Bin Laden 'virtually impotent', says Bush adviser
Osama bin Laden is “virtually impotent” and does not appear to be triggering a new attack against the US despite the release of a videotape with his first message in a year, President George W Bush’s homeland security adviser said today.
“This is about the best he can do,” Frances Fragos Townsend said about the fugitive al-Qaida leader whose terrorist network is believed to be regrouping in the lawless Pakistan-Afghanistan border region.
“This is a man on a run, from a cave, who’s virtually impotent other than these tapes,” she said.
Townsend spoke two days before the sixth anniversary of the September 11 attacks that bin Laden masterminded.
The tape released on Friday was the first time that he had appeared in a new video since 2004. In the recording, he tells Americans they should convert to Islam if they want the war in Iraq to end. He makes no overt threats and does not directly call for attacks.
Townsend said experts are doing a “technical analysis” looking for clues about bin Laden’s health and whereabouts.
“There’s nothing overtly obvious in the tape that would suggest this is a trigger for an attack,” she told Fox News Sunday.
“We know that al-Qaida is still determined to attack, and we take it seriously. But this tape appears to be nothing more than threats. It’s propaganda on their part,” Townsend added.
