Rumsfeld says military progress made in Afghanistan

Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Some progress has been made in the battle against Afghanistan's ruling Taliban, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Thursday, and the United States still expects to get Osama bin Laden.

Rumsfeld made the comment during a Pentagon briefing in which he was questioned repeatedly about an interview with USA Today, in which the Pentagon chief was quoted as saying the United States might not catch bin Laden.

Rumsfeld has said repeatedly that the effort to find the elusive terrorist leader could be a long and arduous one, and that the military's role was just a portion of it. He again repeated those comments to reporters.

"Until you have him, you do not have him, so what is progress? Until he is no longer functioning as a terrorist, he is functioning as a terrorist, there isn't any progress -- you either have him or you don't," Rumsfeld said.

"Are we continuing the effort? You bet. Do we expect to get him? Yes," the secretary said.

Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters that the previous day's bombing campaign attacked nine targets with 80 strike aircraft, and was directed at "degrading Taliban forces."

"This is proceeding according to our plan. ... We don't feel this is piecemeal, we feel this is very deliberate, very well planned. Success is yet to be determined but we think we are having some success," Myers said.

In Thursday's USA Today interview, Rumsfeld was quoted as saying 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."

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 Wednesday's 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.

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