Bush, CIA share blame, says Musharraf

Admitting that fugitive terrorist Osama bin Laden is freely moving between Pakistan and Afghanistan, President Pervez Musharraf said besides himself and the Inter Services Intelligence, his country's external intelligence agency, US President George W Bush and the Central Intelligence Agency should equally be blamed for the failure to capture the Al Qaeda leader.

"Let it be clear to everyone. If I am to be blamed, President Bush is equally to be blamed. If the ISI is to be blamed then the CIA is equally to be blamed," he said in an interview to the Canadian newspapers, The Globe and The Mail, on Friday.

Musharraf, who was on a tour to Ottawa, said despite a $ 25 million reward, bin Laden's arrest may take years as he appeared to have benefitted by a groundswell of anti-American passion in the region since the war in Iraq.

He said bin Laden is alive and is moving freely between Afghanistan and Pakistan. Musharraf said he now doubts earlier intelligence reports that suggested the Al Qaeda leader needed dialysis since there have been reports of his sightings in remote areas.

He said he was not aware of Al Qaeda members going back and forth between Afghanistan and Pakistan till some of the group's leaders were captured, and admitted that bin Laden might have ventured into major Pakistani cities such as
Rawalpindi. "It's a possibility. I won't rule it out."

Musharraf compared the pursuit of bin Laden to that of Che Guevara, the Latin American Communist revolutionary who was chased through the jungles and shot dead in 1967 by Bolivian troops working with the CIA.

Musharraf said his own military intelligence collected through "technical means" have made him certain about bin Laden's presence in the region.

Musharraf said as a military officer he has high regard for the Taliban fighters, who once ruled Afghanistan along with the Al Qaeda and were now believed to be regrouping in the border provinces with Pakistan.

He also raised concerns that if more foreign forces were not deployed in Afghanistan, the Taliban may join forces with
regional warlords and overthrow the government there.

"They are far better than any other soldiers in the world. If you go into the mountain they will beat you. They will be faster. They know the routes. They are more hardy," he said, adding that he still was confident the Al Qaeda and the
Taliban would be rooted out by US and Pakistani intelligence efforts because 'time is on our side.'

He said the hunt for Al Qaeda was going slowly. "There is a anti-US feeling in the tribal areas. There is no doubt about that. Maybe it has got worse after Iraq," he said.