Author:
Publication: Rediff.com
Date: September 21, 2006
URL: http://in.rediff.com/news/2006/sep/21osama.htm?zcc=rl
Amid a spirited argument between Pakistan
and Afghanistan on the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden, former US president
Bill Clinton on Thursday said the Al Qaeda leader is "probably"
in the restive Pakistani tribal region of Waziristan.
"I think he's probably in Waziristan
in the mountainous region of that semi-autonomous area of Pakistan, where
they can move back and forth. And it's one of the reasons I think we have
to do what we can to support the mission in Afghanistan. We need to step up
our attempts to roll back the Taliban's gains in the south and try to intensify
the hunt for him," Clinton told NBC channel's Today Show.
"But I think that he and (his deputy
Ayman) Al-Zawahiri are probably there, hiding in the mountains in a place
that's very difficult to reach," he said, amid a spat between Pakistan
President Pervez Musharraf and his Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai, both visiting
the US, on the issue of terrorism.
Clinton also said that the US "nearly
got" the terror chief at least once during his administration.
Asked what had happened to all the goodwill
of Clinton administration as the Al Qaeda continued to grow leading to the
attacks of September 11, 2001, Clinton said: "It wasn't just goodwill.
We tried to kill bin Laden. And I signed an organisation to that effect. We
nearly got him once. And we bombed one of his training camps."
In the wide-ranging interview, Clinton also
slammed Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez for referring to US President George
W Bush as the Devil. "I think that Hugo Chavez said something that was
wrong yesterday, unbecoming a head of state and all that name-calling is undignified
and not healthful, and it's not true."