2002

Why Can't We Catch Him?
November 25, 2002

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Cover Story Excerpt:
Osama bin Laden wanted to talk to his followers. This time the U.S. government was only too happy to help. Within a day of hearing the scratchy audiocassette of the al-Qaeda leader praising the recent bombings in Bali and the Moscow theater assault, intelligence sources tell TIME, U.S. agents paid a visit to one of bin Laden's senior operatives, Ramzi Binalshibh, held for interrogation at a safe house somewhere overseas. They played the 3-minute tape for Binalshibh, who has begun to spill secrets about al-Qaeda's inner workings since he was picked up last September in Pakistan. After listening to his old master pray for vengeance upon the U.S. and its allies, the terrorist let his guards know that what they had was authentic, a proof of life...Read the full story