Invoking the rough justice of the US frontier, President George W. Bush said Monday he wants Osama bin Laden brought to justice "dead or alive" for last week's terror strikes, as the White House hinted a ban on assassination would not protect the Saudi exile.
Asked whether he wanted Bin Laden, the suspected mastermind of history's worst terrorist attack, dead, the president replied sternly: "I want justice. There's an old poster out West that as I recall said, 'Wanted: dead or alive.'"
Bush, speaking after an hour-long meeting with US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, also warned the Taliban militia that rules Afghanistan, Bin Laden's refuge nation, that they would suffer if they failed to turn him over.
"The people who think they can provide them safe havens will be held accountable, the people who feed them will be held accountable. The Taliban must take my statement seriously," said Bush, who was at the Pentagon to discuss plans to mobilize reservists to beef up domestic defenses against terrorism.
Asked whether a formal US ban on the use of assassination would hinder any effort to kill Bin Laden, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said the prohibition "is in effect but it does not limit America's ability to act in self-defense."
Asked why Washington thought it appropriate, in effect, to issue a global call for Bin Laden's head, Fleischer replied: "Our nation's been attacked, and we are at war, and to win a war it is vital for the United States to engage in it."
"Our nation will defend itself, and defending itself means acts which involve the lives of others. We will defend ourselves, and the United States will act in its self-defense and that is why," the spokesman said.
The comments came a day after Vice President Dick Cheney told ABC news that he did not believe any international or US law prohibited the United States from killing Bin Laden when he was found.
Bush, who has been planning a global war on terrorism, acknowledged the likelihood of casualties, saying "there will be costs. But the military folks understand that, so does the secretary of defense."
The president said he had faith the US economy will shake off the blow from the attacks September 11, when hijacked airliners struck the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington, killing thousands of people.
"I understand it's tough right now," he said. "The transportation business is hurting. Obviously the market was correcting prior to this crisis, But the underpinning for growth is there."
"But there is a challenge ahead of us, and I'm confident that the business community will rise to the challenge," he said.
Since the September 11 attacks, which levelled the two World Trade Center towers and left a smoldering hold in the Pentagon, top US officials have repeatedly fingered Bin Laden as the chief author.
The exiled Saudi millionaire occupies a top spot on the US Federal Bureau of Investigation's "ten most wanted" list for his alleged role in the August 7, 1998, bombings of US embassies in Tanzania and Kenya, which killed over 200 people.
Former president Bill Clinton loosed a rain of cruise missiles on camps in Afghanistan suspected of housing Bin Laden and members of his al-Qaeda organization, with little effect -- WASHINGTON (AFP)
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
