Not Your Sweetie

Again with Osama?


WASHINGTON--Now that Osama bin Laden is thought to be alive and threatening
more attacks, the Senate's top Democrat said Thursday the administration's
inability to catch the al-Qaida leader raises questions about ''whether or not we
are winning the war on terror.''

''We can't find bin Laden. We haven't made real progress'' in finding key
elements of al-Qaida, said Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.). ''They
continue to be as great a threat today as they were 1-1/2 years ago. So by what
measure can we claim to be successful so far?''

Asked about it at the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld ducked the
question of whether the United States was winning the war. He also refused to
speculate on whether bin Laden was dead or alive in light of the release this
week of a threatening audiotape thought to have come from the al-Qaida
leader.

''The answer is yes, he is alive or dead,'' Rumsfeld said.

The questions irked White House aides, too, as spokesman Scott McClellan
refused to say whether President Bush and his team were frustrated by the
failure to find bin Laden.