Afghanistan: US official says America still unsure where bin Laden hiding

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
The US Deputy Secretary of State said his country is still uncertain where 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden is hiding, as American soldiers silently marked the moment six years earlier when the first hijacked jetliner hit the World Trade Center in New York City. "I think our best assessment is that he is still alive and that he is somewhere in the Pakistan-Afghanistan border area," said John Negroponte, who met with Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Tuesday during a visit to Afghanistan. "I would also make the point that wherever he is, he is hiding, he and his close associate Mr. Ayman al-Zawahiri [al-Qaida's No. 2]. "And that is a very different situation than the one that prevailed prior to September 11, 2001, when he had completely free use and free reign of the country of Afghanistan, and that situation has been changed and that, needless to say, was a very, very important change for the better."