Posted on 12/10/2001 10:40:00 PM PST by The Drowning Witch
L/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S.-backed Afghan tribal fighters closed in on Osama bin Laden's forces in the Tora Bora mountains on Tuesday as President Bush branded the militant leader a murderer with no conscience and no soul.
Elsewhere in Afghanistan, calm returned as aid began to flow, bickering warlords patched up their differences and Britain agreed to lead an international security force to keep order in the war-ravaged country.
Conscious of the fragile peace, U.N. special envoy Lakhdar Brahimi arrives in the Afghan capital on Tuesday to discuss the transfer of power ahead of the installation of an interim government on December 22 to succeed the hard-line Taliban.
But while Brahimi talks of peace and the future, the United States looks back to the September 11 attacks with solemn remembrances planned from New York's ground zero to the orbiting International Space Station.
In eastern Afghanistan, tribal forces closed in on bin Laden's trapped al Qaeda fighters -- and possibly bin Laden himself -- in the cave-riddled Tora Bora mountains.
CNN reported that the tribal forces had launched a fresh attack on Tuesday morning.
The Islamic militants, many of them believed to be Arabs, have put up fierce resistance under a hail of U.S. bombs that have included the 15,000 pound (6,800 kg) "daisy cutter" bomb.
Bin Laden, accused by Washington of masterminding the September 11 attacks that killed nearly 3,900 people in the United States, and his Afghan protector, Taliban supreme leader Mullah Mohammad Omar, remained at large.
U.S. officials said they were "closing the noose" on them.
INCRIMINATING VIDEOTAPE,
Bush moved toward releasing a captured videotape which U.S. officials say proves Saudi-born bin Laden is to blame for the U.S. attacks.
"For those who see this tape, they'll realize not only is he guilty of incredible murder, he has no conscience and no soul," Bush said on Monday.
U.S. officials said despite the ousting of the Taliban and progress against al Qaeda, the war was far from over.
"The war in Afghanistan is not won," said Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz. "It is a classic military mistake to leave a partially defeated enemy on the battlefield."
But U.N. human rights chief Mary Robinson said on Monday the U.S. struggle against terrorism had to respect human rights.
"It has been suggested in some quarters that human rights considerations must take a back seat in the struggle against terrorism. I cannot share in that line of thinking," she said in a speech in Addis Ababa marking International Human Rights Day.
Afghan tribal forces have launched a three-pronged strike against the Tora Bora cave complexes, where they believe bin Laden is personally leading about 1,000 guerrillas of his al Qaeda network in what could be their last stand.
Hazrat Ali, commanding local forces pursuing al Qaeda in the rugged terrain, said bin Laden's men had been forced back to new defensive positions on mountain tops.
U.S. officials are less sure of bin Laden's whereabouts, and said it remained to be seen how quickly his fighters would be beaten, two months and 12,000 bombs and missiles after the campaign began to punish the Taliban for protecting him.
"We certainly don't have any information that would allow us to assess the situation as close to the end," said Pentagon spokeswoman Victoria Clarke. "It's tough... pretty intense fighting."
BRITAIN TO HEAD AFGHAN FORCE
In Kabul, U.S. Marines moved into the U.S. Embassy for the first time since 1989. To the south, U.S. "hunter-killer teams" and equipment moved north from their desert base near Kandahar to cut possible escape routes for al Qaeda fighters and Mullah Omar.
Britain accepted the task of leading and organizing a multinational force for Afghanistan, which the U.N. Security Council was expected to approve by Friday, U.S. diplomats said.
U.N. officials worry the NATO nations, which are to form the core of a force seen as crucial to maintaining Afghan stability, may not deploy troops by December 22 when an interim government led by Hamid Karzai takes office in Kabul.
On the humanitarian front, U.S. officials reported that food deliveries for hungry Afghans were up sharply.
Charts prepared by the World Food Program showed that the rate of internal distribution to the 7.5 million needy Afghans had also increased sharply since the start of December, sometimes to twice the daily target figure.
"I think we've caught it (the famine) in time, and I think we're getting the mortality rates down to a lower level," U.S. Agency for International Development administrator Andrew Natsios told a briefing on Monday.
U.S. officials say the Bush administration hopes the captured videotape might counter doubts, particularly in the Arab and Muslim world, about bin Laden's guilt.
Bush and his National Security Council met and discussed releasing the tape, which officials said showed bin Laden saying the damage to the World Trade Center twin towers in New York had been much greater than he had anticipated.
Officials said Bush hoped to release the tape later this week, possibly on Wednesday, after a security review to make sure it did not undermine intelligence operations.
On Tuesday, Bush will focus on remembering the September 11 attacks and preside over a playing of the national anthem in the White House at 8:46 a.m. EST, the moment when the first plane struck the World Trade Center.
At New York's Times Square, electronic billboards will flash patriotic messages and U.S. and Russian astronauts aboard the International Space Station will play national anthems. At the New York headquarters of the United Nations, no flags of the body's 189 members will be raised.
... as President Bush branded the militant leader a murderer with no conscience and no soul.Again with the nuance. If only our beloved president would speak to us plainly and unequivocally.
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