Former Official: US Probably Won’t Kill Bin Laden

The former head of the CIA’s Osama bin Laden unit says it is unlikely the United States will ever kill Osama bin Laden, who is living a “very sedentary life” life on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, and “we'll be lucky if he dies of old age relatively soon.”

bin Laden

In an interview with Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly aired Tuesday, Michael Scheuer said that, contrary to what many believe, bin Laden is not living in deep hiding and frequently changing his whereabouts.

“If he was living in a cave or if he was running from rock to rock, we would have killed him,” Scheuer said.“ I think right now we'll be lucky if he dies of old age relatively soon.”

U.S. forces will not kill bin Laden because they are tasked with a multitude of duties in Afghanistan, Scheuer said, and President Barack Obama has pledged the troops soon will be withdrawn.

“We have done such a disservice to our men and women in Afghanistan by putting so few people in there, sir, and they have so many things to do,” he explained. “They have to keep [President Hamid] Karzai in power. They have to build an economy. They have to build a transportation and communications infrastructure. They have to kill the Taliban.

“They have to eradicate heroin [while] in their spare time looking for Osama bin Laden.”