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WASHINGTON – Attorney General Eric Holder says Osama bin Laden (oh-SAH'-muh bin LAH'-din) will never face trial in the United States because he will not be captured alive. Holder sternly rejected criticism from Republican lawmakers on a House Appropriations subcommittee, who contend it is too dangerous to put terror suspects on trial in federal civilian courts.

Screen capture hereSan Francisco Chronicle's online front page headline: Obama takes credit for U.S. airline bomb plot - Borzou Daragahi,Greg Miller, Los Angeles Times

The Dubai-based satellite TV channel Al Arabiya is reporting that Osama Bin Laden has been “located” by US intelligence in the Kararakoram – a mountain range that spans the borders of Pakistan, the Kashmir and China (K2 is one of its peaks). There was a high-level meeting last week in Doha including General Petraeus, the recently-nominated Commander of US Central Command, and it is reasonable to speculate that – if there is truth to the report – it flows from this piece of intelligence. Whether the latest rumours about the tracking down of OBL have foundation will quickly become apparent....

ROCHESTER, N.H. -- Republican presidential candidate John McCain told workers of small weapons factory that he not only wants to catch Osama Bin Laden if elected, but said he "will shoot him with your products". "I will follow Osama Bin Laden to the gates of hell and I will shoot him with your products," McCain said.

The recent firestorm over former President Bill Clinton's culpability for the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks was fueled on Tuesday when Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice contrasted President Bush's efforts to pursue al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden with Clinton's efforts. Clinton has strongly denied various suggestions that his administration missed key opportunities to kill bin Laden and left the Bush administration without a comprehensive anti-terrorism strategy. However, Bush -- whom Clinton says did nothing about al-Qaeda for the first eight months of his presidency -- has the bigger image problem with Americans on the issue. According to a recent Gallup Panel...

New bin Laden tape inbound

Fox News carried on a discussion stating that Osama may be near death.

THE Pentagon has denied any knowledge of Osama bin Laden's "arrest" after an Iranian report that he has been held for some time. The external Pashto-language service of Iranian state radio quoted an "informed source". It suggested bin Laden had been detained "some time ago", but the news was being kept secret and was likely to be announced later in the year to boost US President George W. Bush's re-election chances. A Pentagon Central Command spokesman in Tampa, Florida, said: "I have no reports on us capturing OBL, Osama bin Laden. We don't have anything on that." The Iranian report...

<p>Conspiracy theories continued to sprout among Democrats yesterday in the wake of the capture of Saddam Hussein. Some Democrats expressed alarm that the party was drifting out of the "mainstream."</p> <p>Madeleine Albright, the secretary of state in the Clinton administration, in a conversation with Morton Kondracke, executive editor of Roll Call and a Fox News Channel political analyst, suggested that Osama bin Laden has been captured by U.S. forces and will soon be produced to the public.</p>

URL: sfgate.com/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2003/11/12/national0350EST0456.DTL (11-12) 00:50 PST WASHINGTON (AP) -- Criticizing President Bush's efforts, Democratic presidential candidate Wesley Clark says he would press Saudi Arabia to provide commandos to accompany U.S. troops in the hunt for Osama bin Laden and other al-Qaida leaders. Clark, a former four-star Army general, says although the Bush administration did the right thing by going after al-Qaida after the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, it failed to finish the job it started. "They still haven't found Osama bin Laden. And every day, Americans live at risk because of this failure," Clark said in remarks prepared for delivery...

WASHINGTON -- After examining new video and audio tapes of Osama bin Laden that were broadcast last week, U.S. intelligence analysts have concluded that the fugitive al-Qaida leader is probably ill or injured and could be incapacitated or even dead. Three administration officials, all speaking on the condition of anonymity because intelligence matters are classified, said the videotape, which showed bin Laden hiking in the mountains, could have been made up to two years ago and that an audio track of bin Laden speaking was recorded separately, also some time ago, and overlaid on the video. The only recent recording...

Bin Laden Tape Is Old Material - French Expert Thu September 11, 2003 09:41 AM ET PARIS (Reuters) - A leading French terrorism expert cautioned Thursday against taking the latest Osama bin Laden video at face value, saying it was largely an edited collection of old footage and sound tracks that have already been aired. Wednesday, the Al Jazeera Arabic television station broadcast a tape of bin Laden and his right hand man Ayman al-Zawahri, in which the al Qaeda leader urges supporters to bury Americans in "the graveyard of Iraq." But Roland Jacquard, head of the Paris-based International Observatory...