Washington — One reason the United States hasn't caught Osama bin Laden is the decision to depend on Afghans to do most of the hunting rather than commit thousands of U.S. troops on the ground, many military experts believe.
The U.S. commander of the war, acknowledging that Afghan allies sometimes have different priorities than finding bin Laden, insisted Friday that relying on them still is the only way to operate in the big, unfamiliar and daunting country.
Some Afghans probably are accepting bribes to free al-Qaida or Taliban fighters whom the U.S. wishes to interrogate, said Gen. Tommy Franks, the head of U.S. Central Command. Some may even feed bad intelligence to the United States to bring on attacks against their own enemies.
In fact, two weeks ago, hundreds of al-Qaida members and their families escaped the U.S. onslaught in the Tora Bora mountains and reached Pakistan with the help of senior Afghan tribal leaders who were supposed to be U.S. allies, two eastern alliance officials said.
Still, Franks said he doesn't want more U.S. troops in Afghanistan about 4,000 are there now because the country remains very dangerous. A U.S. Army Special Forces soldier was killed by enemy fire Friday.
"The very best approach in a country is if one finds willing allies who know the ground, know the people," Franks said.
He added: "We don't know where bin Laden is." And he said, "If we absolutely knew where (Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed) Omar was, then we probably would be taking pretty direct action."
The drawbacks of using Afghans as America's eyes, ears and muscle have been apparent for some time, military experts say. After kicking out the Taliban, many Afghan tribal leaders have worked first to consolidate their own power, viewing the American goals as secondary.
"Generally speaking, people are against the Taliban," said Ali Jalali, a former Afghan fighter who has advised the U.S. Army. "But among the local strongmen and warlords, there are some different priorities, some conflicts of interest."
Around Tora Bora, U.S. officials acknowledge they have tried to use the incentives of money, weapons and cold-weather gear to get Afghans to search cave to cave for bin Laden.
At a key moment last month when U.S. bombing and the Afghan tribal offensive had pushed al-Qaida from their cave hideouts around Tora Bora, senior defense officials said Franks was considering sending several hundred Marines to aid the search.
At the time, U.S. officials were concerned that Afghan tribal leaders considered their part of the war over and were unwilling to quickly switch to searching for bin Laden.
Those extra U.S. troops were never sent, and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld insisted recently that such an option had never been considered. A smaller number of U.S. special forces are there, working with Afghan searchers.
Pentagon officials have said that the longer bin Laden remains undetected, the more options he has for eluding hunters. Franks said Friday he could be dead or alive, in Afghanistan or elsewhere.
Both Franks and Rumsfeld say they remain determined to get Omar and bin Laden, and expect success.
Herbert E. Meyer, vice chairman of the CIA's National Intelligence Council, said the task is tricky but possible.
"They'll wind up succeeding at precisely the moment when it's least expected," Meyer said.
No comments
Commenting is turned off for this story.