Osama's trail still runs cold

2004-12-28 15:37

New Delhi - Shortly after the September 11 attacks US President George W Bush predicted Osama bin Laden wouldn't have much of a future.

Three years ago, Bush said: "We will do everything we can to stop him here at home, and we're doing everything we can to hunt him down and bring him to justice."

This spring the US army spokesperson in Afghanistan re-affirmed the coalition forces commitment, saying they are sure to capture Osama bin Laden this year.

But as the third year of the hunt comes to a close, there seems to be no trace of the al-Qaeda-leader for the superpower to track.

Bin Laden's trail has turned cold, admitted Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf recently.

Washington has restrengthened its search for the top terrorist this year by deploying Task Force 121, a team of special troops and secret service officials from Iraq to the remote Afghan-Pakistan border, where it is widely believed bin Laden is hiding.

Threats in a video message

US military spy planes and missile-carrying Predator drones circled the area this spring trying to locate the elusive al-Qaeda leader.

Speculations were rife that Bush would present the world's most wanted terrorist, shortly before the US presidential elections held in November.

But, bin Laden wasn't in US custody, instead he threatened the US with more attacks in a video message.

Even the $27m reward for the terrorist's head hasn't lead to his capture, but it did attract some unscrupulous bounty hunters.

After his July arrest in Kabul, former US soldier and bounty hunter Jonathan Idema claimed to be on the heels of bin Laden.

He and his accomplices were found guilty of kidnapping innocent Afghans and of running a private prison with a torture cell in Kabul.

Critics say the US and Pakistan no longer have much interest in a successful capture of bin Laden - Bush won the election and as long as bin Laden is on the loose the US government has a justification for its war on terror.

Al-Qaeda's acts of revenge

And for Musharraf, according to Pakistani journalist Ahmed Rashid, there could be serious consequences if bin Laden is arrested or killed.

Al-Qaeda acts of revenge in the form of new attacks against the president could be the result.

"We do not know where he is," admitted Musharraf in December to the Washington Post.

Even nine months of an intensive military operation hunting al-Qaeda terrorists in Pakistan's mountainous border-region with Afghanistan, has left hundreds dead and has turned up no sign of Osama bin Laden.

However, Afghan President Hamid Karzai believes the terrorist leader is still in the region and said he will be arrested "sooner or later".

He said: "Let us build on our luck."

- SAPA