Spying hasn’t worked, and neither has shooting. So the United States has turned to its great cultural weapon to flush out Osama bin Laden — television.
After a fruitless three-year hunt, the US is funding advertisements on Pakistani television which it hopes will touch the hearts of those close to the elusive al-Qaeda leader.
As photos of Bin Laden and 13 other wanted men flicker across the screen a voice implores: ”Who are the people who are suffering from terrorism? Our mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, sons and daughters! Who can stop these terrorists? Only you!”
The 30-second ads, broadcast in Pakistan’s five main languages, also dangle a $25-million carrot before potential informers — one that might soon double thanks to a new law passing through Congress.
The advertising blitz sees the US move into terrain already expertly exploited by al-Qaeda. A videotape released last October, four days before the US presidential election, showed a vigorous-looking Bin Laden taunting President Bush. The message was broadcast around the world.
Last Sunday Bin Laden’s bespectacled deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, featured in a second tape predicting a crushing defeat for the ”crusader campaign”.
The television war underscores the dismal failure of the manhunt that started when Bin Laden disappeared from the Tora Bora caves in Afghanistan in late 2001.
The US has since deployed satellites, spies and thousands of troops, scattered leaflets from planes and printed matchboxes bearing Bin Laden’s image. Experts have scoured the plant and rock backdrops in his video appearances for clues.
Currently the chase is focused on the Afghan border, a 2 240km-stretch of jagged mountains. The hunt relies heavily on Pakistani cooperation.
Last year President Pervez Musharraf sent 25 000 troops into South Waziristan, one of Pakistan’s most lawless areas, to flush out al-Qaeda militants sheltering there.
But although the army killed more than 200 militants — as well as dozens of civilians, stirring intense local anger — it found no trace of Bin Laden.
Now the al-Qaeda group, led by an Uzbek militant, Tohir Yuldeshev, has been scattered into the surrounding districts, said a US official in Islamabad. ”They are very tough and experienced fighters. But they are the al-Qaeda shooters, not the leadership,” he said.
The hunt is also constricted by President Musharraf’s complex political calculations. His support for the US is disliked, and his government has become sensitive about any direct association with American operations.
For example, a New York Times report last December which said CIA agents had established covert bases along the north-west frontier sparked furious denials. ”We do not know any whereabouts of Osama, nor is there any question of carrying out a search operation for him by the US forces on our territory,” said Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao, the Interior Minister.
Now the US is pinning its hopes on money and media to provide the leads it needs. Although some suspect that Bin Laden has fled to a city such as Karachi or Quetta, the main target area remains the border area, where al-Qaeda is supported by local tribesmen influenced by the teaching of radical mullahs. American officials believe their loyalty is based on cash as much as ideology. The tribesmen charge al-Qaeda militants more than 10 times the going rate for food, lodgings and supplies.
Last November the Pakistani army paid four elders to cement a peace deal. The money was supposed to repay al-Qaeda loans.
The rewards scheme might well work, said a defence analyst, Professor Rifaat Hussain. ”Attempting to isolate al-Qaeda from its sanctuaries is the right approach. They should have done it a long time ago,” he said.
US officials admit the campaign is a shot in the dark when it comes to finding Bin Laden. Some diplomats argue that the publicity may glorify, not weaken, his stature among extremists. And there are no guarantees the campaign will even reach its target.
The border tribesmen, for example, are unlikely to see the adverts because they have no electricity. And though there is a radio version, the most respected station in tribal areas is the BBC World Service — which does not carry advertising.
Those who do hear the ads may be too terrified to talk — there has been a string of killings of suspected US informers in the tribal areas over the past year.
The ”Rewards for Justice” campaign, which helped capture Saddam Hussein’s sons Uday and Qusay, has paid out $57-million to 43 people since 1984. So far the Bin Laden adverts have elicited 28 contacts, said a US embassy spokesperson, Greggory Crouch.
But according to another official, the contacts were mainly crank calls, interview requests and media organisations looking for advertising.
”But it only takes one valid tip to make it all worthwhile,” he said.
Efforts to identify victims of the September 11 attacks in New York have ended, with 1 161 of the 2 749 victims still unidentified because of difficulties in getting DNA samples from remains. – Guardian Unlimited Â