Playing Hide And Seek With Bin Laden

Five years after President Bush pledged to capture Osama bin Laden "dead or alive," CBS News chief investigative correspondent Armen Keteyian notes that the search for bin Laden has been replaced by the cold, hard realities of another catch phrase: hide and seek.

U.S. intelligence sources tell CBS News that the once-relentless hunt for bin Laden is currently seen as "languishing" and "misguided," as the United States focuses more and more of its military resources and attention on Iraq.

"We're not any closer to him that we were several years ago," says Michael Scheuer, the former head of the CIA's bin Laden unit. "We're at the point that we're working hard and hoping we're going to get lucky."

Scheuer and other sources say the 9/11 mastermind is not holed up in Waziristan, the recent target of Pakistani troops and American missiles — but is likely hidden in the high mountains and craggy valleys that form the Nuristan Province along the desolate northern border between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

"The tribes that live there — part of the tribal code is to protect guests with their lives," says Scheuer. "They will do that with Osama bin Laden."

Not since the beginning of the U.S assault on Tora Bora, Afghanistan, in December 2001, has the United States had a close encounter with the worldwide face of terror. Protected by a fiercely loyal following that's unmoved by the $25 million bounty on their leader's head, bin Laden has kept a low profile of late, favoring the use of couriers to deliver his audio messages ... three since January.

A general in the Pakistani military told CBS News on Friday that it may well be these very couriers that will lead pursuers back to bin Laden.

To date, untold millions of dollars have been poured into a 10-year mission that now numbers several hundred members of the U.S. Special Forces and tens of thousands of Pakistani troops.

But for all this money and manpower, even in isolation, bin Laden remains fully capable of capturing the world's attention — whenever and however he chooses.