As part of a public relations offensive that has received extensive media coverage, President Bush declared in an August 31 speech in Salt Lake City that "[w]e have made it clear to all nations that if you harbor terrorists, you are just as guilty as the terrorists, you are an enemy of the United States, and you will be held to account."

Bush's statement echoes claims he has repeatedly made in the years since the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. On November 21, 2001, for example, Bush declared:

BUSH: We fight the terrorists and we fight all of those who give them aid. America has a message for the nations of the world: If you harbor terrorists, you are terrorists. If you train or arm a terrorist, you are a terrorist. If you feed a terrorist or fund a terrorist, you're a terrorist, and you will be held accountable by the United States and our friends.

But Bush's rhetoric seems inconsistent with the 2005 statements of his then-CIA director Porter Goss, who said that the Bush administration has an “excellent idea” where Osama bin Laden is, but that it was difficult to capture him because of “sanctuaries in sovereign nations.” On June 22, 2005, the Associated Press reported:

CIA Director Porter Goss says he has an “excellent idea” where Osama bin Laden is hiding, but that the al Qaeda chief will not be caught until weak links in the war on terrorism are strengthened.

In an interview with TIME magazine published Sunday, Goss said part of the difficulty in capturing bin Laden was “sanctuaries in sovereign nations.”

The magazine asked Goss when bin Laden would be captured.

“That is a question that goes far deeper than you know,” he said. “In the chain that you need to successfully wrap up the war on terror, we have some weak links. And I find that until we strengthen all the links, we're probably not going to be able to bring Mr. bin Laden to justice.

”We are making very good progress on it. But when you go to the very difficult question of dealing with sanctuaries in sovereign states, you're dealing with a problem of our sense of international obligation, fair play.

“We have to find a way to work in a conventional world in unconventional ways that are acceptable to the international community.

[...]

Goss did not say where he thinks bin Laden is, nor did he name the country or countries he was referring to when he spoke of sanctuaries.

But intelligence experts have long said they believed bin Laden was probably hiding in the rugged mountainous border region of Pakistan and Afghanistan.

In light of the extensive media coverage given to Bush's new public relations offensive, Media Matters for America expects news organizations to note the apparent conflict between Bush's sweeping declaration that nations that harbor terrorists are ”an enemy of the United States, and ... will be held to account" and Goss's statement that the United States is unable to capture bin Laden because sovereign nations provide him sanctuary.