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Rumsfeld: Still Expects to Get bin Laden
Thursday, October 25, 2001
(3:05 PM ET)
By Matt Kelley
Associated Press Military Writer

“There are lots of countries. He's got a lot of money, he's got a lot of people who support him and I just don't know whether we'll be successful.”

WASHINGTON -- AP
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said today that the United States still hopes to get Osama bin Laden, though finding the No. 1 terror suspect in Afghanistan is proving to be difficult.

"It's like looking for a needle in a haystack," Rumsfeld said at a Pentagon news conference.

Nearly three weeks into the U.S. military campaign, the Pentagon chief said airstrikes are hurting the Taliban, the ruling militia protecting bin Laden, as well as his al-Qaida terrorist network of supporters.

So far, however, Rumsfeld said efforts to get bin Laden -- "dead or alive" as President Bush put it -- haven't met with as much success, though airstrikes were launched with just that top goal in mind.
(More: South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com News Source)
2001 © the Associated Press.

Dan