I don’t know if Osama’s dead or alive: Bush

‘‘I don’t know whether Osama bin Laden is dead or alive. I don’t know that. He’s not leading a lot of parades. And he’s not nearly the hero that a lot of people thought he was,’’ Bush said in a transcript of the interview released by CBS.

‘‘If he were dead, there’s somebody else to replace him. And we would find that person. But slowly but surely, we will dismantle the Al Qaeda network,’’ he said in the interview to be broadcast at 8 pm on Wednesday. ‘‘This is an international manhunt. We’re after these people one at the time. They’re killers. Period.’’

Bush added: ‘‘And at the same time, hopefully lay the seeds for the conditions necessary so that people don’t feel like they’ve got to conduct terror to achieve objectives.’’

He also said that he keeps a score card of sorts, with the faces and names to remind him of the people that the US blames for the attacks. ‘‘I have a classified document that might have some pictures on there just to keep reminding me about who’s out there, where they might be.’’