| MARGARET WARNER: With
the Taliban driven from power in much of Afghanistan, U.S. forces have
intensified their hunt for bin Laden and other al-Qaida leaders. Defense
Secretary Rumsfeld said yesterday he hopes to enlist Afghanis in that
hunt. The U.S. military is dropping thousands of wanted poster leaflets
like these throughout the country, but written in the Pashto and Dari
languages, offering a $25 million cash reward for help in hunting bin
Laden down. And an EC-130 aircraft code- named "Commando Solo"
has been broadcasting radio messages offering rewards for information
on bin Laden and eight other al-Qaida leaders. U.S. officials say they
don't know where bin Laden is, but believe he's hiding out in areas that
aren't yet under opposition control. Pentagon officials were asked today
if, with all their recent bombing of caves and tunnels, they are still
confident bin Laden is alive.
REAR ADMIRAL JOHN STUFFLEBEEM: Well, I'll make no judgment on what
I think of... Or where I think Osama bin Laden is. It's possible that
on one of these strikes, he may be killed. It is also possible that
he may survive. And as the secretary has pointed out, it's possible
that he might slip out. We are using every avenue of intelligence gathering,
we're using every contact that we have with opposition groups and locals
on the ground to help narrow the possibilities of where al-Qaida...
Leadership al-Qaida may be at, and then targeting those tunnels and
complexes accordingly. But to be able to -- I couldn't give you any
level of confidence on one way or the other.
VICTORIA CLARKE, Pentagon Spokesperson: You either have him or you
don't. One of the things we are trying to do is surface a lot of information,
intelligence, the scraps and bits and pieces the secretary references
all the time, trying to find him. But you either have him or you don't.
And we don't right now. And in a country of that size and that uncertainty
and instability, it's hard to say with certainty where he is.
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