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Posted on 10/01/2001 11:14:08 PM PDT by MadIvan

UK Prime Minister Tony Blair is to warn the Taleban that military strikes against them are close.

He will say the Afghan regime has run out of time and must now pay the price for harbouring Saudi-born dissident Osama Bin Laden, prime suspect in the 11 September suicide attacks on New York and Washington.

And he will make it crystal clear in a speech to Labour Party supporters on Tuesday that military action against Kabul will be devastating.

US President George W Bush has been playing down the possibility of military strikes.

However, he said on Monday that US forces, which have been massing in the Gulf, were ready to strike back.

US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld also said the hour was coming when American forces would act.

Their comments follow a series of warnings against the Taleban to give up Bin Laden, who has been under their protection since 1996.

In other developments:

• President Bush is to authorise the re-opening of the Reagan National Airport in Washington - the last airport to remain closed since the attacks

• Russian relief supplies expected to arrive in Afghanistan on Tuesday, while hundreds of tents are set to leave from Britain

• French authorities place Islamic militant under judicial investigation - a step short of being formally charged over US attacks

• The Central Asian state of Uzbekistan agrees to open its airspace for any US military operation against Afghanistan

• The UK is to freeze almost $90m of Taleban assets FBI sources say there is evidence of bank transfers between a Bin Laden financial operative and three of the hijackers shortly before the attacks

• Pakistan's President Musharraf tells the BBC conflict with the Taleban is inevitable after their failure to hand over Osama Bin Laden

• Afghanistan's former king Zahir Shah reaches agreement with the opposition aimed at ousting the Taleban Thousands paid tribute to more than 700 Cantor Fitzgerald employees who died in World Trade Center.

On Sunday, the Taleban said that Bin Laden was still in Afghanistan at an unknown location. They also said they had handed the chief suspect for the 11 September strikes an edict from a council of religious leaders that he leave the country.

But Mr Blair will tell a Labour Party rally in Brighton that the Taleban were given the chance to hand over Bin Laden and have refused to do so. And they will now face the consequences.

He will insist that the looming military response will be proportionate and targeted, and that everything will be done to avoid civilian casualties.

Troops ready

In the first detailed comments on exactly what form the action will take, Mr Blair will say that Bin Laden's military installations and training camps and the Taleban troops, their supplies and finances will all be targeted.

And he will declare that the attacks will eliminate their hardware, disrupt their supplies and target their troops.

The United States has massed troops, warplanes and aircraft carriers within striking distance of Afghanistan in preparation for possible military action.

About 29,000 military personnel in two aircraft carriers - the USS Carl Vinson and the USS Enterprise - are already in the Persian Gulf. A third carrier - the USS Theodore Roosevelt - is on its way.

More than 100 additional Air Force planes have also been sent to the region since the 11 September attacks. These are based in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain and other Gulf nations.

Britain has also sent 24 Royal Navy warships, as well as 23,000 troops, to Oman, but military officials insist they are simply on a long-planned exercise.

Some reports say US and UK special forces are already operating within Afghanistan.

UN debate

In response to the attacks on America, the UN has begun a week-long debate on terrorism, beginning with an appeal from New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani for the assembly to isolate all countries supporting terrorists.

The US Congress has also taken the first steps towards enacting new anti-terrorism laws.

Negotiators at the House of Representatives have recommended a package of laws - including increased powers to tap phones and track internet communications - which will be voted on by the House on Wednesday before being sent for debate in the Senate.

More than 6,000 people lost their lives when four US civilian airliners were hijacked simultaneously on 11 September.

Two were flown into the twin trade towers in New York, a third hit the Pentagon in Washington and a fourth crashed in Pennsylvania after passengers apparently staged a revolt against the hijackers.

Well that's that. The Taliban apparently wish to die. The American and British armed forces will carry out on their wish.

Regards, Ivan

Today is Trinity Sunday. Centuries ago words were written to be a call and a spur to the faithful servants of Truth and Justice: "Arm yourselves, and be ye men of valour, and be in readiness for the conflict; for it is better for us to perish in battle than to look upon the outrage of our nation and our altar. As the Will of God is in Heaven, even so let it be." - Winston Churchill, 1940

This then, my lords and gentlemen, is the message which we send forth today to all states and nations, bound or free, to all the men in all the lands who care for freedom's cause. To our Allies and well-wishers in Europe, to our American friends and helpers drawing ever closer in their might across the ocean, this is the message-lift up your hearts, all will come right. Out of depths of sorrow and sacrifice will be born again the glory of mankind. - Winston Churchill, 1941


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