward in building a national political consensus.

At this air base near the Pakistani capital of Islamabad, Rumsfeld was meeting with many of the approximately 850 US troops providing humanitarian relief for victims of the October 8 earthquake that devastated large parts of northwestern Pakistan and the disputed Kashmir region.

- AP