Bin Laden still wanted alive

WASHINGTON – AMERICAN military forces still have the goal of bringing Osama bin Laden to justice, the Nato commander in Afghanistan said on Wednesday, contradicting comments by the US attorney general.

Asked by a reporter if troops under his command had ‘given up’ on trying to capture bin Laden, General Stanley McChrystal said: ‘Wow, no.’ ‘If Osama bin Laden comes inside Afghanistan, which is the writ of my mandate…. we certainly would go after trying to capture him alive and bring him to justice,’ he said in a teleconference.

That was something ‘understood by everyone,’ he said.

On Tuesday, Attorney General Eric Holder told lawmakers that bin Laden would never face trial in the United States because he will not be captured alive.

During a heated exchange with Republican lawmakers, Mr Holder predicted that ‘we will be reading Miranda rights to the corpse of Osama bin Laden rather than to the US public enemy number one in captivity.

‘Let’s deal with reality,’ the attorney general said. Bin Laden ‘will never appear in an American courtroom.’ Intelligence officials say bin Laden is likely hiding in Pakistan, along the mountainous border with Afghanistan. — AFP

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