U.S. contacts Saudis in search
for Bin Laden
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SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COM
Monday, January 21, 2002
WASHINGTON Ñ The Bush administration has contacted the governments of Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Sudan about the whereabouts of Osama Bin Laden.
U.S. officials said Saudi Arabia is one of several countries that Bin
Laden would most likely choose had he escaped Afghanistan. The other
countries are Chechnya, the disputed Kashmir region, Somalia, Sudan and
Yemen.
Officials said the Bush administration has raised the prospect with
Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Yemen. They said they were pledged cooperation by
all three countries. The officials said that Bin Laden might have sought
refuge along the Saudi-Yemeni border, a stronghold of his Al Qaida group.
Last week, U.S. government sources said the CIA has assessed that Bin
Laden fled Afghanistan in December. The sources said Bin Laden probably
escaped Afghanistan by sea before U.S. troops attacked his network of caves
in Tora Bora.
In contrast, Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf raised the prospect
that Bin Laden died from a kidney ailment. Musharraf said Bin Laden required
daily treatment which he could not obtain during his flight from U.S.
forces.
"There are a number of places, but I don't think there are many places
that would like to have him right now," U.S. Defense Secretary Donald
Rumsfeld said.
In a television interview on Sunday, Rumsfeld said the United States
does not have evidence that Bin Laden is dead. But he appeared to place
greater stress that Bin Laden had escaped, probably with the help of Afghan
sympathizers.
"He could be dead; he could be alive," Rumsfeld said. "He could be in
Afghanistan, he could be somewhere else. We're looking for him, and I think
we'll find him."
"Right now, Bin Laden and [Taliban leader Mohammad] Omar are not
currently functioning effectively leading their terrorist networks, they are
being driven," he said. "They are running, they are hiding and we are after
them."
On another issue, Rumsfeld denied that Saudi Arabia has requested a
withdrawal of the nearly 5,000 U.S. troops from the kingdom. Rumsfeld
described U.S.-Saudi Arabian relations as strong.
"This is a very long-standing relationship with Saudi Arabia," Rumsfeld
said. "How it will evolve in the future is, of course, up to the Saudis."
But Gulf defense sources said relations between Riyad and Washington
have been strained amid a quiet dialogue regarding a U.S. pullout of troops
from the kingdom. The Kuwaiti A-Siyassa daily reported last week that the
Pentagon has prepared a withdrawal to transfer U.S. troops from Saudi Arabia
to both Bahrain, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.
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