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Bush: As long as it takes, dead or alive

Bush: "I hope 2002 will be a year of peace, but I am realistic."

(CNN) -- Daily intelligence reports temper President Bush's expectations that 2002 will be a tranquil year, he said Friday.

"I hope 2002 will be a year of peace, but I am realistic," Bush said during a press briefing with Gen. Tommy Franks, chief of U.S. Central Command, at Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas. "I know (al Qaeda leader Osama) bin Laden and his cronies would like to harm America again."

Bush repeated that he had no preference -- "dead or alive" -- for bin Laden's capture. The president flatly dismissed the bin Laden videotape released this week, saying the al Qaeda leader "is not in charge of Afghanistan anymore." (Full story)

"He's not the parasite that invaded the host," the president said. "And we also know that we're on the hunt and he knows we're on the hunt and I like our position better than his."

The designated mission of eliminating terrorist networks will determine the length of the campaign, Bush said, emphasizing that military decisions rest in Franks' hands.

"We won't be making political decisions about our military. Tommy is in charge of the military and until Tommy says, 'Mission complete,' I'll make the case to the American people that we are doing the right thing," Bush said.

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Bush's statements follow the arrival of U.S. Army troops in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar to take control of the airport there. The Army is taking over for U.S. Marines, who are shifting their operations after spending a month at Camp Rhino, their initial forward compound in southern Afghanistan.

Latest developments

• In eastern Afghanistan, CNN's Walter Rodgers saw two convoys of Special Forces leaving Tora Bora early Friday with supply-laden pickup trucks leading the way for military personnel on all-terrain vehicles. For weeks, those troops fought to drive Taliban and al Qaeda fighters from their positions in the mountains, then combed the network of caves and tunnels for signs of bin Laden and his followers. (Full story)

• Pentagon officials said Friday draft plans for military tribunals call for suspects to be presume d innocent until proven guilty. The officials say the draft also calls for tribunal members to reach a unanimous vote on the death penalty. (Full story)

• The man suspected of trying to ignite plastic explosives hidden in his shoes on a trans-Atlantic flight last week was denied bail at an evidentiary hearing Friday. Investigators in the United States, Europe and Israel are tracking Richard C. Reid's movements prior to his boarding a Paris, France to Miami, Florida flight last week. (Full story)

• A high-ranking Afghan intelligence official told CNN Friday he believes bin Laden is now in Pakistan. Abdullah Tawheedi, a deputy head of intelligence in Afghanistan, told CNN he has received "reliable information" that bin Laden paid a "large amount" of money to buy his way out of Afghanistan. But that report could not be verified independently. (Full story)

• Tribal leaders from Paktia province in eastern Afghanistan are pleading for an immediate end to U.S.-led bombing. They claim there were no al Qaeda terrorists in a convoy which was hit by U.S. warplanes last week, and that only tribal elders were killed. U.S. military officials have said the convoy was a legitimate target. (Full story)

• The mother of the only person charged so far with conspiracy in the September 11 attacks said Friday she is concerned about her son having adequate access to a translator who can explain the charges against him. "I hope it's not simply because he shared a room with somebody. I hope that's not the case. I hope the proof they have against my son will be something greater than that," Aichi El Wafi, mother of Zacarias Moussaoui, told CNN. (Full story)

• The Thursday release of a videotape showing bin Laden explaining the reason for and effects of terrorist attacks in the United States on September rekindled rumors and speculations about his location and his health. Executives at the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera television network, which aired the 34-minute tape, told CNN they do not know where or when the videotape was made, despite bin Laden's reference in the tape to September 11 being three months ago. (Full story)

• The Pentagon plans to move its al Qaeda and Taliban detainees to the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The United States now holds 62 detainees at its base near the Kandahar airport. Another eight, including an American and an Australian, are aboard the USS Peleliu in the northern Arabian Sea. (Full story)

• The leader of a radical Islamic group in Pakistan scoffed at wire service reports that bin Laden is alive and under his protection. Maulana Fazalur Rehman, head of the fundamentalist Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam party, told CNN he has no idea of bin Laden's whereabouts. Rehman, who has been in the custody of the Pakistani government for three months, was responding to reports quoting an Afghan government official who said Rehman was hiding bin Laden.