ABC Radio National Breakfast 6:46am September 13, 2001
US Intelligence and Military Response
Tracking down those responsible for yesterday's attacks will not be easy. Washington's prime suspect Osama Bin Laden has been on the FBI's most wanted list for years now - and that's despite a $10 million reward on his head. He's believed to be somewhere in Afghanistan - where hiding is easy, thanks to the country's largely mountainous and desolate landscape.
Bin Laden also has good training. During the 1980s, he evaded another superpower, financing a brigade of up to 20,000 Arab militant fighters in the Mujahadeen war against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.
So, it could be that - rather than use its military might - America will have to draw on all its intelligence skills to flush out the Saudi dissident. But does the US have what it takes to carry-out such an operation, especially in the light of its failure to prevent yesterday's hijack attacks against the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon?
We speak to John Pike, director of globalsecurity.org, a defence and intelligence organisation in Washington, John Newman - a professor of counter-terrorism at the University of Maryland, who worked for over 20 years as an Army intelligence officer and Ron Kessler, author of "FBI: Inside the World's Most Powerful Law Enforcement Agency".
Copyright 2001, Australian Broadcasting Corporation
