U.S. preparing elaborate campaign to hound Osama

WASHINGTON, SEPT. 14. Acknowledging the resourcefulness of the ``enemy'', the Secretary of State, Mr. Collin Powell, today said the U.S. was preparing for a long tough campaign of using its political, economic, legal and military tools against terrorist organisations like Osama bin Laden's.

Elaborating on the possible steps to be taken, he said ``diplomatically isolate them and those countries that give them support and serve as their host; in terms of legal actions, go after their sources of money, go after their ability to move around the world''.

He said, ``put them on watch lists, be on the lookout for those who we know are identified with this organisation; and, always, always, be prepared to conduct a military strike when targets surface and make it clear that you have found the perpetrators and somebody we ought to go after''.

He said there were also covert things which could be done, but declined to discuss it.

Confirming that Osama was one of the suspects in the attacks, he said in an interview to the Public Broadcasting Service: ``we should have no illusions that a few missile strikes will take care of this problem. They are well entrenched, they are well dispersed''.

``It is not an enemy sitting out in the middle of a battlefield waiting to be attacked. They are clever. They are resourceful and they are thinking. They are always trying to think what we might do to them,'' he added.

Mr. Powell said he was very pleased with Pakistan's response when the Pakistan President, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, was given ``some items we thought would be useful for us to cooperate on, and he expressed his desire to cooperate with us fully''.

- UNI

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Section  : International
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