While the capture of Iraq’s Saddam Hussein has deteriorated into a “legal” circus involving former U.S. Atty. Gen. Ramsey Clark’s misguided obsession with making sure the Middle East murderer gets “a fair trial,” the apprehension of other Islamic terrorists remains a monumental issue.

Justice should be served, but it is no secret that many believe it might have been better if Saddam had been slain during his arrest rather than cleaned up, buttered up and allowed to become a disgusting symbol of defiance.

But what about others like him? Will they ever be brought to justice? The prospects at this point do not appear too bright.

With huge rewards offered for information leading to the capture of Osama bin Laden, Ayman Zawahiri and Abu Musab Zarqawi and similar terrorist “superstars,” and with so many resources aimed in that direction, many are unable to understand why they remain at large. When so many other undesirables of a criminal persuasion can be located via today’s facilities and technology, how can these outlaws remain out of reach?

At one point earlier this year, the White House answered that question with something pontifical, like “They’re hiding.” At times, there have been declarations that searchers have a good idea where bin Laden is but that diplomatic concerns make capture difficult. What concerns and what “diplomacy”? Who is hiding him?

Al Kamen of the Washington Post chronicled one of the most discouraging assessments made recently by CIA chief Porter Goss.

Appearing on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” Goss did not cover himself or his agency with glory. He noted that such villains as bin Laden and Zarqawi have not been found “primarily because they don’t want us to find them and they’re going to great lengths to make sure we don’t find them.”

As Kamen wrote, “Oh.”

One of the biggest lifts President Bush and his people could get as their public acceptance continues to weaken would be the capture of a bin Laden or Zarqawi. The final three years of the Bush presidency might take a massive upturn if that happened.

There are always “things we don’t know” about such operations, but unless we are better attuned to this job than the CIA director led us to believe in his recent comment, the new year will come and go, the Saddam Hussein “trial” will keep lumbering along and bin Laden, Zarqawi and such will be celebrating New Year’s Eve 2006 far beyond custody.