CIA: Bin Laden isolated from al-Qaida

OSAMA bin Laden, deeply isolated and likely to be somewhere near the rugged Afghanistan-Pakistan border, has been forced to devote much of his energy to his own security while his al-Qaida terror network remains resilient, CIA director Michael Hayden said.

“He is putting a lot of energy into his own survival, a lot of energy into his own security. In fact, he appears to be largely isolated from the day-to-day operations of the organisation he nominally heads,” Hayden said.

The CIA chief suggested bin Laden was hiding somewhere in the remote border region, where he said al-Qaida has regrouped and bolstered its organisation.

Hayden said “part of the explanation for his (bin Laden’s) survival lies in the fact that he has worked to avoid detection”.

But he said hunting down bin Laden remains a high priority for the CIA.

“Although there has been press speculation to the contrary, I can assure you that the hunt for bin Laden is very much at the top of CIA’s priority list.”

He said killing or capturing the Saudi-born bin Laden would deal a severe blow to the terror group blamed for the attacks of September 11, 2001.

“Because of his iconic stature, his death or capture clearly would have a significant impact on the confidence of his followers, both core al-Qaida and unaffiliated extremists... throughout the world,” he said.

Hayden said the network had “suffered serious setbacks, but it remains a determined, adaptive enemy, unlike any our nation has ever faced”.

Hayden, appointed in May 2006 by President George W Bush, may soon be stepping down as CIA chief amid media speculation that president-elect Obama may choose to replace both him and National Intelligence director Mike McConnell when he takes office on January 20.

During the campaign Obama vowed to hunt down bin Laden, accusing Bush of diverting resources from the war in Afghanistan and the hunt for bin Laden to fight what he has called an unnecessary war in Iraq.

Hayden described the tribal areas of Pakistan as an al-Qaida “safe haven” that is linked to every major terrorist threat against the US. “Today, virtually every major terrorist threat that my agency is aware of has threads back to the tribal areas,” he said.