War commander cites progress in Tora Bora; items seized in camps being tested for evidence of weapons of mass destruction

By SUSANNE M. SCHAFER
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON – U.S. and Afghan opposition forces searched caves and bunkers to root out remnant al-Qaida terrorists, but Gen. Tommy Franks said Sunday that "it's going to be a while" before Tora Bora is under control. Secretary of State Colin Powell said the hunt for Osama bin Laden could take years.

"Al-Qaida is, if not totally destroyed, well on the way to being destroyed in Afghanistan," Powell said. Many al-Qaida cells around the world still must be targeted, he said.

Powell, Franks and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld – on his first visit to Afghanistan since the war began some 70 days ago – all said bin Laden's whereabouts remain a mystery for now.

"But let there be no doubt in anyone's mind that the president is determined that however long it takes ... one day, one week, one month, two years, we will get him. Let's be patient and just not give up," Powell said on NBC's "Meet the Press."

In Tora Bora, tribal fighters said they took the last al-Qaida positions Sunday. The situation was not as clear to Franks as U.S. forces joined with Afghan fighters in the ground campaign.

"They are making progress, but I think it's accurate to say that it's going to be a while before we have the area of Tora Bora fully under control," Franks said.

"It's physically a matter of digging out the al-Qaida from these caves and tunnels. ... It's a matter of inching our way forward up the sides of these canyons and physically going into each one of these bunkers and caves," Franks said on ABC's "This Week."

American forces believed they heard bin Laden giving orders over short-range radio in the Tora Bora area this past week, a U.S. official said Saturday.

Powell and others were less certain. "It could have been him. It's not known, and we've never been able to confirm that it was his voice. ... I don't think it's fresh information that is targetable."

Rumsfeld met with the new interim prime minister, Hamid Karzai, at Bagram airport outside the Afghan capital, Kabul. Rumsfeld told reporters that items recovered from an abandoned terrorist training camp in southern Afghanistan by U.S. forces were being tested for evidence of weapons of mass destruction.

The Tarnak Farms camp, located just east of the U.S. military's remote desert base about 70 miles from Kandahar, is on a list of more than a dozen locations troops want to investigate, Rumsfeld said.

Franks said the list of such sites inside Afghanistan has grown to more than 50.

"We are going through them very, very methodically," the general said. Officials were reviewing information about terrorists poisons, explosives, and methods, and taking soil samples.

National security adviser Condoleezza Rice said the United States takes bin Laden "at his word when he says that it is a religious duty of the al-Qaida network to acquire weapons of mass destruction."

She said on CBS' "Face the Nation" that "a lot is being found in these houses, in the places that are being raided, that suggests they were trying at least to acquire these weapons of mass destruction."

U.S. officials reported that three U.S. Marines were injured Sunday when a land mine exploded at Kandahar's airport. The Marines are building a prisoner of war camp at the site.

As the Sunday talk shows looked ahead to the next phase of the anti-terrorism campaign, Saudi Arabia's role came under scrutiny. Fifteen of the hijackers in the Sept. 11 attacks were from Saudi Arabia.

"I think we've got to be very clear with the Saudis that they have not acted properly, that they have given money to terrorist organizations, they have educated a lot of young people in Pakistan, Afghanistan and a lot of other places through their resources to be fanatical terrorists," said House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt, D-Mo., on NBC.

Rice, however, said the Saudis have been "very cooperative" and the Bush administration is "completely satisfied with the cooperation of the Saudi government."

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