WASHINGTON ( CNN ) -- President-elect Barack Obama wants to renew the U.S. commitment to finding al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden , according to his national security advisers . Osama bin Laden remains on the run despite a $ 25 million reward for his capture . The Obama team believes the Bush administration has downplayed the importance of catching the FBI 's most-wanted terrorist because it has not been able to find him . `` We will kill bin Laden . We will crush al Qaeda . That has to be our biggest national security priority , '' Obama said during the presidential debate on October 7 . But tracking down bin Laden wo n't be easy . In May , al Qaeda released an audiotape featuring bin Laden . But U.S. intelligence officials say they have n't had a solid lead on the terrorist mastermind 's whereabouts since late 2001 , when he was nearly captured in a battle with U.S. forces near Tora Bora , Afghanistan . Robert Baer , a former CIA field officer , told CNN he 's talked to `` a dozen CIA guys who 've been on the hunt for him , and half of them told me they assumed he was dead , the other half said they assumed he was alive , but the key word here is assume . They do n't know . '' Watch the hunt for bin Laden » . Intelligence officials believe bin Laden is hiding in the tribal areas of northwest Pakistan , a remote and primitive region with mountain peaks as tall as 14,000 feet ( 4,270 meters ) that make the terrain difficult to navigate . `` If you think of this as sort of a combination of [ the hunt for ] Eric Rudolph , who was the Olympic bomber , and the movie 'Deliverance , ' multiplied by a factor of 10 , that 's really what you 're focusing on in trying to find bin Laden , '' said Robert Grenier , the former CIA station chief in Pakistan . The region is divided into tribes , some of them warring . Developing sources in the area has been extremely difficult . See a timeline of bin Laden 's terror messages » . `` What you literally need to have is an army of individual informants , hopefully focused on the areas that you think bin Laden is most likely to be hiding in , '' said Grenier , now a security consultant with Kroll . `` But again , you need to have a whole lot of them , because one individual who may have access to the families and the clans in a particular valley , if he goes to the valley next door and starts asking questions , he 's probably gon na end up dead pretty quickly . '' The U.S. government is offering a $ 25 million reward for information leading to bin Laden 's capture , but officials who have worked in the region say the people living there would consider it dishonorable to take the money . The United States has had some success killing al Qaeda leaders in Pakistan using unmanned drones equipped with Hellfire missiles , but those attacks have killed innocent civilians as well , complicating the political situation between the two countries . Obama plans to send more troops into Afghanistan to push back the growing Taliban insurgency , but experts warn there could be severe consequences . `` The president is going to inherit the problem the Soviets had roughly 15 years ago during the Soviet jihad . You can not tame the people in the North-West Frontier Province and on the border in Pakistan and Afghanistan , '' said Dalton Fury , the commander of special operations at Tora Bora . `` The only army that has been successful has been Genghis Khan and his Mongol horde . They cut off heads and killed everyone in the villages , and since we have self-imposed rules of warfare , we are not going to do what they did . '' Cooperation from Pakistan 's military has been touchy , and most experts agree finding bin Laden is not a priority for Pakistan 's troops . Fury says the best route for the president-elect to take would be to change the dialogue about bin Laden . Intelligence officials do not believe he is playing an operational role and so has no reason to move around or communicate . `` I think it 's important to understand that bin Laden had his chance at martyrdom . He was in the mountains of Tora Bora , he ran away . In my opinion , I think we ought to promote this , '' Fury said . He believes taunting the al Qaeda leader may force him to prove he 's relevant and , in the process , lead the United States right to him . Despite the challenges , many experts agree it is important to capture bin Laden . `` I do n't think the American people will accept him surviving and us leaving . We will be the laughingstock of the world , '' Fury said .
President-elect Barack Obama to renew efforts to hunt down Osama bin Laden . `` We will kill bin Laden , '' he said in a debate last month . Intelligence officials say it wo n't be easy ; one says spies on the ground is key . `` I do n't think the American people will accept him surviving and us leaving ''