WAR ON TERRORISM Despite U.S. assurances, bin Laden continues to show strength, flexibility

The Al-Qaida leader still is able to get his message out and still eludes capture.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The nation's top counterterrorism and intelligence officials have reassured Congress repeatedly about the significantly diminished capabilities of Al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.
Yet outside experts note that bin Laden has evaded capture during almost three years of hot pursuit by U.S. and other forces and remains able to communicate an increasingly sophisticated and targeted message to possible followers worldwide.
"I don't know how marginalized he is," said Brian Jenkins, a terrorism expert at the RAND Corp. research group.
"If you were giving a briefing in bin Laden's headquarters, you could say: 'We have had a difficult 31 months, to be sure. We have lost our training bases in Afghanistan. They have arrested a number of our brothers worldwide, including a number of our most talented operational planners.'"
At the same time, Jenkins added: "But you could go on to say: 'This is terrific. We have survived 31 months of an intensive global assault by the world's greatest power.'"
Where is he?
Bin Laden is thought to have been hiding for months along the rugged, ill-defined border between Afghanistan and Pakistan. Military leaders there expressed confidence early this year that they'd get the world's most wanted fugitive by year's end.
Officials at home were more circumspect. Now, even in the region, military officials have backed down from those claims.
Jenkins and other experts say this shows how nimble and elusive bin Laden actually is.
Consider, they say, bin Laden's unusual seven-minute audio message delivered to Arab television networks last week. In it, bin Laden offered European nations "reconciliation" -- that is, a truce -- if they would pull their forces out of Muslim lands and commit to ending attacks on Muslims or interfering in their affairs. In exchange, Al-Qaida would stop operations against them, bin Laden said in the tape. The offer expires in three months.
What's his motive?
Inside universities, think tanks and the government, bin Laden observers puzzled over his motives and aims.
One U.S. counterterrorism official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said U.S. officials think the message may be "a trial balloon of sorts." Unlike previous recordings, this one offers the peace deal with Europe.
Although the message contains tones and phrases often used by Islamic radicals, some who know bin Laden's rhetoric said the message lacks the poetic flourishes and historical references characteristic of many of his previous messages. This one, too, is relatively free of references to Islam, despite the usual militarist Islamic tones.
To show that he remains up on current events, even while apparently hiding out in desolate mountains at the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, bin Laden refers in the tape to Israel's March 22 killing of Hamas founder Sheik Ahmed Yassin.
Much of the message is focused on contemporary political arguments. For instance, bin Laden refers to opinion polls that indicate Europeans want peace; war profits of Halliburton, once headed by Vice President Dick Cheney; and the personal interests of the "White House gang."
Flexible approach
U.S. officials contend that the existence of such a tape, with nearly month-old news, doesn't mean that the Al-Qaida leader has access to high-tech communications. And that the tape is audio, rather than video, means fewer people and less security were required to produce it.
Nevertheless, it shows he still can communicate, many note.
And he may be trying to display his flexibility, testing to see if he can appeal to a new, broader audience of anti-war constituencies in Europe and the United States, Jenkins said: "Classic left-wing stuff."
"It is a pitch to the streets," Jenkins said. "This is good late '60s imperialist rhetoric."
European leaders, including those of Iraq war opponents France and Germany, rejected bin Laden's overture under the policy of no negotiations with terrorists. Many Europeans said they viewed the tape simply as an attempt to drive a wedge between the United States and its European allies by exploiting differences over Iraq.
Samer Shehata at Georgetown's Center for Contemporary Arab Studies said governments want to avoid being seen as negotiating with Al-Qaida.
"I have a hard time accepting the fact that he believes Europeans will view him as anything other than fundamentally bad," Shehata said.