WASHINGTON, Aug 16: The White House denied on Wednesday that the hunt for Osama bin Laden has been downgraded after the Central Intelligence Agency disbanded a unit set up in the 1990s to oversee the search for the Al Qaeda leader.
Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid of Nevada had cited the disbanding of the CIA unit as an example of what he called misplaced priorities in the Bush administration.
White House spokesman Tony Snow opened his daily briefing with a statement addressing Mr Reid’s charges, saying the CIA had reshaped the unit to deal with a more diffuse threat from Al Qaeda.—Reuters
