Osama bin Laden still alive

Thursday, April 30, 2009 at 8:48 am

Osama bin Laden still alive President Barack Obama signaled Wednesday he is operating under the assumption that Osama bin Laden is still alive, despite remarks by Pakistan’s president saying intelligence service believes the Al-Qaeda leader has died.

At a town hall meeting in the central US state of Missouri, Obama defended his decision to send thousands more troops to Afghanistan to battle a bloody insurgency despite objections from fellow Democrats.

The president, speaking to a crowd marking his first 100 days in office, said he understood the concerns.

“But as commander-in-chief it is my responsibility to make sure that bin Laden and his cronies are not able to create a safe haven within which they can kill another 3,000 Americans or more,” Obama said in an apparent reference to those killed in the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States blamed on Al-Qaeda.

“That’s an obligation that I have.”

Obama also reiterated his administration’s position that Al-Qaeda and the Taliban “are the single most direct threat to our national security interests.”

The US State Department spokesman Robert Wood indicated the United States was still searching for bin Laden but conceded he had “no information” on whether he was alive or dead.

“We don’t know. We will continue to hunt Osama bin Laden until we can capture him or bring justice to him.”