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THE SEARCH FOR OSAMA BIN LADEN 'I Think Osama bin Laden has Shot Himself in the Foot'
Tuesday, February 26, 2002
By George Edmonson
Staff Writer

Osama bin Laden can be worth $100 million or $2 million; it's really irrelevant. The point is that he was able to recruit people who wanted to die.

WASHINGTON -- AJC
Peter Bergen is one of the few Western journalists to have interviewed Osama bin Laden. Bergen met bin Laden in 1997. He has done extensive reporting on terrorism, and his "Holy War, Inc.: Inside the Secret World of Osama bin Laden" was published shortly after Sept. 11. He is revising a paperback edition due in June.

Here are excerpts from a conversation with Bergen, who serves as an analyst for CNN, about the hunt for bin Laden:

Q: Do you think bin Laden is still alive?

A: Unless there's compelling evidence to suggest that he's dead, why presume anything else? My assumption is that he's alive and in Afghanistan, unless compelling evidence is produced to the contrary.
(More: AccessAtlanta.com News Source)
2002 © Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Dan