Bin Laden more symbol than threat-Pentagon nominee
05 Dec 2006 18:07:08 GMT Source: Reuters
By Jeremy Pelofsky WASHINGTON, Dec 5 (Reuters) - Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden has become more of a symbol than an active plotter of attacks against the United States, U.S. defense secretary nominee Robert Gates said on Tuesday. "I think that his ability to directly organize and plan the kind of attacks against us that hurt us so badly in September of 2001 is very limited now," Gates told the Senate Armed Services Committee, which was considering his nomination. Gates was expected to win U.S. Senate confirmation to replace Donald Rumsfeld as defense secretary. "I have no doubt that our forces have been trying their best to find Osama bin Laden," he said. There have been several unconfirmed rumors that the Saudi-born al Qaeda chief was ill or dead. Asked who he believed was the greater threat to the United States since the Sept. 11 attacks, Saddam Hussein or Osama bin Laden, Gates replied, "Osama bin Laden." Bin Laden, the mastermind behind the plan to fly commercial airplanes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon in 2001, will likely be turned in by one of his own people, Gates said, in similar way to how U.S. forces caught Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. Bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri, are believed to be hiding in the mountainous border between Afghanistan and Pakistan. Democrats have criticized the Bush administration for letting bin Laden escape during the war in Afghanistan, where he had been protected by the ruling Taliban, and turning the U.S. military's attention to Iraq and Saddam. The last videotaped message by bin Laden was released in late 2004 but several low-quality audio tapes have been released this year. Gates was asked whether the U.S. government's $25 million reward for bin Laden should be increased by $1 million a week. "A sort of terrorist "Powerball," Gates replied. "I'm certainly open to that, Senator. ... I think just as he is not organizing things any longer but remains a powerful symbol, I think being able to capture or kill him would have a powerful symbolic impact also."
