Rumsfeld: Intelligence Will Beat Terrorism

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld embarked Wednesday on a mission to strengthen support in the Islamic world for President Bush's campaign against terrorism and to squeeze friendly governments for timely intelligence on the whereabouts of Usama bin Laden.

In an interview aboard his Air Force jet en route from Washington, Rumsfeld would speak only in the broadest terms about preparations for attacks against either bin Laden's Al Qaeda terrorist network or the Taliban regime that has been harboring him in Afghanistan.

He said the key was finding "actionable intelligence" — information to help find and arrest or eliminate bin Laden — not assembling an armada of warships and fleets of bombers.

Bush said Wednesday he dispatched Rumsfeld to the region because he wants key Muslim leaders to see U.S. resolve face-to-face.

"People need to be able to look us in the eye and know that when we say that we're in this for the long run — that we're going to find terrorists and bring them to justice — we mean it," Bush said in New York.

Asked about a Washington Post report Wednesday that infantry from the Army's Tenth Mountain Division was being deployed to the region near Afghanistan, Rumsfeld's chief spokeswoman, Victoria Clarke, said several units of the division were on a heightened state of alert but had not deployed "at this time."

After talks in the Saudi capital on Wednesday, Rumsfeld was headed for Oman, Egypt and Uzbekistan, a former Soviet state that Rumsfeld indicated could be a key source of intelligence on Al Qaeda.

Upon his arrival in Riyadh, Rumsfeld met with the kingdom's defense minister Prince Sultan and Crowned Prince Abdallah.

Rumsfeld's plane stopped in Ireland to refuel.

Asked whether he knew bin Laden's whereabouts, Rumsfeld replied, "I have a little bit of a handle, but I don't have [map] coordinates." He did not elaborate. U.S. officials believe bin Laden is being harbored inside a chaotic Afghanistan by the ruling Taliban Islamic fundamentalist militia.

Rumsfeld declined to say whether U.S. military action against the Taliban was inevitable.