The US does not know where al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden is and has lacked reliable information on his whereabouts for years, US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates says.
The revelation from Gates, speaking in an interview with ABC News’ This Week program to be aired yesterday, comes days after US President Barack Obama announced he would send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan.
Asked if Pakistan was doing enough to apprehend bin Laden, Gates answered: “Well, we don’t know for a fact where Osama bin Laden is. If we did, we’d go get him.”
Referring to the last time US intelligence had a fix on bin Laden’s whereabouts, Gates said: “I think it’s been years.”
Bin Laden is believed to have escaped from Afghanistan into Pakistan in late 2001.
In excerpts of the interview released ahead of the broadcast, Gates could not confirm reports about a detainee in Pakistan who claimed he had information on where bin Laden was earlier this year.
Part of the US’ reason for going to war more than eight years ago in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks was to kill or capture bin Laden.
The al-Qaeda leader is seen as the chief mastermind of the 2001 attacks in the US that killed nearly 3,000 people.
Immediately after the attacks, US government officials named bin Laden and the al-Qaeda network as the prime suspects and offered a reward of US$25 million for information leading to his capture or death.
In 2007, this figure was doubled to US$50 million. But so far, the al-Qaeda founder has eluded capture.
A US Senate report released last week said bin Laden was “within the grasp” of US forces in late 2001 but escaped because then-defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld rejected calls for reinforcements.
The hard-hitting study points the finger directly at Rumsfeld for turning down requests for reinforcements as bin Laden was trapped in December 2001 in caves and tunnels in a mountainous area of eastern Afghanistan known as Tora Bora.
“The vast array of American military power, from sniper teams to the most mobile divisions of the marine corps and the army, was kept on the sidelines,” the report says. “Instead, the US command chose to rely on airstrikes and untrained Afghan militias to attack bin Laden and on Pakistan’s loosely organized Frontier Corps to seal his escape routes.”
The report, commissioned by Senator John Kerry, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, says bin Laden expected to die and had even written a will.
“But the al-Qaeda leader would live to fight another day. Fewer than 100 American commandos were on the scene with their Afghan allies and calls for reinforcements to launch an assault were rejected,” it says. “Requests were also turned down for US troops to block the mountain paths leading to sanctuary a few miles away in Pakistan.”
“The decision not to deploy American forces to go after bin Laden or block his escape was made by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and his top commander, General Tommy Franks,” the report says.
NATIONAL SECURITY: The Chinese influencer shared multiple videos on social media in which she claimed Taiwan is a part of China and supported its annexation Freedom of speech does not allow comments by Chinese residents in Taiwan that compromise national security or social stability, the nation’s top officials said yesterday, after the National Immigration Agency (NIA) revoked the residency permit of a Chinese influencer who published videos advocating China annexing Taiwan by force. Taiwan welcomes all foreigners to settle here and make families so long as they “love the land and people of Taiwan,” Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) told lawmakers during a plenary session at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei. The public power of the government must be asserted when necessary and the Ministry of
Proposed amendments would forbid the use of all personal electronic devices during school hours in high schools and below, starting from the next school year in August, the Ministry of Education said on Monday. The Regulations on the Use of Mobile Devices at Educational Facilities up to High Schools (高級中等以下學校校園行動載具使用原則) state that mobile devices — defined as mobile phones, laptops, tablets, smartwatches or other wearables — should be turned off at school. The changes would stipulate that use of such devices during class is forbidden, and the devices should be handed to a teacher or the school for safekeeping. The amendments also say
CONSISTENT COMMITMENT: The American Institute in Taiwan director said that the US would expand investment and trade relationships to make both nations more prosperous The US would not abandon its commitment to Taiwan, and would make Taiwan safer, stronger and more prosperous, American Institute in Taiwan Director Raymond Greene said. “The US’ commitment to Taiwan has been consistent over many administrations and over many years, and we will not abandon our commitment to Taiwan, including our opposition to any attempt to use force or coercion to change Taiwan’s status,” he said in an exclusive interview with the Liberty Times (the sister newspaper of the Taipei Times) on Friday last week, which was published in the Chinese-language newspaper yesterday. The US would double down on its efforts
SECURITY: President William Lai has announced plans to restore the military court system that was disbanded in 2013 to address a surge in Chinese infiltration efforts Taiwan plans to reinstate military judges to hear Chinese espionage cases and other offenses involving Taiwanese service members, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday. There would be a review and legal amendments “to reinstate the military trial system,” he told reporters after a national security meeting. “Military judges will return to the front line,” Lai said. Military judges would work “alongside prosecutorial and judicial agencies to handle criminal cases involving active-duty military personnel accused of treason, aiding the enemy, leaking classified information, dereliction of duty, insubordination and other military offenses,” he said. The number of people prosecuted for spying for Beijing has risen sharply,
RSS