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Wolfowitz: Al Qaeda Is No Snake, But Like a Disease
Wednesday, July 10, 2002
By Rudi Williams
American Forces Press Service

"We got a videotape out of an al Qaeda safe house in Afghanistan that revealed a plot under way in Singapore. The Singaporeans picked up the whole group, (who) led them to other people in the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia. It's chasing down a network and you get one node in the network and it leads you to other nodes."

WASHINGTON -- AFIS
The al Qaeda terrorist network isn't like a snake that you can kill by cutting off its head. Rather, it's like a disease that has infected a healthy body "and you've got to fight all of the various different sources of infection," Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz said during a July 9 television interview.

Appearing on host Greta van Susteren's "On the Record" show on the Fox channel, Wolfowitz said the United States and its allies have made a lot of progress during Operation Enduring Freedom. "But," he added, "if we let up the pressure, (al Qaeda) will come back and you see all kinds of signs that they continue to regroup and reorganize. We've got to keep them on the run."

Rooting out al Qaeda members isn't easy because no one knows who they are, how many there are or where the top officials are hiding, he said. Wolfowitz said al Qaeda may have hundreds of loosely affiliated members, but perhaps only dozens of really key people.

He noted the videotape captured last year in which al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden seems to take "pleasure" that 14 or 15 of his 19 Sept. 11 terrorist hijackers didn't know they were on a suicide mission -- the only ones who knew the real plan were the hijacker pilots.

However, the secretary said, "Until we've nearly eliminated their ability to (organize), eliminated their sanctuaries, you have to assume that if you get rid of some of the top people others will replace them," Wolfowitz said.
(More: DoD News Source)
2002 © The United States Department of Defense.

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