Rumsfeld doubts bin Laden in full command of al-Qaida

It appears unlikely that Osama bin Laden, if still alive, is in full command of the al-Qaida terrorist network, according to US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

Rumsfeld, who arrived this morning for an unannounced visit to Pakistan, said the US government did not know bin Laden’s whereabouts, but it was a “reasonable assumption” that the Saudi exile was in the remote area along the Afghan-Pakistan border.

Rumsfeld flew to Pakistan to visit the areas hardest hit by the October 8 earthquake that killed an estimated 87,000 people, forced at least 3 million from their homes and led to the deployment of hundreds of US troops to provide medical, logistical and other assistance. Vice President Dick Cheney also visited Pakistan this week.

In an interview aboard an Air Force C-32 flight from Washington, Rumsfeld said he did not know where bin Laden was, or even if he was still alive. But a good guess is that he was hiding along the border.

“It’s a reasonable assumption, if you don’t know where he is, but if you want to guess, he has in the past operated in those areas,” Rumsfeld said.

Speaking earlier in Washington before he departed for Pakistan, Rumsfeld said a reduction in the size of the US military force in Afghanistan – from about 19,000 to about 16,000 – would not diminish the hunt for bin Laden and other terrorists in the area along the Afghan-Pakistan border.

Rumsfeld told reporters he wanted to go to Pakistan to see the humanitarian relief operations and to demonstrate US support for Pakistan and its recovery efforts. He added that he found it interesting that bin Laden had not been heard from publicly in nearly a year.

“I don’t know what it means,” Rumsfeld said. “I suspect that in any event, if he’s alive and functioning that he’s probably spending a major fraction of his time trying to avoid getting caught. I have trouble believing that he’s able to operate sufficiently to be in a position of major command over a worldwide al Qaida operation, but I could be wrong. We just don’t know.”

US military aircraft have dropped relief supplies to the areas hardest hit by the October 8 quake. UN humanitarian chief Jan Egeland said last week that there were hundreds of thousands of lives at stake as winter weather descended on north-western Pakistan and the disputed Kashmir region.

Many uprooted survivors of the quake have been living in hundreds of spontaneous and organised refugee camps, many at elevations above 5,000 feet.

The US military has about 850 people assisting, including air crews, the 212th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital, the 3rd Medical Battalion, Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 74 and others.

At Qasim Air Base, where US forces maintain helicopters used in disaster relief flights, Navy Rear Adm. Michael LeFever, the senior US commander of the humanitarian mission, said the presence of American troops in Pakistan had helped change perceptions of Westerners in the area.

“We’ve become a symbol of hope and relief,” he said.

LeFever mentioned that one of the popular toys for children in the area now was a model of a Chinook helicopter. People had come to associate American choppers with relief, he added.

Rumsfeld has visited Pakistan numerous times since the September 11, 2001, attacks, most recently in April, when he also visited US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. Pakistan has become a close US ally in the global war on terrorism, particularly in the hunt for al-Qaida leaders.

In early December, Pakistani officials said Hamza Rabia, a top-level al-Qaida operative, was killed in an explosion – possibly a US missile strike – in the North Waziristan tribal area of Pakistan near the Afghan border. Rabia is said to be a key associate of al-Qaida No.2 Ayman al-Zawahiri. Bush administration officials have not publicly confirmed Rabia’s death.