Is He Dead Or Alive?
The U.S. government is seeking samples of DNA from Osama bin Laden's family to determine if human remains found in Afghanistan belong to the terrorist leader, government sources said Wednesday.
Human remains have been collected from a number of U.S. air strike sites, including the site of a Feb. 4 CIA Predator missile strike on a meeting of suspected al Qaeda leaders, the sources said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.
"The U.S. government has requested access to some DNA," one U.S. official said on condition of anonymity.
The United States was not making the request directly to the family, but through intermediary channels, and so far had not received any DNA samples, the official said.
The wealthy bin Laden family of Saudi Arabia has disowned the terrorist leader.
Tim Metz, a family spokesman in New York, said he was unaware of the U.S. government's making any formal request to family members for samples. But he suggested the samples could be obtained from hospitals or other sources.
Metz said bin Laden has about 50 siblings whose DNA could be used.
On Feb. 4, the pilotless "Predator" spy plane struck a small group of men believed to include a senior al Qaeda official in the Zawar Kili area of mountainous eastern
Afghanistan.
One of those killed was relatively tall and the others were acting deferential to him, U.S. officials have said. That led to speculation that perhaps bin Laden had been killed because the Saudi-born militant's height is estimated at 6 feet 4 inches to 6 feet 6 inches.
The United States has accused bin Laden of masterminding the Sept. 11 attacks on America which killed about 3,000 people, and has bombed Afghanistan since Oct. 7 to destroy him and his al Qaeda network and oust their Taliban protectors.
Three people were reportedly killed in the missile strike. Reports from the region quoted local residents as saying those killed were not al Qaeda members but villagers collecting scrap metal.
U.S. officials dispute that characterization and have said the men were in Arab dress, had been observed by the spy plane for some time before the strike, and had not been collecting scrap metal.
The DNA collection effort isn't simply to determine who died in the Predator strike; other remains found after U.S. bombing in Afghanistan have yet to be identified as well, sources said.
"I do know we have some DNA samples from the location of the strike," Marine Corps Gen. Peter Pace, vice chairman of U.S. military Joint Chiefs of Staff, said.
But he added that he was unaware of requests by the government for DNA samples from bin Laden's family. "It would surprise me if we haven't, but I'm not specifically aware that we have," Pace told a Pentagon media briefing.
Defense officials have said for months that they are unsure if bin Laden is dead or alive.
In the last month, U.S. intelligence obtained faint signs that he was alive and somewhere in the Pakistani-Afghan border region - where he's thought to have been since leaving Tora Bora late last year, a U.S. official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.