The CIA has intensified efforts to catch Osama bin Laden, according to the White House, which on Wednesday disputed Democratic claims that the hunt for the terrorist leader has been “shut down.”
“It’s flatly untrue,” White House press secretary Tony Snow told reporters. “The notion that the president has shut down a program designed to capture Osama bin Laden is utterly without foundation.”
Snow was reacting to Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and other Democrats who have recently stepped up their attacks on President Bush’s prosecution of the war on terrorism.
“Five years after 9/11, al-Qaida has morphed into a global franchise operation,” Reid said Wednesday. “Terror attacks have increased sharply across the world, and the president has shut down the program designed to catch Osama bin Laden.”
Reid was referring to last year’s dismantling of a CIA unit, known as “Alec Station,” that had been dedicated to catching bin Laden and his top deputies. But Snow said those resources merely were reallocated to reflect al-Qaida’s changing hierarchy.
“What has happened is that the CIA, in response to exactly what Senator Reid was talking about — a more diffuse al-Qaida — has in fact reshaped its unit dealing with al-Qaida to reflect that diffuse threat,” he said. “It was a reorganization, not a reduction in effort and commitment.”
He added: “The CIA’s efforts to locate bin Laden and other senior al-Qaida figures has not been downgraded. To the contrary, it remains fully committed to locating bin Laden and his collaborators and is devoting more resources — not less — toward the effort.”
Snow accused Democrats of politicizing the reorganization of the bin Laden unit.
“Some of the people making the allegations about the bin Laden unit know perfectly well what the facts are,” he said. “I understand that it’s a political year. And we get accused of politicizing when stuff like this is thrown our way.”
Snow also accused Democrats of trying to politicize last week’s foiled terrorist plot to blow up jetliners flying from London to the United States. Some Democrats have cited the episode in accusing the administration of skimping on technology aimed at detecting explosives at airports.
“It’s simply not true — the administration has devoted considerable resources,” Snow said. “It’s interesting that every time we have a success, Democrats come out and complain. I don’t quite understand that, unless they’re seeking desperately some political advantage out of a success story.”
