US has no intelligence on Bin Laden: Gates

WASHINGTON:  The United States does not know where al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden is hiding and has not had any good intelligence on his whereabouts in years, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Saturday.

Speaking in an interview to be aired on Sunday on ABC's "This Week" program, Gates also said he could not confirm reports this week that a detainee might have seen bin Laden in Afghanistan earlier this year.

When asked if Pakistan was doing enough to apprehend the United States' most wanted criminal, Gates answered: "Well, we don't know for a fact where Osama bin Laden is. If we did, we'd go get him."

The BBC reported earlier this week that a detainee in Pakistan claimed to have information that bin Laden was in Ghazni in eastern Afghanistan in January or February.

Asked when was the last time the United States had any good intelligence on his whereabouts, Gates said, "I think it's been years."

The U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee released a report late last month that blamed the lack of concerted efforts by former President George W. Bush's administration and U.S. military commanders for allowing bin Laden to escape from the Tora Bora caves of Afghanistan in late 2001.