The bin Laden sanctuary area

Bill Gertz:

Senior U.S. intelligence officials yesterday defended unsuccessful efforts to capture al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden who they say has eluded a global manhunt for years by hiding in tribal areas of Pakistan under the protection of local leaders.

"We share your frustration," Thomas Fingar, deputy director of national intelligence, told Congress yesterday. "Being No. 3 in al Qaeda is a bad job. We regularly get to the No. 3 person."

But capturing or killing bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri, has been difficult because their security practices are "very good" and they are hiding in an area "that is more hostile to us than it is to al Qaeda," Mr. Fingar told the House Armed Services Committee.

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Mr. Fingar said al Qaeda leaders know that turning on cell phones, even in mountain redoubts of the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, has led to the death or capture of other terrorists.

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CIA Director for Intelligence John Kringen said his agency thinks bin Laden is alive and "probably in the tribal areas of Pakistan."

"In terms of your frustration ... the challenge we face is those are ungoverned spaces in which the Pakistani government doesn't control much of that — very tribally based," Mr. Kringen said, adding that bin Laden does not communicate or interact directly with anyone for long periods of time.

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They are asking the wrong question. It should be, that if Pakistan does not control these areas why would they object to our going in there and finding bin Laden. They either control the territory or they don't. It is ridiculous to say that they have no control over what happens there and then insist that they control what we might do in those areas.