The Investigation
 |
|
U.S. says Omar, bin Laden still in Afghanistan
12/9/01By MATT KELLEY
Associated Press
 Marine keeping watch near Camp Rhino AP/DAVE MARTIN |
Vice President Dick Cheney said intelligence reports indicate Omar remains near Kandahar and bin Laden is close to the Tora Bora area south of Jalalabad.
``They were eager to send young men on suicide missions, but they appear to be holding up in caves,'' Cheney said. ``They talk a bold game when it's others they're trying to command to fight to the last drop of blood, but of course, in the final analysis, they're running and hiding.''
Air Force Gen. Richard Myers said the fighting around Tora Bora has been fierce, with surrounded operatives of bin Laden's al-Qaida network ``fighting for their lives.'' He said he did not have information confirming reports that bin Laden personally was leading troops battling the opposition forces.
Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said U.S. forces in the hills near Tora Bora ``are trying to get their eyes onto some of these targets'' to help with airstrikes and aid the opposition.
He said John Walker, the 20-year-old American captured with pro-Taliban forces in northern Afghanistan, has been providing useful information. He said no final decision has been made on what to do with Walker, who is being held at the Marines' Base Rhino southwest of Kandahar.
``He's been pretty close to the action, and he has provided from the Afghan perspective some useful information,'' Myers said on ``Fox News Sunday.''
``I think the evidence is pretty strong that he was right in the middle of it.''
Lawyers from the departments of Defense and Justice are trying to determine how to handle Walker's case, military officials have said. They said Saturday that Walker, described as ``a battlefield detainee,'' would be handed over to U.S. civilian authorities as soon as possible.
``Somebody will have to make a decision whether he needs to be brought to trial, what the charge might be,'' Cheney said.
Walker gave his name as Abdul Hamid after being caught in a fortress near the northern Afghanistan city of Mazar-e-Sharif.
``I have trouble, like many Americans do, understanding why somebody who grew up in this country would ultimately find themselves in Afghanistan fighting with the Taliban and the al-Qaida, but I don't know all the facts,'' Cheney said.
Kandahar, the final Taliban stronghold overrun by opposition forces Friday, remains ``sort of a Wild West place in the worst sense right now, and it'll take some days to sort that out,'' Myers said.
Cheney said on NBC's ``Meet the Press'' that ``there's no question though that the Taliban hold on the city is history'' and that the Taliban ``as an effective government has been destroyed.''
Myers said the United States would like to work with opposition groups to track down Omar, who escaped from his hometown of Kandahar as it fell. The U.S. military also is prepared to hunt for Omar without local help, Myers said.
He said he believed the Marines were doing a good job in their main mission: keeping al-Qaida and Taliban leaders from escaping the Kandahar area.
U.S. troops are unlikely to remain in Afghanistan to provide security for food and other humanitarian aid distribution, Myers said.
``This global war on terrorism is going to require military forces for some time to come, perhaps, and one thing we don't want to do is leave a large legacy force in Afghanistan,'' Myers said.