Rumsfeld says bin Laden may get away

Associated Press WriterWASHINGTON (AP) -- Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld says the United States may not be able to catch terrorist Osama bin Laden even though he predicts the Taliban regime harboring him in Afghanistan will be toppled.

"Yes, I think there will be a post-Taliban Afghanistan," Rumsfeld told USA Today. "That is easier than finding a single person."

Rumsfeld told the paper it will be "very difficult" to capture or kill bin Laden.

"It's a big world," he said. "There are lots of countries. He's got a lot of money, he's got a lot of people who support him and I just don't know whether we'll be successful. Clearly, it would be highly desirable to find him."

But he said in any event bin Laden's terrorist network would carry on without him. "If he were gone tomorrow, the same problem would exist."

Rumsfeld has said repeatedly that rooting out terrorism is a long-term project that will last for years and has compared it to the Cold War, which lasted half a century.

His interview with USA Today appeared in Thursday's editions.

In London, Britain's top military officer predicted that ground troops may have to operate in Afghanistan for weeks at a time in order to find the elusive bin Laden.

"It is conceivable that we could conduct an operation for a period of days and perhaps, conceivably even weeks," Adm. Sir Michael Boyce told the New York Times. Boyce said he speaks frequently with U.S. leaders on the effort to oust the Taliban and find bin Laden.

On Thursday, top Pentagon officials said Afghanistan's Taliban could be planning to poison food aid intended for the Afghan people.

Defense Department officials have called the Taliban liars for weeks and officials pointed to several specifics Wednesday as evidence of that.

A Taliban-organized tour of bombing damage in eastern Afghanistan last week could have been an attempt to draw airstrikes on Western journalists, a senior defense official speaking on condition of anonymity told reporters. A sign in English saying "No weapons" posted outside an Afghan women's shelter also could be an attempt to deceive, the official said.

The official also said the Taliban were deliberately moving troops and weapons into or near civilian areas. He showed pictures of an airfield near Herat with a crater near a building he identified as a mosque. A helicopter had been parked outside the mosque, but U.S. airstrikes destroyed the chopper without hurting the religious site, the official said.

At a Pentagon news conference, Rear Adm. John Stufflebeem said U.S. intelligence sources indicate the Taliban might poison relief supplies and blame it on the United States.

"We are confident in the information that we have that they may intend to poison one or more types of food sources and blame it on the Americans," Stufflebeem said. "We are releasing this information preemptively so that (Afghans) will know if the food comes from Americans, it will not be tainted."

Stufflebeem gave no specific information on how the alleged poisoning might be done. Another official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the information came from multiple intelligence sources.

Stufflebeem said the U.S. government would use all possible means of alerting Afghans to the possibility of poisoned food supplies, apparently including leaflet drops and airborne radio broadcasts.

He provided no specifics on the kinds of food supplies that might be affected, although he noted that the Taliban are reported to have taken over some Red Cross warehouses and might be collecting food ration packages dropped by the hundreds of thousands into Afghanistan by U.S. cargo planes in recent weeks.

Taliban officials have claimed hundreds of civilians have been killed in the U.S. airstrikes -- claims impossible to verify because foreign journalists are almost completely kept out of the country. Defense Department officials have admitted several cases where errant bombs hit civilian areas, such as neighborhoods, Red Cross warehouses and what U.S. officials called a senior citizens' center.'

Stufflebeem said he was surprised at the Taliban's staying power.

"They are proven to be tough warriors," said Stufflebeem, deputy director of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff. "I am a bit surprised at how doggedly they're hanging onto power."

On the 18th day of U.S. bombing, Stufflebeem gave no indication that it would slacken soon. Secretary of State Colin Powell said he hoped the U.S. military effort in Afghanistan could be concluded before long, but he said it might extend into the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, which begins in mid-November.

U.S. warplanes kept up heavy day-and-night pounding on the outskirts of Kabul, the capital.

In northern Afghanistan near the crossroads city of Mazar-e-Shariff, opposition forces on Wednesday claimed to have killed 35 Taliban troops and captured 140 others. They claimed that about 20 U.S. troops were in the area directing U.S. air strikes in support of the opposition forces.

Asked whether opposition forces fighting the Taliban in that area were providing targeting information to U.S. officials, Stufflebeem only said, "We are helping him and his troops and he is helping us in our effort."

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