Musharraf says Pakistan can't find Bin Laden, and calls for the rebuilding of Aghanistan's army to fight no-good-niks
Musharraf: Bin Laden's Location Is Unknown / Pakistani Presses U.S. on Rebuilding Afghan Army(washingtonpost.com)
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf said yesterday that the search for Osama bin Laden has gone completely cold, with no recent intelligence indicating where he and his top lieutenants are hiding.
More than three years after al Qaeda's attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon killed almost 3,000 people, Musharraf insisted that Pakistani forces are still aggressively pursuing the world's most notorious terrorist. But he acknowledged that recent security force operations and interrogations have been able to determine only one fact -- that bin Laden is still alive.
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, center, confers with journalists at Mayflower Hotel here after he met with President Bush at the White House. Bush said he was "very pleased" with Pakistan's efforts against al Qaeda. (Shaun Heasley -- Reuters)
"He is alive, but more than that, where he is, no, it'll be just a guess and it won't have much basis," Musharraf said in an interview with Washington Post editors and reporters. Pressed on whether the trail had gone cold, he said, "Yes, if you mean we don't know, from that point of view, we don't know where he is."
The United States shares major responsibility, Musharraf suggested, because the U.S.-led coalition does not have enough troops in Afghanistan, which has left "voids." The United States and its allies need to expedite the training and expansion of the new Afghan army as the only viable alternative, he said.
Challenges in Afghanistan would be better dealt with "if the Afghan national army is raised faster, in more strength, so that they can reach out to fill these voids that I am talking about, where U.S. forces or coalition forces are not there," he said.
Musharraf: Bin Laden's Location Is Unknown / Pakistani Presses U.S. on Rebuilding Afghan Army(washingtonpost.com)
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf said yesterday that the search for Osama bin Laden has gone completely cold, with no recent intelligence indicating where he and his top lieutenants are hiding.
More than three years after al Qaeda's attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon killed almost 3,000 people, Musharraf insisted that Pakistani forces are still aggressively pursuing the world's most notorious terrorist. But he acknowledged that recent security force operations and interrogations have been able to determine only one fact -- that bin Laden is still alive.
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, center, confers with journalists at Mayflower Hotel here after he met with President Bush at the White House. Bush said he was "very pleased" with Pakistan's efforts against al Qaeda. (Shaun Heasley -- Reuters)
"He is alive, but more than that, where he is, no, it'll be just a guess and it won't have much basis," Musharraf said in an interview with Washington Post editors and reporters. Pressed on whether the trail had gone cold, he said, "Yes, if you mean we don't know, from that point of view, we don't know where he is."
The United States shares major responsibility, Musharraf suggested, because the U.S.-led coalition does not have enough troops in Afghanistan, which has left "voids." The United States and its allies need to expedite the training and expansion of the new Afghan army as the only viable alternative, he said.
Challenges in Afghanistan would be better dealt with "if the Afghan national army is raised faster, in more strength, so that they can reach out to fill these voids that I am talking about, where U.S. forces or coalition forces are not there," he said.
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