I have heard a rumour from the LORD, and an ambassador is sent unto the heathen, saying, Gather ye together, and come against her, and rise up to the battle. (Jeremiah 49:14)

The vision of Obadiah. Thus saith the Lord GOD concerning Edom; We have heard a rumour from the LORD, and an ambassador is sent among the heathen, Arise ye, and let us rise up against her in battle. (Obadiah 1:1)

Killing bin Laden crucial to defeating al Qaida, McChrystal says

By Nancy A. Youssef,
McClatchy Newspapers
Tue Dec 8, 2009

WASHNGTON — Days after his boss said that there was no new intelligence on the whereabouts of al Qaida leader Osama bin Laden , the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan told Congress Tuesday that killing or capturing bin Laden is critical to defeating the terrorist organization.

Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal , the top Afghanistan commander, said, however, that he could not promise that his new military strategy would lead to bin Laden's capture because when the al Qaida leader moves outside of Afghanistan , chasing after him "is outside my mandate."

McChrystal's comments underscored a key contradiction in President Barack Obama's new Afghanistan strategy: While it dedicates thousands of additional troops to combating the Taliban in Afghanistan , it adds few resources aimed at the policy's stated goal: "disrupting, dismantling and defeating" al Qaida .

"I believe he is an iconic figure at this point whose survival emboldens al Qaida as a franchise organization across the world," McChrystal told the Senate Armed Services committee . "I don't think we can defeat him until he is captured or killed."

In the last week top administration officials have offered conflicting statements about what the United States knows about bin Laden's whereabouts. While McChrystal suggested Tuesday that bin Laden is in neighboring Pakistan , retired Marine Gen. Jim Jones , Obama's national security advisor, said Sunday that bin Laden sometimes crosses the Afghan-Pakistan border.

And over the weekend, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates told ABC's "This Week" that the United States had not had strong intelligence on bin Laden's whereabouts for years.

Bin Laden has eluded U.S. capture since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, most notably at the battle of Tora Bora in Afghanistan in late 2001. The special operations task force assigned exclusively to find bin Laden was disbanded by 2005.

For entire article:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/mcclatchy/20091208/wl_mcclatchy/3373796