Musharraf: Bush, CIA share blame for failure to nab Osama

Bush, CIA share blame for failure to nab Osama: Musharraf
Manarama Online
Sep 27, 2003 15:37 hrs. IST

Islamabad: Admitting that wanted terrorist Osama bin Laden was "freely moving" between Pakistan and Afghanistan, President Pervez Musharraf said besides himself and the ISI, US President George W Bush and CIA should equally share the blame for failure to capture the al-Qaeda leader.

"Let it be clear to everyone. If I am to be blamed, President Bush is equally to be blamed. If the ISI is to be blamed then the CIA is equally to be blamed," he said in an interview to Canadian newspaper 'The Globe and The Mail' on Friday.

Musharraf, who was on a tour to Ottawa, said despite a 25 million dollar reward, Osama's arrest may take years as he appeared to have been benefitted by a groundswell of anti-American passion in the region since the war in Iraq.

He said Osama is alive, has been moving freely between Afghanistan and Pakistan and because of sightings of bin Laden in remote areas, he now doubts earlier intelligence reports that suggested the al-Qaeda leader needed dialysis.

He said he was not aware of how many al-Qaeda members were going back and forth between Afghanistan and Pakistan until some of the group's leaders were captured, and admitted Osama might have ventured into major Pakistani cities such as Rawalpindi.

"It's a possibility. I won't rule it out." Musharraf compared the pursuit of Osama to that of Che Guevara, the Latin American Communist revolutionary who was chased through the jungle and shot dead in 1967 by Bolivian troops working with the CIA.