Osama's voice

0 Comments | Register-Guard (Eugene, OR), February, 2003

Byline: The Register-Guard

ON SEPT. 11, 2001, more than 3,000 people were killed in the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Nearly a year and a half later, Osama bin Laden and all but a few of al-Qaeda's core leaders, who planned their deaths, remain on the loose. Meanwhile, holdout bands of terrorists are not only battling U.S. troops in Afghanistan, but are also spread out in cells around the world, conspiring to carry out more deadly attacks.

One would think these challenges would be at the top of the the Bush administration's priority list. Yet somehow the focus and planning in Washington have shifted to the U.S.-led campaign to rid the world of Iraqi ruler Saddam Hussein. The United States is poised to wage all-out war on Baghdad within...