Bin Laden 'no longer top target'

Coalition commanders in Afghanistan have begun playing down the importance of Osama Bin Laden -- in sharp contrast to the statements made earlier this year that he would be caught by the end of 2004.

"From the Afghan point of view we don't want to focus too much on Bin Laden," said Major-General John Cooper, deputy commander of the American-led coalition forces.

"He is not necessarily the major player. He will be caught one day but his whereabouts today won't have a huge effect."

Cooper, the most senior British officer in Afghanistan, admitted that after three years of searching the hills and valleys of Afghanistan, the coalition forces had no idea where their other main target, the Taliban leader Mullah Omar, is hiding. "We don’t even know which country he's in," he said....

--Times of London

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Then he said, "Col. Birdwell, you are a hero, and we are going to get the guys who did this. This is not going to go unanswered." And he's been very true to his word in that.

--Colonel Robert Birdwell, victim of the 9/11 attack on the Pentagon, recounting a hospital encounter with President Bush in a WorldNetDaily interview published Sept. 11, 2003