Home delivery

Traffic | Weather | Your account

Movies | Restaurants | Today's events

Advanced search

Letter from Washington

Pacific Northwest Magazine

Bush quizzed about bin Laden

By USA Today and Chicago Tribune

Secret Service agents guard President Bush, background, during his surprise stop in Afghanistan on Wednesday.

NEW DELHI, India — Osama bin Laden may have been just over the snowcapped peaks to the east when President Bush made an unscheduled stop in Afghanistan on Wednesday and vowed that the al-Qaida leader and former Taliban ruler Mullah Mohammad Omar eventually would be caught.

"I am confident he will be brought to justice," Bush said.

"What's happening is that we've got U.S. forces on the hunt for not only bin Laden but anybody who plots and plans with bin Laden," said Bush, stopping at Bagram Air Force Base en route to New Delhi and Islamabad, Pakistan. "It's not a matter of if they are captured and brought to justice, but when they're captured and brought to justice."

Bush's visit was his first to Afghanistan. He met with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, cut a ribbon for the new U.S. Embassy and gave troops a pep talk.

The security situation in Afghanistan was illustrated by the tight security around Bush and the secrecy of the trip.

U.S. troops working with Afghan opposition forces in late 2001 drove out the Taliban regime that hosted bin Laden. Nearly 100 U.S. troops were killed in Afghanistan last year. About 18,000 U.S. troops remain in the country and regularly battle Taliban loyalists near the Pakistan border. That is where CIA Director Porter Goss says bin Laden hides. Bush said support for the Taliban from across the border in Pakistan would be a major topic when he meets that country's president, Pervez Musharraf, on Saturday.

In New Delhi today, Bush praised his hosts after an elaborate arrival ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhavan, the presidential palace. "I have been received in many capitals around the world, but I have never seen a reception as well-organized or as grand. It's an honor to be here."

Bush on Osama bin Laden

Statements from President Bush about Osama bin Laden since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001:

"I want justice. There's an old poster out West, as I recall, that said: 'Wanted: dead or alive.' "

( Sept. 17, 2001)

"The idea of focusing on one person is really — indicates to me people don't understand the scope of the mission. Terror's bigger

than one person. And he's [bin Laden] just — he's a person who has now been marginalized. His network is — his host government

has been destroyed. He's the ultimate parasite who found weakness, exploited it,

and met his match."

(March 13, 2002)

"The person responsible for the attacks was Osama bin Laden. That's who's responsible

for killing Americans. And that's why

we will stay on the offense until we bring people to justice."

(April 13, 2004)

"Our coalition against terrorists killed or captured nearly all those directly responsible for the September the 11th attacks.

We've captured or killed several of bin Laden's most serious deputies. ... Because of the steady progress, the enemy is wounded. But the enemy is still capable of global operations."

(Nov. 11, 2005)

"Terrorists like bin Laden are serious about mass murder and all of us must take their declared intentions seriously. They seek to impose a heartless system of totalitarian control throughout the Middle East, and arm themselves with weapons of mass murder. Their aim is to seize power in Iraq and use it as a safe haven to launch attacks against America and the world."

( Jan. 31, 2006)

"We've got U.S. forces on the hunt for not only bin Laden but anybody who plots and plans with bin Laden. There are Afghan forces

on the hunt. ... We've got Pakistan forces

on the hunt."

(Wednesday)

Behind the scenes, last-minute haggling in search of a U.S.-India nuclear deal continued. As part of a deal announced last summer, India has promised to separate its civilian nuclear-power generators from its military nuclear-weaponry program.

But the question is how many nuclear reactors will remain within the control of a nation that never signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and has tested atomic weapons twice — and as recently as 1998 — and how many civilian reactors India will yield to the oversight of the International Atomic Energy Agency. India news channels reported the nuclear-cooperation pact was sealed early today, but there was no confirmation from either government.

Material from The Associated Press and Reuters is included in this report.

E-mail article Print view

More politics headlines...