The Hunt for Osama Bin Laden, Year Six

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Sept. 11, 2007 — -- To mark today's Sept. 11 anniversary, al-Sahab, al Qaeda's propaganda arm, released another video of Osama bin Laden. This time he is heard reading a message over images of the burning World Trade Center.

Also on the video is an on-camera message from Abu Mus'ab Walid al-Shehrine, one of the twin tower hijackers, taped before the attack.

It comes just days after another video of bin Laden, the first one since 2004, was released.

In Pakistan, bin Laden's whereabouts are of course still unknown, but many believe he is hiding in the mountain range dividing Pakistan and Afghanistan. Asked about the hunt for bin Laden, members of the Pakistani government, military and analysts respond with weariness and exasperation.

"It's like finding a needle in a haystack," said Pakistan Armed Forces spokesman Maj. Gen. Waheed Arshad. "You start climbing mountains after mountains after mountains. But if you're not sure what you're looking for, if you don't have confirmed intelligence and you don't have confirmed locations, you're going to keep looking and keep looking."

Samina Ahmed, the International Crisis Group's South Asia project director, put it more succinctly, "The short answer is we don't know," adding bin Laden may be in one of Pakistan's or Afghanistan's cities or at the border of both countries.

Since 9/11, the United States has given $10 billion to Pakistan — the money has been largely used to hunt for al Qaeda. The United States has provided the bulk of that aid to the military, believing that the Musharraf government is a reliable partner to combat militants.

ABC News analyst Rahimullah Yusefzai, a prominent journalist here, disagrees with the U.S. support of Musharraf and criticizes his military campaign. "They have bombed so many villages that every village has become an enemy. Now the troops cannot move in a convoy safely. Invariably they are attacked. That shows that if you don't win the hearts and minds, how can you win cooperation in trying to locate your enemy."

Yet, an American diplomat defended the Pakistani military and said to ABC News that the army is "trying," but that it is "clearly a huge task." The diplomat insists there is an active hunt by Pakistani authorities for Osama bin Laden.

Arshad is more adamant. "If someone has broken al Qaeda's back, it is Pakistan because we have captured or killed more than 700 al Qaeda elements."

But recently President Pervez Musharraf has had to concede that Pakistan is becoming a haven for terrorists. "Unless we control extremism and terrorism," he said in an interview on state television, "Pakistan's future will remain at stake."

Pakistan is growing less stable every day fueled by extremism and discontent. Last week produced more evidence of the rising tide of militancy in the country; two powerful bombs exploded near Islamabad, taking dozens of lives, and Saturday another bomb detonated in the troubled border region's capital, Peshawar — it was the 21st attack in this city during the last year.

It is a "country that is bleeding," said Asma Jahangir, chair of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, who had harsh words for Musharraf's government. Jahangir said it is a military regime that is "completely inept and incompetent."

Former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto grimly cautioned. "Unless we face the threat within from militants and extremists, Pakistan could be threatened from implosion within" she told ABC News, an implosion that would wreak havoc on the war on terror.