Posted on 09/27/2001 9:13:18 PM PDT by freedomnews
Taliban Mark Five Years in Power, U.S. Turns to UN
September 27, 2001
By Jack Redden and Evelyn Leopold
ISLAMABAD/UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Afghanistan's ruling Taliban notched up five years in power on Thursday with defiant messages from their leader in the face of an anticipated U.S.-led retaliatory strike.
As Washington kept any military plans under wraps and took its broader anti-terrorism campaign to the United Nations, Mullah Mohammad Omar warned Afghans of the perils of collaborating with the United States to win power.
But in a fresh blow, neighbor Pakistan began a nationwide hunt for associates of his "guest," Saudi-born Muslim radical Osama bin Laden, the chief suspect in the devastating September 11 attacks on New York and Washington.
Away from the debate about who did what on September 11, aid agencies in Pakistan and Iran prepared for a fresh exodus of frightened and hungry Afghan refugees fleeing the combined ravages of war and drought -- and the approach of winter.
Mullah Omar has repeatedly dismissed attempts by President Bush's administration to link the Taliban and bin Laden to the suicide hijacking attacks that killed up to 7,000 people.
On Thursday, he warned that any Afghan who used U.S. help to try to take power would face the same fate as collaborators during their country's war against the Soviet Union in the 1980s.
"In case of intervention into Afghanistan, no difference will be made between America and Russia and those Afghans who are brought in by the Americans will be treated like those who were brought in by the communists," he said in a statement.
Five years ago to the day, the Taliban swept into Kabul and hanged Najibullah, the former Soviet-installed president, after dragging him from a U.N. building and mutilating him.
The United States and its main ally Britain have told the Taliban they must hand over bin Laden. The Taliban deny any knowledge of his current whereabouts.
"America has no reason, justification or evidence for attacking," Mullah Omar said in a statement on Wednesday, playing down prospects of a U.S. strike and instructing all Afghans who had fled to return to their homes.
But in Pakistan, a hunt was under way for his associates. "Some people have been picked up for intensive investigation and interrogation that are likely to provide vital information about bin Laden following the September 11 attack," a senior security official there said on condition of anonymity.
The Taliban have imposed their own radical interpretation of Islam on much of the impoverished country and portray themselves as the defenders of the faith.
In Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim nation, the head of a leading Islamic group said that Washington ran the risk of triggering a war between Islam and Christianity.
"Proving the evidence is important to distinguishing which is Islam and which is terrorism," Hasyim Muzadi, who leads Indonesia's 40-million strong Nahdlatul Ulama, told Reuters in an interview. "After it can be proven, attack the terrorists."
Muzadi, who heads the largest and more moderate of Indonesia's two main Muslim groups, was echoing a view heard from nations and groups across the Muslim world.
In another part of town, the Islamic Youth Movement, a hardline Indonesian group which says hundreds of its followers have signed up for a possible war against the United States, warned anyone backing the United States to leave the country.
Outside the heavily guarded U.S. embassy in Jakarta, several hundred protesters from another group burned the U.S. and Israeli flags in the latest daily outburst of anti-U.S. passions.
Washington has warned Americans not to travel to Indonesia.
In Pakistan, Afghanistan's neighbor and the only country still recognizing the Taliban, supporters of military ruler Pervez Musharraf turned out to demonstrate their support for his decision to rally to the U.S. anti-terror coalition.
Pakistan, which has said it will not follow the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia in cutting ties with the Taliban, faced earlier protests by opponents of the U.S.-led coalition.
Aid workers say up to 1.5 million Afghans could flee to Iran and Pakistan, swelling the Afghan refugee population -- already the world's largest -- to around five million.
The U.N. Office of Humanitarian Assistance predicts that 7.5 million Afghans inside the country -- out of a population of 20 million -- will need outside assistance to survive the winter.
On the diplomatic front, the United States is seeking Security Council approval of a package of measures to combat terrorism before the General Assembly begins a debate on counter-terrorism on Monday.
Diplomats say that the resolution, which seeks to invoke Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter and make the measures mandatory for all countries immediately as part of international law, would be formally submitted to the full council on Thursday.
The resolution, they added, targeted financing of terrorist groups, immigration, extradition, exchanges of information and the prosecution of perpetrators and networks suspected of playing a role in the September 11 attacks.
U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, returning home after talks with NATO and Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov, said the United States was not now contemplating joint military operations with Russia on terrorism but such cooperation remained an option for the future.
In Tokyo, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi sought swift enactment of a new law that would allow Japan to provide logistical support for any U.S. military action in conformity with its pacifist constitution..
On the economic front, Wall Street fell heavily on Wednesday after a two-day rebound on fears of U.S. and world recession.
Tokyo's key Nikkei 225 average swayed either side of unchanged on Thursday. Taiwan and South Korean stocks were lower. In Europe, shares fell slightly on Thursday on fresh company profits warnings and nagging fears of a global recession.
The dollar gained after the Bank of Japan intervened again to head off a rise in the yen.
In New York, families of those missing after the attack on the World Trade Center began registering for death certificates, finally acknowledging that their loved ones were probably dead. In Los Angeles, fears of a follow-up attack forced the evacuation of the city's busiest subway line after passengers complained of dizziness and itching eyes and throats.
The authorities reopened the Metro Red Line after a search found no signs of hazardous chemicals or biological materials.
Hoping to allay Americans' new fear of flying, Bush will unveil plans on Thursday for more armed sky marshals, stricter security screening and fortified cockpits. He will announce his plans at Chicago's O'Hare Airport, one of the world's busiest.
"One of my concerns is that this terrible incident has led to many Americans staying at home," Bush said on Wednesday. "One of the keys to economic recovery is going to be the vitality of the airline industry."
HT Correspondent (New Delhi, September 26)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- American intelligence has finally found a link between the World Trade Center attacks and Pakistan-based Kashmiri terrorists. On September 11, the British police detained Mufti Mohammad Jameel on arrival in London from the US at Heathrow airport. Jameel is a leading member of the Jaish-e-Mohammad, a terrorist group whose members have often been involved in suicide attacks in Kashmir.
The British police picked up Jameel, on the basis of an Indian terrorist alert, just before the World Trade Center attacks. Later in the day, after the terrorist strikes, they considered his background in organising suicide squads and took him for interrogation to Paddington police station.
Jameel's story was that he had come to Britain to attend the annual Khatm-e-Nabuwat conference in Birmingham. But the police regarded the timing of his arrival as suspicious.
It is typical of Osama bin Laden's organisation that the masterminds of all attacks leave the country the day before the strikes are due. This was the modus operandi of the attackers of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. There, too, the attackers left the countries on the eve of the attacks. The British police were intrigued that Jameel left the US just before the planes rammed into the World Trade Center. After two days of sustained interrogation, the British Police handed him over to US intelligence who later put him on a US-bound plane for further interrogation and investigation.
At present, Jameel is being held at an undisclosed location in the United States. American authorities are tightlipped about the details of the interrogation in keeping with their policy not to reveal anything about the interrogation at this stage. Indian intelligence agencies are believed to have handed over all the information they have about Jameel to US authorities.
Indian intelligence knows that he is among the leaders of the Jaish-e-Mohammad. Some reports also refer to him as Secretary General of the Jaish-e-Mohammad but there is no confirmation of this designation. According to Indian intelligence, Jameel had visited the US and Canada before flying to London. He had last visited the UK in June, 2000. On that trip, he had been accompanied by Maulana Nizamuddin Shamzai, head mufti of the Jamaat-ul-Uloom Islamia at Binouri town, Karachi.
Maulana Shamzai, who is still in Pakistan, issued a fatwa on September 18 asking for a jehad to defend Afghanistan against the US. On September 20, he called on Pakistanis to seize airports and take revenge if US planes were allowed to land. Indian intelligence believes that there are strong links between the Jaish-e-Mohammad and Maulana Shamzai's Binouri town seminary. Shamzai is regarded as the spiritual mentor of Taliban leader Mullah Omar and the entire upper echelon of the Taliban has attended the seminary.
Indian intelligence has told the US that it is not possible to distinguish between Kashmiri terrorism and 'global terrorism'. As the examples of Jameel and Shamzai demonstrate, the same Afghanistan and Pakistan-based organisations foment trouble everywhere.
So far at least, the US has conceded that Jameel may have links to the WTC attacks but has made no comments about Bin Laden's links with Kashmiri
Can President Musharraf keep his uneasy country in America's column?
BY TIM MCGIRK
It was George W. Bush on the phone. His language was friendly but firm as he asked President Pervez Musharraf on Sept. 11 if Pakistan could help hunt down Osama bin Laden. The choices facing Musharraf were stark: if he refused, America would consider it the worst kind of betrayal, and Pakistan would suffer harsh consequences. If he agreed, there would be enormous trouble at home; many Pakistanis believe bin Laden is not a terrorist but a true warrior of the Islamic faith who must be shielded from the U.S. at all costs. Friends say that Musharraf, 58, a low-key soldier with a neatly clipped mustache and tolerant views, was aghast at the suicide attacks. He did not hesitate. "I'll face tremendous difficulties, but I'll support you," he told Bush.
Musharraf's difficulties began even before any U.S. armed forces arrived. Fanned by the Taliban's rise in Afghanistan and a Muslim insurgency in Indian-held Kashmir, Islamic extremism has spread across Pakistan. Musharraf now risks making himself deeply unpopular, even loathed, by siding with the U.S. Protesters have already taken to the streets.
Musharraf is not given to exaggeration, so Pakistanis were stunned when a visibly tense President, in a Sept. 19 televised speech, compared Pakistan's current predicament with the devastating 1971 civil war, in which Bangladesh fought free and the country was split in two. Unless Musharraf acts skillfully, hard-line religious forces could rise against his military junta--which came to power in an October 1999 coup.
The core of Pakistan's predicament is economic. Years of neglect by corrupt politicians have dragged 30% of the population below the poverty line--nearly double the level of the past decade--and created an abiding dissatisfaction with democracy, perfect conditions to breed extremism. With a takeover by the fundamentalists, as one liberal Pakistani remarked, "We'll become another Afghanistan--but with electricity." And nukes.
Already, some clerics, especially among the rifle-wielding Pashtun tribesmen of the northwest frontier, are calling for a holy war against America. They are of the same tribe as the Taliban across the border. Tribesmen believe that Musharraf is breaking their strict code of Pashtunwali, in which honor and revenge are paramount. In the village of Shakot, gunsmith Aziz Khan glanced up from a lathe as he bored holes to craft a homemade Kalashnikov rifle (price: $120) and warned, "In our culture, we give our baby son an unloaded pistol to play with in the cradle, so that he becomes acquainted with guns. Every man and boy will defend bin Laden and the Taliban against America. It would be dishonorable not to protect him." Among Musharraf's first tasks in coming weeks will be to ensure the support of Pakistan's 587,000-strong armed forces. Many lower-ranking officers, incensed at the corruption of their superiors over the years, have fallen under the sway of extremists who advocate a Taliban-style cleansing for Pakistan. "The nightmare of any officer is that he must order his men to fire on a bunch of mullahs leading a mob. Would they obey?" asked a brigadier.
In an "intense and focused" four-hour meeting Sept. 14 with his regional corps commanders, Musharraf drew a grim picture of what would happen if he rebuffed the Americans: a possible U.S. air strike against Pakistan's nuclear-weapons installations, a declaration that Pakistan was a terrorist state because it backed the Kashmir militants, and a cutoff in international loans. Pakistan, although a longtime U.S. ally, was being squeezed by American economic and military sanctions issued in response to its nuclear arms program. Musharraf was evidently able to convince the generals. For now. On Saturday, the U.S. waived those sanctions.
Musharraf understands the risks. He confided to a gathering of newspaper editors that the best he can do is choose the path of least destruction for Pakistan. In Pakistani-U.S.talks, neither side has raised any question of a payoff for Pakistan. "It would seem like we were putting a price on Osama's head," says a Pakistani official. In the short run, though, the U.S. plans to lift economic and military sanctions, and it may lean on the International Monetary Fund to release emergency funds and reschedule loans that Pakistan desperately needs.
During his army career, Musharraf gained a reputation as a masterful tactician with lousy follow-through. His 1999 coup was a perfect example. It was bloodless and artfully executed, but his first months in power were marked by contradictions. As a tactician, Musharraf realizes that he has to crack down on religious extremists. The weeks ahead will reveal whether he may have left it too late.
There are Chapter 6 and Chapter 7. Chapter 6 are considered recommendations, are not binding and don't require immediate implementation. Chapter 7 resolutions can be implemented by force if necessary.
This sure is discouraging.
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