U.S. Ponders Bin Laden Dead or Alive

ByABC News
March 7, 2003, 6:01 PM

March 7 -- As the CIA continues its hunt for Osama bin Laden inside Pakistan, one question looms: Is it preferable for the United States to capture him, or to kill him?

President Bush has repeatedly said that he'll accept either one.

Bin Laden himself has said he is prepared to die rather than be captured. In a tape released last month through the Arabic-language, Qatar-based al Jazeera television network, bin Laden said, "I wish my demise to be in the eagle's belly." The "eagle" was widely taken to be a reference to the United States.

Most analysts say that death would turn bin Laden into a martyr possibly a dangerous one.

"He would be a rallying point for those independent contractors who are out there, who can do damage at will without consultation with a higher authority like al Qaeda," said former Justice Department prosecutor John Martin. Martin was the lead espionage prosecutor at Justice.

Others, like ABCNEWS consultant Fawaz Gerges, believe that in the long run bin Laden's death would spell the end of al Qaeda.

"Al Qaeda and bin Laden are synonymous," said Fawaz. "He has provided the inspiration, the finance and the organization and without bin Laden, al Qaeda has no future." Fawaz is professor of International Affairs and Middle Eastern Studies at Sarah Lawrence College in New York.

Would He Reveal Important Information?

Should bin Laden be captured alive, there is almost no possibility he would be brought to the United States to stand trial in a civilian court. Instead, he most likely would be held and tried by the military.

The goal would be to elicit information about the terror group he created information that may save lives.

Simon Reeve, author of The New Jackals, a book that examined the 1993 truck bombing of the World Trade Center, said the interrogation of bin Laden could reveal valuable details.

"It might be possible to discover all sorts of information from him about the structure of al Qaeda, about the planning for 9/11, who was involved," said Reeve. "He will be able to say who was involved in various plots, who was involved in planning various atrocities and he might also be able to release information under intensive interrogation about possible future plans to launch attacks on the U.S. and the West."