Mrs Rumsfeld wants bin Laden

2004-06-04 14:15

Aboard The USS Essex, Singapore - US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld says his wife often wants to know where Osama bin Laden is hiding _ and she usually pops the question soon after he wakes up in the morning.

"When I walk out of the bedroom in the morning, my wife frequently rolls over and says 'Where's UBL?'," Rumsfeld told US sailors and Marines aboard the USS Essex in Singapore on Friday, referring to the bearded fugitive's alternative initials.

Rumsfeld did not say what he normally tells his spouse in reply. But he admitted to his military audience - standing in rows on the helicopter carrier's flight deck - that their bosses in the Pentagon did not know where bin Laden is.

"Close doesn't count. In horse shoes, yes, in finding a terrorist person, no. There are a lot of people looking. If he's alive and well out there, he is very busy trying to avoid being caught," Rumsfeld said.

"He is under pressure, but where he is, we don't know. If we knew, we would go find him," Rumsfeld added. But "until he's caught, he's not caught."

Bin Laden has topped Washington's most-wanted list since he was blamed for organising the multiple terror attacks on Washington and New York in September 2001.

- AP