In a rare mention of his name yesterday, President Bush said bin Laden hopes to attack again on US soil and ''stopping him is the greatest challenge of our day."
''We're on a constant hunt for bin Laden. We're keeping the pressure on him, keeping him in hiding," Bush said at a ceremonial swearing-in for Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff.
Current and former government officials say there is no doubt that the Bush administration wants bin Laden ''dead or alive," as the president said shortly after Sept. 11, 2001. But skills and dollars may fall short of desire.
Army General John Abizaid, chief of US Central Command, told the Senate Armed Services Committee this week that bin Laden and the Al Qaeda senior leadership have been ''our priority target" since Sept. 11 but added, ''It's important for all of us to know that military forces do best in attacking the network as opposed to looking for a specific person."
President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan said in December that ''the trail has gone cold," and US officials largely agree.
Bin Laden is believed to have evaded capture first during the 2001 battle of Tora Bora in Afghanistan and then by hiding along the Afghan-Pakistani border with his top deputy and a circle of supporters protecting him at all costs. Some specialists say they believe he may also be spending time in Pakistani cities.
US personnel, including CIA paramilitary, contractors, and some of the military's highly trained special forces, have been on the hunt. In a recent report, the Congressional Research Service said 18,000 US forces remain in Afghanistan, running down Al Qaeda and the Taliban, joined by thousands of Pakistani forces.
Yet a former intelligence official, speaking on condition of anonymity, wondered about recent decisions concerning US resources. The official said intelligence and military assets were moved from Afghanistan to Iraq for the Jan. 30 elections there, and it is unclear whether they were moved back.
Asked to confirm the shift, Pentagon spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Barry Venable said, ''As a matter of security, we don't comment on operational matters."
The Pentagon consumes roughly 80 percent of the classified intelligence budget, estimated at $40 billion.
