Intelligence officials contradict White House on bin Laden

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http://www.mcclatchydc.com/226/story/19601.html

Intelligence officials contradict White House on bin Laden
By Jonathan S. Landay | McClatchy Newspapers



WASHINGTON — Contradicting President Bush's counter-terrorism adviser, U.S. intelligence and law enforcement chiefs and a Cabinet member said Monday that Osama bin Laden remained the most dangerous terrorist threat to the United States six years after the 9-11 attacks.

Eliminating the threat that the al Qaida leader and his inner circle pose from their sanctuary in Pakistan's remote tribal region bordering Afghanistan "is our number one priority," Director of National Intelligence Michael McConnell told a Senate committee.

The assessments by McConnell, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and FBI Director Robert Mueller came a day after White House homeland security adviser Frances Fragos Townsend called bin Laden "a man on the run from a cave who is virtually impotent other than these tapes."

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