WASHINGTON (dpa) – President Bush has stressed the United States’ determination to bring accused terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden to justice, indicating he wants him captured dead or alive.
During a visit to the Pentagon Monday, Mr. Bush told reporters that he wants justice, and he recalled posters in the American old West calling for the capture of suspected criminals with the words: “wanted dead or alive.”
The president also cautioned that there are other terrorists in the world and warned that the United States would, in his words, “hunt them down” as well. Mr. Bush pledged to win the war against terrorism, but cautioned that ” there will be costs” to pay in the effort.
Mr. Bush consulted with top military strategists at the Pentagon on plans for the call-up of military reserves. The briefing was part of a presidential tour of Washington designed to show the government is operating on a war-footing.
Meanwhile, the president tried to reassure Muslims in the United States and throughout the world that the war against terrorism is not directed at them. Mr. Bush visited U.S. Muslim leaders at the Islamic Center in Washington and, in televised comments, urged Americans not to harass Arab-Americans.
Secretary of State Colin Powell also said Monday the United States bears no ill will toward the people of Afghanistan, but stressed that it will punish that country’s Taleban authorities unless they expel Osama bin Laden.
Osama bin Laden is the chief suspect in last week’s deadly terrorist attacks against New York and Washington. He is also the alleged mastermind of attacks against U.S. embassies in Africa in 1998 and a suspect in a deadly suicide bombing on a U.S. warship in Yemen’s Aden harbor last year. He is also suspected of involvement in the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center.
