The details of the search for Osama are "sensitive."
From:
DoD News Briefing - Secretary Rumsfeld and Gen. Myers
Tuesday, August 5, 2003
http://www.defenselink.mil/transcripts/2003/tr20030805-secdef0525.html
Q: General Myers?
Q: General Myers, while we're on the search questions, you mentioned al Qaeda and searching in the Pakistan and Afghanistan area. Understanding that we don't have him till we have him, can you bring us up to date on the hunt for Osama bin Laden? Do you still believe that he is in that Afghanistan-Pakistan area?
Myers: Well, I think -- there's a question of whether he's alive or not. If he's alive, a lot of people believe that the region he is in is in the -- that border area where the terrain is very rugged and where he might find people sympathetic to his outlook on life.
And beyond that, it's one of those things, just like Saddam Hussein, that we'll continue to keep pressure on those kind of individuals. It's another -- it's important. It's one more step. You know, if we were to get Osama bin Laden and Zawahiri today, it would not end the threat from al Qaeda. They are -- they have morphed into an organization that is not as hierarchical as it previously was, more of a network today. And so it would just be one step. It would be obviously a big step, but just one step in working the whole international terrorism piece.
Q: But unlike the search for Saddam, it seems like the tips are not coming in, as opposed to the search for Saddam, where we're being told at least that your intelligence is being developed for that.
Myers: I wouldn't make that assumption -- just because you haven't heard of what's going on, that there's nothing --
Q: Can you tell us how that's going?
Myers: No, I'd prefer -- it gets into the operational details, intelligence details, and that's just something that is quite sensitive.
"Jon Stewart of "The Daily Show" regularly prods with humor about the avoidance of mentioning Osama by the White House."
It's because the details are "sensitive."
