October 11, 2001	Thursday	Rajab 23, 1422

WASHINGTON: In a subtle switch in rhetoric noticeable since Sunday, the Bush administration is no longer specifically demonizing Osama bin Laden, insisting the fight against terrorism goes beyond the Saudi.

Announcing the start of military strikes on Sunday, US President George W. Bush, who last month said he wanted Osama captured “dead or alive”, avoided mentioning him by name, a silence he has maintained ever since.

Recently US authorities have spent considerable amounts of energy insisting this is a broader war than a campaign solely against Osama. Objectives of the US fight against terror range from the destruction of the Al Qaeda network and its leaders to the total eradication of terrorism worldwide.

Scott Lasensky, an expert with the New York-based Council on Foreign Relations, considered “significant” Bush’s failure to mention Osama by name.

“He didn’t personalize it to (Osama) bin Laden,” Lasensky said. The main challenge for Washington, he said, is not to have a campaign that is too intense, given the length of time it might last and the difficulty of catching Osama himself.

The change in tone is also likely to allow Washington to announce victories more easily as the military campaign continues, and to avoid making the capture of its public enemy number one the US measure of victory.

The Bush administration likely has in mind the precedent of president George Bush senior, Bush’s father, whose administration demonized Iraqi President Saddam Hussein during the Gulf war but left him in power.

An unnamed diplomat quoted on Tuesday by the Washington Post said: “They are quite wise not setting themselves a hurdle they may not be able to surmount very easily or rapidly.”

Numerous US officials have opted to make less of Osama as the prime target in their campaign out of concern that they may be making their enemy a martyr for his supporters in the anti-American cause.

On the military side, Washington so far has refused to say whether Osama was personally targeted by the air strikes on Afghanistan.

On Monday, Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said: “A great deal has been made of him and there’s no question he is a leader in the Al Qaeda organization and is a terrorist of the first order.

“There are many nations across the globe — they are a number — that are harbouring these terrorists, so I think it would be a misunderstanding to try to personalize this into the single individual or a single name.

“Our goal is not one individual, it is not one group,” said Rumsfeld. In fact, Washington believes the Al Qaeda network has a presence in 50 to 60 countries.

According to other officials, nothing has changed, though, from the US standpoint. “There is no shift in emphasis,” said White House national security adviser Condoleezza Rice.

“The goal here is to root out the terrorists so that they cannot do the kinds of things that they did on Sept 11.”—AFP