Letter: No wonder we can’t capture Osama bin Laden

Wednesday, May 15, 2002 | 9:12 a.m.

When Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was interviewed on CNN's "Novak, Hunt & Shields" program that aired on April 6, show co-host Al Hunt asked what he called "the big question for Gen. Myers: One embarrassment for the U.S. has been that, in almost seven months after 9/11, we still haven't captured Osama bin Laden. With the apprehension this week of one of his top lieutenants, have we gotten enough information to be any closer to maybe finally getting bin Laden?" Myers said that "the goal has never been to get bin Laden" even though "that's desirable."

Myers' response clashes with George W. Bush's well-known "Wanted: Dead or Alive" statement of last September, but it is in harmony with the president's more recent assertion that "I am not that concerned about him -- bin Laden."

Myers also commented: "... I just read a piece by some analysts that said you may not want to go after the top people in these terrorist organizations. You may have more effect by going after the middlemen, because they're harder to replace. I don't know if that's true or not, and clearly we would like to eventually get bin Laden."

Could such a rationale shed light on why the world's most wanted man has thus far eluded capture? Does such a rationale even make any sense? Obviously the general does not sound very convinced.

KEN HOVEY