Bush Says Osama, Saddam Will Be Captured

President Bush said Tuesday “it’s just a matter of time” before terrorist leaders like Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein are captured.

Bush said it could take days, months or years before the United States and its allies complete the search for terrorist leaders. “We’re just on the hunt,” Bush said at a news conference with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf.

“It doesn’t matter how long it takes, Mr. President,” Bush said, nodding to Musharraf.

Bush didn’t directly answer a reporter’s question about the whereabouts of bin Laden or Saddam, saying “there are more than two principals at large” and the United States and its partners were capturing or killing members of both men’s circles.

“There are terrorists who still have designs on destabilizing the Pakistani government and/or destroying innocent life. You named two,” Bush said. “There are others around, too, and we are just on the hunt, and we’ll find them. It’s a matter of time.”

Musharraf said his government was making extraordinary efforts to track down bin Laden and his lieutenants. For the first time, his military is searching “treacherous” tribal border areas that have not been entered by the army in more than a century, he said.

Musharraf has said he thinks bin Laden may be alive in Pakistan.

But, he told a reporter, “whether Osama bin Laden is here or across the border, your guess, sir, would be as good as mine, so I wouldn’t like to venture into a guess. But the possibility of his maybe shifting sides on the border is very much there.”

Bush credited Musharraf with capturing more than 500 al Qaida and Taliban leaders, and he called Musharraf “a courageous leader” and a friend of the United States.

Musharraf basked in the prestige of Bush’s Camp David invitation, and thanked Bush for the “special gesture.” Musharraf was the first Southeast Asian leader to get such an invitation, and he asked Bush to come to Pakistan. Bush said “thank you,” but didn’t explicitly commit.

Bush announced that the two countries were signing a new trade and investment agreement meant to move the two countries toward a free-trade pact, and he pledged to work with Congress on a $3 billion assistance project for Pakistan. Further, Bush said the United States had forgiven $1 billion owed by Pakistan in the last year.

Bush said he was encouraged by progress India and Pakistan have made in easing tensions over Kashmir and other issues, and he pledged that “we will do all we can to promote peace.”

He also praised Musharraf for setting out to build “a modern Pakistan that is tolerant and prosperous,” but said that “will require movement toward democracy.”

Enhancing education, particularly for women and girls, would be a vital step in that direction, Bush said.

Musharraf came to power in a military coup, and acknowledged he was an unlikely promoter of democracy.

“It may sound rather odd that I, being a military man, am talking of democracy,” he said. “But let me assure you that I am extremely concerned about introducing sustainable democracy in Pakistan.”

After Musharraf backed the U.S.-led effort in 2001 to oust the ruling Taliban militia from Afghanistan, the Bush administration lifted many sanctions imposed against Pakistan because of its nuclear arms program and the coup.

Some penalties remain, however, over both the nuclear program and the coup. For instance, Congress continues to block release of 28 F-16 fighter jets that Pakistan bought 13 years ago. Bush said that although half the proposed $3 billion package goes to defense, the F-16s are not part of the deal.

Tensions between India and Pakistan were high on Tuesday’s agenda.

Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee initiated a thaw in relations with Pakistan in April, offering “a hand of friendship.” The effort has appeared to falter since then.

As part of the war on terror, the Bush administration is pressing Pakistan to end its help for militant groups in India-controlled parts of the Kashmir region.

Control of the disputed territory, three-fifths of which is under Indian rule, has been a flash point in India-Pakistan relations for half a century. India accuses Pakistan of training and arming Islamic militants in Kashmir, which Pakistan denies.

Pakistani police have recently been rounding up Islamic militants. On Monday, Pakistani officials announced the arrests of five suspected members of an outlawed militant group blamed for killing Shiite Muslims and the kidnap-slaying of American Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl.