NEW YORK, June 19: “I have an excellent idea of where Osama (bin Laden) is,” CIA director Porter Goss said in a first-ever interview with Time magazine since becoming head of the US intelligence agency.
He listed several reasons for US’s inability to capture Osama.
When asked whether the US will be able to capture Osama anytime soon, Mr Goss hedged the question by saying: “That is a question that goes far deeper than you know. In the chain that you need to successfully wrap up the war on terror, we have some weak links. And I find that until we strengthen all the links, we’re probably not going to be able to bring Osama to justice.”
“When you go to the very difficult question of dealing with sanctuaries in sovereign states, you’re dealing with a problem of our sense of international obligation, fair play,” he said.
Asked whether Al Qaeda will hit the United States again, Mr Goss responded: “Yes, it could. Certainly the intent is very high. And we are trying to stay ahead of their capability. And so far, I think we have done pretty well carrying the war to them.”
The magazine said that Mr Goss was interviewed shortly after the onetime CIA spy had to cede much of his power to the new director of national intelligence but Mr Goss, 66, told it that he now had more time to run CIA.
TIME: Vice-President Dick Cheney has said the Iraq insurgency is in its last throes. Is that your read?
GOSS: “I think they’re not quite in the last throes, but I think they are very close to it. And I think that every day that goes by in Iraq where they have their own government and it’s moving forward reinforces just how radical (the insurgents) are and how unwanted they are.”
TIME: Could the US go to war again based on false intelligence?
GOSS: “I would not agree to surmise that America has gone to war based on false intelligence. I would say that the right question is: Should America be checking out threats to America? The answer is yes. And will we find some threats were more talk than real? Yes, we will.”
