New U.S. Effort Steps Up Hunt for bin Laden : (NYT) "Under the new plan, officials say, the 11,000 American forces in Afghanistan are changing their tactics. Rather than carrying out raids and returning to their bases, small groups will now remain in Afghan villages for days at a time, handing out various forms of aid and conducting patrols. By becoming a more permanent, familiar presence, American officials say, they hope to be able to receive and act on intelligence within hours. Such a technique helped them to capture Mr. Hussein.
'We're trying to transplant some of the lessons of the Saddam capture,' one senior official said. 'This is different territory, and our targets are presumed to be moving around. But one lesson we learned in Iraq is that, by analogy, there are only a limited number of places that someone like Saddam or bin Laden feel comfortable.'
Similarly, Task Force 121 and the Pakistani forces are focusing on Mr. bin Laden's support netwo
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