The United States House of Representatives on Tuesday rushed through a bill already passed by the Senate, clearing the way for military and massive economic aid to Pakistan, even as a Democratic Congressman warned the military component might be used against India.
Democratic Congressman Frank Pallone, former co-chairman of the India Caucus, opposed the bill saying the military aid might be used against India and there was no indication of any intention on the part of Pakistan President Musharraf to usher in democracy.
Democratic Congresswoman Nita Lowey pointed out that President George W Bush had already sanctioned $100 million of economic aid to Pakistan. The president would be giving Pakistan another $500 million out of sums already voted by Congress for the war against international terrorism, she added.
Lowey said she wanted to ensure that the money was utilised for the purposes for which they would be given, namely infrastructure, education and health.
The floor manager for the bill, Republican Congressman Henry Hyde, Chairman of the International Relations Committee, said the bill was "an appropriate response to the emergency situation confronting our nation and to the difficulties facing Pakistan as it assists us to stabilise the region".
"Pakistan has been for decades a friend of the US and stood by us, for example, by committing its armed forces on our side in the Gulf War, unlike some of its neighbours who were mild and somewhat equivocal in their response to Saddam Hussein," he said.
Pakistan, he said, also assisted in the joint effort during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. "We can and should work with Pakistan during the coming years and establish a new relationship based on trust, mutual interest and common values."
The bill was strongly supported by Democratic Congressman Tom Lantos, the ranking Democrat on the committee.
He said, "As we speak, Secretary of State Colin Powell is in Pakistan, underscoring the importance of our relationship and the importance of this legislation. We are engaged in an epic struggle against the forces of international terrorism and our fighting men and women are risking their lives to end this terrible threat not only to the United States, but to every civilised country on the face of this planet."
Opposing the measure, Congressman Pallone recalled that the sanctions the Congress was now repealing were imposed when General Musharraf overthrew the civilian elected Government of Pakistan in a military coup.
In the current circumstances, said Pallone, it was appropriate to provide economic assistance to Pakistan because of President Musharraf's willingness to support the US in seizing Osama bin Laden and eliminating the terrorist network.
However, Pakistan had a fragile society and until sound democracy was established, it was unclear what purpose military aid would serve, he said. In the past, the weapons provided by the US had been used against India, by the Pakistan
Army or by terrorist networks, Pallone said.
PTI
A warehouse in Kabul belonging to the International Committee of the Red Cross was hit by a bomb, CNN reported on Tuesday.
The Red Cross said one of its workers there was injured. Mario Musa, Red Cross spokesman in Islamabad, said the warehouse was hit by a bomb, but added that the organisation continued to work in the area.
Musa said there were about 1,000 Afghan personnel of the Red Cross working throughout Afghanistan, 500 of them in Kabul alone, since all the expatriate workers of the organisation were forced to leave with all other foreign nationals on September 16. Musa added that the warehouse had huge Red Cross signs painted on the roof, and expressed surprise at being hit.
The Red Cross has been working in Afghanistan since 1986. The Al Jazeera network reported that power lines and water supply lines in the capital of Afghanistan had been disrupted, plunging Kabul into darkness. (rediff.com)
Panic has gripped thousands of civilians in the border belt of the Akhnoor, R.S. Pora, Poonch and Rajouri sectors following exchange of fire between the Indian and the Pakistani forces during the last two days. Even today the Pakistani guns roared in the R.S. Pora and Akhnoor sector in which one civilian, Jaswant Singh, and one BSF constable, Abhimnayu, were wounded.
Official reports said the Pakistani forces resorted to unprovoked firing on the Nakowal border village in R.S. Pora where the BSF constable and one civilian were injured.
At least one person was killed and 15 others, mostly students, were injured in a grenade blast at Kulgam in south Kashmir this evening.
Official sources said unidentified militants hurled a hand grenade on security forces at Kulgam in the south Kashmir district of Anantnag this evening. However, the grenade missed the target and exploded on the roadside, causing injuries to 16 persons, mostly students. The injured were rushed to hospital where one of them was declared brought dead. The condition of some of the injured is stated to be critical. UNI Tribune
an attempt by arms courier to smuggle explosives into the Kashmir valley was frustrated and a huge cache of rockets, bombs and grenades was seized near the Line of Control (LoC) in the Kupwara sector today, official sources said. The troops found the lethal weapons abandoned by suspected smugglers at Nowshehra near the LoC, apparently after they found it difficult to carry it further in view of stringent security arrangements.
The area was immediately cordoned off and the weapons which included 13 107mm rockets, 15 solar rockets, eight RPG rockets with 15 boosters, one box containing IED's, seven loose IEDs, 10 60 mm mortar bombs, 61 hand grenades, 10 rifle grenades and five remote control device chargers were seized, the sources said.Tribunbe
NEW DELHI, Oct 16: In a significant statement coinciding with the arrival of U S Secretary of State Colin Powell, India today declared it will be a "no-holds-barred and ruthless" battle against terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir but refused to discuss in public the question of strikes on terrorist bases in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
"India will be ruthless in dealing with infiltration and the kind of methods used by Pakistani terrorists including suicide exercises. Essentially it means that the Army will act very decisively with "no-holds barred," Defence Minister George Fernandes told a press conference, His strong comments come a day after his reinduction and the "punitive" military action along the Line of Control and International Border in the Jammu sector.
Fernandes said that in yesterday's operation, 30 infiltrators were killed and 11 Pakistani posts destroyed in firing by the Army which used small arms, air defence guns, automatic grenade launchers and mortars.
Asked if Indian Armed forces would strike at terrorist training camps in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, he said "exact details of action are never disclosed. Otherwise, the adversary would make preparations to counter it".
On J and K Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah's demand that the terrorist camps should be attacked, he said "if such extraordinary step has to be taken, then that's a big decision. Such a decision cannot be taken on the spur of the moment".
"A decision (on crossing the LoC) will be taken only at that time...Everybody can come to their own conclusions", the Defence Minister said to a volley of questions whether he did not rule out strikes across the border.
On 'hot pursuit of militants camps across the LoC, Mr Fernandes said "hot pursuit has not been very clearly defined". He however said 'severe action against terrorism' as demanded by Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah "is a big decision and cannot be taken on the spur of the moment". "It was an emotion-loaded statement and one does understand the pain he carries. But hard decisions are not taken on the basis of emotions."
The Defence Minister said there had not been much change on Pakistan's deployment of troops on the border since the ceasefire was called off in May. In the background of the Afghan situation some troop movement was there but it was of a defensive nature.
Mr Fernandes said the recent incidents in Akhnoor and Mendhar proved that Pakistan's desire to infiltrate into Jammu and Kashmir had not ended. There had been a lean period only when Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf was coming to India.
The continuing militancy through laying of mines and Improvised Explosive Devices and suicide attacks like the one on the J and K Assembly were continuing. "One has to be ruthless to deal with them. The punitive action (taken yesterday) is what I meant when I said we will be ruthless. The punitive action will continue".
Mr Fernandes said his information was that although terrorist training camps existed across the border the activity there had come down. There were reports that foreign mercenaries were going back from the Valley and also that some recruits from within Jammu and Kashmir were returning to the State.
He said reports of the United States enhancing military ties with Pakistan was not of concern as India had been trying to tell the world for the last ten years that Pakistan and Taliban were behind the terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir but nobody believed it.
"If the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon had not been attacked I do not know whether the US would have talked of terrorism". India had all along been fighting terrorism and would do so without relying on another country, he added.
Mr Fernandes, who quit following the Tehelka expose on defence deals, said he would once again 'stick my neck out' to see that arms acquisition was speeded up so that national security was not jeopardised. (UNI – Daily excelsior
NEW DELHI, Oct 16: The Union Cabinet tonight approved promulgation of an ordinance to combat terrorism in place of scrapped TADA making non-disclosure of information relating to a terrorist act an offence.
In the new ordinance, the terrorist act has been defined as acts committed by using weapons and explosives or other methods to cause death and injuries, damage property, disrupt essential services and threaten the unity and integrity of the country.
With a view to stem criticism that such laws result in harassment, the ordinance will ensure safeguards, including reduction in the maximum period of police remand from 60 days under TADA to 30 days.
The Director General of Police and the review committee will have to confirm the FIR against a person within ten days and 30 days respectively and investigation of an offence would have to be conducted by an officer not below the rank of a Deputy Superintendent of Police. Intimation of the arrest of an accused will have to be provided to a family member immediately after the arrest and a lawyer on behalf of the detained person will be allowed during interrogation.
Only recording of confession of the accused by a police officer not below the rank of a Deputy Superintendent will be admissible as evidence. (UNI) Daily excelsior
JAMMU, Oct 16: As foreign terrorists active in Surankote area resorted to committing rapes, brutalising civilians, slitting throats and rendering small children orphans, there is strong resentment among people over inhuman acts of these so-called Jehadis.
To express their anguish over heinous atrocities of terrorists, large number of people today staged a protest demonstration and sough help from the security forces to protect their honour and dignity, a defence spokesman said.
He said, there is a wide spread feeling among inhabitants of militancy plagued areas that only forces can protect their womenfolk from the hands of foreign mercenaries who are hell bent to kidnap young girls for lust. may be recalled that in the last fortnight, the atrocities of Pakistani terrorists have increased. The so-called Jehadis had slit the throat of an innocent couple last week. Tired of the demands of terrorists, Tariq Hussain and his wife Naseem Begum had pleaded them to leave. The couple was beaten and brutally mutilated before killing them in cold blood. The security forces later tracked and killed this barbaric terrorist called Omar Pakistani. There was another heart rendering case of Pakistani terrorist waking up the peaceful family of Hamidulla Zhara. The couple was brutally killed in cold blood. Hamidullah had earned the wrath of these Jehadis when he wanted to save the honour of his wife. The tales go on and on, these perpetrators of terror do not intend to stop at this. These groups of mercenaries are sustained not by religion or ideology but by terror and violence and only lust for money and pleasure of women, the spokesman said.
Meanwhile in their resolve to fight the growing atrocities of terrorists, the people of Surankote and Mendhar organised protest marches. Prominent leaders, sarpanches, shopkeepers and masses sought the help of security forces and met the local commanders to reiterate their stand to extend unstinted co-operation to the security forces in fighting these unwanted terrorists, he said.
They have given them only pain, suffering, misled their youth to rise in rebellion against their own brethren and hindered their socio-economic growth. The delegation openly interacted with security forces and expressed their complete solidarity to fight jointly against these messiahs of death who despise and disregard their culture and customs. Portraying visible anger, they pledged to denounce militancy. Meanwhile it is reliably learnt that angered by the foreign terrorists for humiliating the pride of local girls, terrorists of HM and HM PPR have tacitly supported the security forces.
The army killed 41 terrorists in this month, who were targeting to disrupt peace in this region. The army has assured the locals to bring the terrorists to justice, the spokesman said (Daily excelsior)
SRINAGAR, Oct 16: While as a student died and 45 civilians sustained injuries in two grenade blasts in Kashmir valley today, at least eight militants and three civilians were reported killed in other incidents of violence today.
Informed sources in north Kashmir told EXCELSIOR that a patrol of Rashtriya Rifles 30 Bn was ambushed by militants at Hanga village on Handwara-Langet road. Even as a driver of the convoy received gunshot wounds on his right hand, troops retaliated and forced the militants withdraw. A covering party of the same battalion trapped the fleeing militants and engaged them in an hour-long gunbattle. Troops used mortar shelling and eliminated three militants. According to residents, four militants of the group managed to escape. Officials identified the militants killed in the encounter as Abu Osama, Abu Saffaya and Abu Nasir and described them as Pakistani cadres of Lashkar-e-Toiba. Unconfirmed reports said that a women also got injured in the gunbattle.
A large quantity of arms and ammunition, including 3 AK-56 rifles, one wireless set, three hand grenades, nine rifle grenades, one grenade-launcher and disposable rocket-launcher, were recovered from the site of encounter.
Reports from Bandipore said that a group of militants fired upon a search party of Rashtriya Rifles 14th Bn at Salinder village, near Choontimulla. Troops retaliated, killing three Pakistani militants of Lashkar-e-Toiba. One of them was identified as Abu Ukasa of Karachi. Official sources confirmed that two soldiers sustained injuries in the encounter. Late last evening, troops had launched the operation on the basis of a tip off which suggested presence of four militants in the village.
Reports from south Kashmir said that another encounter took place between militants and security forces at Sheikh Gund, in Achhabal locality of Anantnag in which two unidentified militants got killed.
Meanwhile the two militants killed in an encounter at Dobjan, Shopian, last evening, have been identified as Shahid-ul-Islam S/o Ghulam Mohammad of Bhaderwah and Bashir Ahmed Wagay S/o Sonaullah Wagay of Kuru-Batpora, Kulgam. Officials today described them as members of Harkat-e-Jihad-e-Islami. The militants killed near Sadhna Pass, in Trehgam area of Kupwara on Monday, has been identified as Mohammad Maqbool of Lipa Valley, PoK. Student killed, 45 injured
Official sources in south Kashmir said that militants hurled a hand grenade at a crowded place, at the main bus-stand of Kulgam, this evening. A Class 10th student, namely Showkat Ahmed, got killed and 25 other civilians sustained injuries. Earlier, in a similar explosion, at least 20 civilians sustained splinter injuries at Exhibition Crossing in the capital city. Most of the wounded were rushed to hospital. Even as officials held the militants responsible for causing the blasts at crowded places, very few people here believed that militants would have caused such explosions at the time of the American Secretary of State Colin Powell's New Delhi visit. Reports from Pulwama said that security forces seized an IED at Naira village, on Pulwama-Tahab road and defused the same without any damage.
Official sources in Budgam said that last evening, an encounter took place between militants and troops of RR 34 Bn at Khwaja Gund in Arizal area. In exchange of gunfire, a 16-year-old boy, namely Waseem Ali Khanday S/o Mohammad Akbar Khanday of Sail, got killed. However, residents alleged that troops in ambush mistook the boy as a militant and shot him dead. Another boy, namely Abdur Rasheed Khan S/o Abdul Karim Khan of Gadole, Kokernag, got killed when he began fiddling with an explosive device which he had picked up from a field. It went off, killing the boy on spot.
Reports from south Kashmir added that militants kidnapped Mushtaq Ahmed Negroo S/o Hassan Negroo of Sirhama, Bijbehara, and later throttled him to death at Dargund village. He was described as a labourer.
Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Oct 16: A hardcore Kashmiri terrorist of newly formed Asarul Islam outfit was arrested by police this morning between Bari Barahamana-Vijaypur section of railways when he was conducting recee of rail track to carry out sabotage.
Arrested militant had undergoing training in manufacturing and planting sophisticated explosive devices in Pakistan for about a year. He has been identified as Tariq Parray alias Shahbaz, a resident of Badgam district in Kashmir valley and a front ranking activist of Asarul Islam outfit, headed by Ahsan Dar.
Official sources described the arrest of Shahbaz as a 'prize catch' which will help in identifying the network of new militant outfit in the State. This was first arrest of the outfit in Jammu region, they said.
Shahbaz was arrested by a Bari Barahamana police station party headed by SHO Mohd Rafiq under supervision of SP City (South) Jagdish Lal Sharma during a naka laid by police party in a village, close to railway track, between Bari Barahamana-Vijaypur section early today. Initially, the terrorist pleaded innocence but broke after sustained interrogation by police parties. Tariq Parray disclosed that earlier he was affiliated with Hizbul Mujahideen outfit and operated mostly in Badgam district of Kashmir valley.
Later, he said, he switched over to newly formed outfit Asarul Islam of Master Ahsan Dar due to 'monetary considerations'. Asarul was deputed to Pakistan for arms training in September last year. He got training in handling of all type of sophisticated explosives including manufacturing of Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs).
He stayed in Pakistan for about 11 months and returned in August this year using International Border of Samba sector. After infiltrating, he proceeded straight to Kashmir valley and reported to his group leaders.
From Kashmir, he went to New Delhi early this month, reportedly on a 'mission', which he was yet to disclose. He returned from Delhi yesterday and was conducting recee of railway track, reportedly to carry out blasts at a later date when he was arrested by police. No immediate recovery could be made from the possession of Shahbaz but, the sources said, some recoveries were in the offing. Sustained interrogation of Shahbaz was going on and some more disclosures were expected.
Excelsior Correspondent
RAJOURI, Oct 16: A young girl, who was scheduled to wed next month, was gunned down by five terrorists in front of her mother and other family members in her house at village Salora in Manjakot tehsil last mid-night. As usual, the terrorists described the young innocent girl as an 'army informer'.
Twentyfive years old Shamim Akhter daughter of late Mohd Zaman, a former Lambardar of Salora was getting married in the middle of November. Reports said that a terrorist wanted to marry Shamim but the girl had turned down his offer.
The terrorist was reported to have used his outfit's members in killing the girl and to hide their crime labeled the girl as 'informer', the reports said.
A total of five terrorists were involved in the crime. While two of them went inside the house, three others kept waiting outside. One of the terrorist fired a volley of shots on Shamim Akhter resulting into her instant death.
Assailants escaped. A police party from Manjakot police station headed by SHO reached the spot. Police carried out searches in Salora and surrounding villages of Rajdhani and Mangalnar to track down the terrorists but couldn't get them.
Body of the girl was buried this afternoon after it was handed over to her family by police after post-mortem. A large number of people joined the burial and some of them even shouted slogans against Pakistan-sponsored terrorists.
Police said Shamim's father Mohd Zaman, Lambardar and her brother had already been killed by the terrorists.
In another incident, the terrorists set ablaze a house of Shrafat Hussain in Topa village of Mendhar tehsil in Poonch district last night. House of Shrafat Hussain's brother Razak Hussain was torched by the terrorists last week.
Meanwhile, out of five terrorists killed in Mahrot area of Surankot tehsil in Poonch district yesterday, four have been identified as 'Capt' Amir Talla and Abdul Razak of HEI outfit, Mohd Khan and Anwar Shahin of Hizbul Mujahideen group.
Besides, initial recovery, seven detonators, one pistol, one AK-magazine and 11 rounds were recovered today from the scene of encounter.
Police also recovered 90 rounds of AK-56 rifles from near a field in Mendhar police station, which was attacked by two fidayeen on late Sunday night. SDPO Mendhar Dalip Kumar had sustained minor injuries in the attack while fidayeen had escaped in injured condition.
NEW DELHI, Oct 16: United States and India tonight agreed to strengthen the fight against terrorism and on the need for a broad-based and multi-ethnic Government in Afghanistan in post-Taliban scenario.
This was stressed during a 50-minute one-to-one meeting between US Secretary of State Colin Powell and External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh which was followed by delegation level talks.
The two leaders met in an "extremely cordial, constructive and positive" atmosphere and decided to further broaden, expand and deepen their relations", an External Affairs Ministry spokesperson told reporters. (PTI)
NEW DELHI, Oct 16: India today outrightly rejected Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf's contention that Kashmir remained at the "heart of India-Pakistan tensions" and asked Islamabad to create a conducive climate for a meaningful dialogue between the two countries. "We certainly do not agree with that premise. This is not a new position that has been expressed and our response to that is also not altered", an External Affairs Ministry spokesperson told reporters.
She was asked for New Delhi's comment on Musharraf's remarks and US Secretary of State Colin Powell's observation that Kashmir was "central" to Indo-Pak relations. She, however, made no direct reference to Powell's remarks on Kashmir.
"We have all along been saying that we must have dialogue with Pakistan and we have not jettisoned that policy. From our side there is no dearth of willingness. But Pakistan's support to cross-border terrorism must stop. Unfortunately, there has not been sufficient response from Pakistan side in that direction", she said.
Pakistan needed to abjure violence and shed its one point agenda for a meaningful dialogue, she said adding "we need to look at the whole issue and address all issues in a composite manner". Asked whether New Delhi would convey its concern to Powell, the spokesperson said "we will continue to reflect and articulate our concerns" though there might be some differences between the two countries on certain issues.
"Our concern on whatever issues we feel necessary will be conveyed to the American side", she said. The spokesperson said "the present situation in Jammu and Kashmir is a consequence of state sponsored cross border terrorism. It is not the cause as is misleadingly sought to be portrayed in some of these interpretations." Asked about US stressing that India and Pakistan to exercise restraint, she merely said "restraint is a good idea".
To a question, she said Pakistan was indulging in a "deliberate campaign of disinformation by exaggerating yesterday's incident along the Line of Control." New Delhi has also accused Islamabad of misusing Powell's visit to the subcontinent to its advantage.
On the US move to resume military assistance to Pakistan, she said if and when such a situation arose, New Delhi would articulate its views to the right quarters. India has all along maintained it did not wish to do anything to add to the already complicated and complex situation in Pakistan.
To a question on moderates having some role in the post-Taliban regime, the spokesperson said that "we do not see any place for Taliban in the structure we are looking at in Afghanistan". Emphasising that New Delhi was in favour of a broad-based, multi-ethnic dispensation in Afghanistan, she said "we are completely in favour of a structure that enables this dispensation in Afghanistan which will be in the interest of Afghan people". On the issue of denial of Pakistan visas to Indian journalists wanting to visit Pakistan to cover the Afghan crisis, the spokesperson said New Delhi had taken up the matter formally with Pakistan Foreign office and through Pakistan High Commissioner here.
Maj Gen Richard Khare of Military Intelligence, who was also present, said intelligence inputs had suggested that a large number of infiltration had been planned at a number of places on the Line of Control which resulted in yesterday's shelling. Terming the incident as "normal", he said there was "synergised and systematic plan to push in people" from across the border. "Infiltration continues apace as in the past and 100 to 150 infiltrators are pushed into our side", he said.(PTI) Daily excelsior
OSCOW: Northern Alliance commander Abdul Rasheed Dostum has captured Mazar-e-Sharif, with the assistance of 4,000 Taliban fighters who switched sides after joining his ranks.Amid confusing reports about the fate of the key city, known as the northern gateway of Afghanistan, the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance said Uzbek warlord Dostum's troops entered Mazar-e-Sharif from the south and south-east, a Russian TV channel reported. However, there was no independent confirmation of the report. The Northern Alliance, led by ousted Afghan president Burhanuddin Rabbani, ferried arms and ammunition by helicopter to Dostum, who has managed to cover the distance of 30-40 km in a couple of days, without facing much resistance after local Taliban field commanders with 4,000 fighters joined his ranks, reported NTV from the Afghan opposition headquarters in Khoja Bahautdin.Earlier, quoting Afghan embassy sources in Tajik capital Dushanbe, the Itar-Tass news agency had reported heavy fighting near Mazar-e-Sharif airport between another Northern Alliance field commander and the Taliban units, mostly consisting of Pakistanis and Arab mercenaries.According to NTV, the opposition forces are in a hurry to establish control over Mazar-e-Sharif before the launching of US ground attack from the Uzbekistan territory to gain a bargaining position.The US special forces could be planning to make Mazar-e-Sharif their main base for advancing deep into Afghanistan, just like the Soviets did in 1979, NTV said.In Kandahar, the military onslaught against Afghanistan took a decisive turn, with the US forces bombing Taliban in the first low-level aerial attacks of the campaign. Targets inside Kabul were hit in the afternoon.The daytime raids followed all-night attacks involving at least two AC-130 gunships - a heavily-armoured plane with formidable cannon firepower and a helicopter-like ability to move slowly.The deployment of AC-130 over Kandahar, the home of Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar, was confirmed by US defence officials, who described the latest round of bombing as ''robust''. A US defence official said the gunships targeted a headquarters and ''troop complex'' in Kandahar.Their use marked a significant departure for a campaign, which, since its launch on October 7, has been conducted by fighter jets flying at high altitude to avoid Taliban air defences. The use of AC-130 was seen as another sign that the US is fast moving towards the deployment of troops inside Afghanistan.(TOI)( AFP ) Blast near Kashmir legislature, 15 hurt
RINAGAR: Fifteen people were injured Tuesday when a grenade exploded near the legislature building in Kashmir, where 38 people died in a suicide bomb attack earlier this month, police said.The grenade was meant for a police patrol, but missed its target and landed on the roadside just metres from the legislature, they said.Two of the wounded were in a serious condition.On October 1, 38 people had died in a suicide attack on the building, in the centre of capital Srinagar. ( AFP ) TOI
By Vernon Loeb and Thomas E. Ricks
Wednesday, October 17, 2001; Page A01
Intensified U.S. airstrikes across Afghanistan have "eviscerated" the Taliban's combat power and propelled Northern Alliance opposition forces to the outskirts of Mazar-e Sharif in northern Afghanistan, Pentagon officials said yesterday.
With Northern Alliance commanders claiming to be just miles from the center of the critical crossroads city and poised for a final attack, as many as 90 U.S. carrier-based fighter jets and 10 long-range bombers pounded Taliban military installations and troop concentrations in the second straight day of heavy day-and-night bombing.
After repeated U.S. airstrikes against Taliban targets around Mazar-e Sharif, including a tank defending the city's airport on Monday, the impending fall of the city would give the Northern Alliance control of most of northern Afghanistan. It would likely set the stage for the fall of Herat, the major city in the west. U.S. aircraft destroyed a Taliban communications facility near Herat on Monday.
The Northern Alliance, a coalition of opposition groups dominated by ethnic Uzbeks and Tajiks, has been fighting the ruling Taliban militia since the Taliban came to power in 1996. Alliance control of both cities would be a major military victory for the opposition, but it would dramatically sharpen the political problem facing the Bush administration over the shape of Afghanistan's government should the Taliban fall.
U.S. officials have been trying to hold off the Northern Alliance from seizing control of Kabul, the Afghan capital, as they negotiate with other opposition groups, composed primarily of ethnic Pashtuns, about an interim government that would include but not be dominated by the alliance. Pakistan, a key ally in the administration's war against terrorism, has made it clear it would object to a Northern Alliance takeover that did not make room for power-sharing with Pashtuns, the dominant ethnic group in southern and eastern Afghanistan. One administration official insisted yesterday, however, that U.S. forces are not holding back. Asked why the U.S. airstrikes have not hit the Taliban front line dug in just north of Kabul, the official replied: "Just wait."
"We're not channeling them away from Kabul," the official said. Briefing reporters at the Pentagon, Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Gregory Newbold, director of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, made a similar claim, saying Taliban troops protecting Kabul north of the city are not "immune in any way" to U.S. attack.
"I think the series of strikes we've conducted over the past nine days have had a fairly dramatic effect on the Taliban, and any degree to which the combat power of the Taliban is dissipated . . . is a net benefit to the Northern Alliance," Newbold said. "I think, as I say, the combat power of the Taliban has been eviscerated."
Newbold said U.S. officials believe Northern Alliance forces are "very close to Mazar-e Sharif," on the perimeter of the airport, about six miles from the city center, and could take the city at any time.
Mazar-e Sharif is important, Newbold said, for geographic and psychological reasons. "It's a crossroads mostly for resupply" of Taliban forces, Newbold said, adding that the city "has been fought over for three years now, and it's changed hands. Its loss to the Taliban would be a significant setback."
Describing targets bombed on Monday, the heaviest day of strikes since the air campaign began over Afghanistan 10 days ago, Newbold revealed that 100 aircraft -- twice the number initially disclosed -- had flown missions. He also said that more than 2,000 bombs and missiles have been dropped on Afghanistan since the air war began.
Without commenting on yesterday's targets, Newbold said the airstrikes were "intense" and involved almost as many planes as Monday. "I think you've seen, over the past four or five days, a shift to strike emerging targets," Newbold said. "We struck Taliban forces in a robust way."
Two AC-130 gunships, among the most devasting weapons in the U.S. air arsenal, attacked targets again yesterday around Kandahar, the Taliban stronghold in southern Afghanistan, defense officials said.
Armed with 105mm howitzers and Gatling guns capable of firing 1,800 rounds per minute, the gunships joined the assault on Monday, pulverizing a Taliban barracks and military complex in Kandahar, the officials said.
To hit similar targets during the first week of airstrikes, the officials said, the Pentagon relied on "smart" munitions fired from bombers and naval fighter jets. The gunships provide the same kind of precision strike capability but have the added advantage of being able to loiter over an area for sustained destruction, they said.
"We really wanted to chew up this particular complex of buildings," one military officer said. Another officer said the gunships were selected to add an element of terror to the attack as well. "If you're on the ground and get hit with a bomb from a B-52, it's over," the officer said. "But if you're there and you hear an AC-130 coming, with it's Gatling gun going, the experience can be even more frightening."
The planes flew from Oman, where the Pentagon has positioned other Special Forces units and the Commando Solo aircraft, used to conduct broadcast missions and psychological operations, the officials said. While the AC-130s often are employed with special operations ground forces, none were involved this time, they said.
Asked at the Pentagon briefing why the AC-130 was added to the strike force, Newbold said: "It has a wide array of unique advantages, including support of ground troops, including precision striking, its ability to loiter, and it ought to worry the Taliban."
Newbold added: "There is psychological effect of all that we're trying to do. I think the intent and purpose of the military tool of national power is as much to convince the Taliban leadership that they have made an error, and their calculus someday will be that it's in their best interest to accede."
When the airstrikes began over a week ago, many Pentagon officials said that the war in Afghanistan would take a long time but that the initial phase of strikes would last just two or three days, or perhaps three to five.
But the strikes have gone on more than twice that long. Also, they appear to have increased in intensity rather than dwindled. Yesterday, for example, 100 aircraft flew, compared with 40 on the first day of the campaign.
Asked why the campaign is going on longer than first indicated, a Pentagon official said there may have been a misunderstanding, or perhaps even purposeful disinformation.
"People may have said that, but you should put stock in what the secretary said, that we're not going to telegraph what we're doing," the official said, referring to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld. "Those who were saying it would only go for two or three days were only focused on particular aspects of it. Rumsfeld has always said this was going to go on for a long time."
But others said that U.S. military planners may have been overly optimistic about the willingness of the Pashtuns of southern Afghanistan to rise up against the Taliban.
"I don't think the situation has developed the way they [the Americans] had expected," said one Afghan who hopes to be involved in the government that replaces the Taliban. "They thought they would be able to do something in the south."
By Edward Cody and Kamran Khan
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, October 17, 2001; Page A24
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Oct. 16 -- As Afghan guerrillas battled Soviet forces in Afghanistan through the 1980s, the CIA and Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency worked hand in hand to usher Islamic warriors along the road to victory. Now, in a struggle against a different enemy, the United States has set out to stage a replay of that famously successful Cold War cooperation.
The battle of 2001 is to decapitate Afghanistan's Taliban leadership, kill or capture Osama bin Laden and destroy his al Qaeda terrorist network. Dropping long-standing sympathies for the Taliban, Pakistan has declared itself a U.S. ally in the conflict and its intelligence agency, the ISI, has been ordered to help. But experienced Pakistani and foreign diplomatic sources here warn that this time around, gaining the ISI's crucial assistance to change the landscape in Afghanistan may not be as easy -- or as effective -- as it was in the 1980s.
On one hand, they say, almost a decade of close, supportive relationships with Taliban political and military leaders by specialists in the ISI's "Afghan cells" will be difficult to suddenly turn on its head, no matter what the orders from headquarters say. "Basically, you are telling the ISI operatives to break their ideological and traditional bonds with their Afghan friends," a senior Pakistani military source said.
On the other hand, even if the ISI moves ahead with the best of intentions, these sources say that getting real-time intelligence from territory controlled by the Taliban will be difficult for an agency now openly aligned with the United States. "It increasingly is becoming more difficult because of the mood of the nation, in Pakistan as well as in Afghanistan," said retired Gen. Hamid Gul, who headed the ISI from 1987 to 1989, in the heyday of its joint enterprise with the CIA.
The situation is fundamentally different from that of the 1980s, Gul said, because the Afghan guerrilla groups and their foreign allies -- including bin Laden -- were then coming to the ISI for help, freely exchanging information for money, logistics and weapons. "We did not have to work for information then," he said. "It was coming to us automatically."
The need for on-the-ground intelligence in the current war becomes increasingly visible with each passing day. After nine nights and several days of bombing, the limits of the high-tech U.S. air campaign over Afghanistan have begun to show. Bin Laden and the Taliban leader, Mohammad Omar, reportedly remain alive, despite destruction of the Taliban military infrastructure.
U.S. officials have spoken in recent days of air attacks on leadership targets, which means trying to kill officials by bombing them, hitting them with a missile or machine-gunning them. This tactic was dramatized overnight by deployment of AC-130 Specter gunships in attacks around Kandahar, a city in southeastern Afghanistan that is a Taliban stronghold and was Omar's headquarters until the bombing began Oct. 7.
The AC-130s, slow-moving cargo planes outfitted with a 105mm howitzer and an ultra-rapid Gatling gun, are designed to attack people and vehicles by spraying lead so densely -- at 1,800 rounds a minute -- that it withers anything within range. U.S. officials did not say what the aircraft were shooting at during the night. But to give AC-130 gunners a target -- or to trigger an effective raid by U.S. Special Forces -- U.S. commanders need hard-to-get, real-time intelligence on the whereabouts of Taliban leaders or military units.
That, U.S. officials say, is where the ISI is supposed to come in. Because of ethnic closeness to Afghanistan, long experience there and a network of contacts built up over the years, the Pakistani service holds out the promise of background knowledge and human intelligence that the CIA and U.S. military would find difficult to match, even with all their satellites and reconnaissance aircraft.
"The CIA is seeking to revive the same old relationship with the ISI," said a senior Pakistani official. "But this time, they want the partnership to demolish the force they both created together."
Gen. Pervez Musharraf, the Pakistani president, has ruled out participation by the regular Pakistani military in the U.S. campaign, but he has publicly promised to provide intelligence collaboration. He repeated the pledge today in a news conference with Secretary of State Colin L. Powell.
On Oct. 7, the day the bombing began, Musharraf replaced the ISI's foot-dragging director general, Gen. Mahmoud Ahmad, to make sure his promise would be carried out in the ranks. Ahmad's replacement, Lt. Gen. Ehsanul Haq, is reported to embrace Musharraf's controversial decision to reverse Pakistani policy and go along with the United States against the Taliban. In their first full meeting since the reshuffle, senior military commanders gathered today at General Headquarters in Rawalpindi and formally endorsed the decision to cooperate in taking down the Taliban, military sources reported. But one senior military official described the decision as "very difficult," because it so contradicted what the Pakistani military and intelligence service have been doing for years.
The Pakistani military is still engaged in negotiations with U.S. intelligence and other officials to establish "rules of the game," a senior Pakistani official said. In particular, he said, the Pakistani government wants to make sure the CIA does not organize any covert operations on, or from, Pakistani territory without ISI approval.
Since Musharraf's policy reversal -- and particularly since the leadership change Oct. 7 -- the ISI has been in touch with tribal leaders in southern Afghanistan who might be willing to oppose the Taliban in exchange for money or promises of positions of power, the military officials said. Some of these leaders already have been introduced to U.S. intelligence agents, they added.
The Afghan leaders identified by ISI experts are from the Pashtun ethnic group, which makes up 40 percent of Afghanistan's 27 million inhabitants. This is key, because the Taliban draws its support mainly from the Pashtun group, while the Northern Alliance, the rebel force that controls a sliver of northern Afghanistan, is made up mostly of ethnic Tajiks and Uzbeks. In addition, about a quarter of the Pakistani military is Pashtun, creating natural loyalties that experts say have played a large role in Pakistan's support for the Taliban.
Persuading Pashtun leaders to rebel against the Taliban has become a major goal of U.S. intelligence. In addition to spreading disaffection with Taliban rule among its prime backers, this would open new sources of intelligence on Omar, his lieutenants and bin Laden.
Unverified reports have said some weapons and money already are flowing to the tribal groups. Such cross-border supply operations are well known to ISI's Afghan cells, who helped Taliban military forces during their rise to power and as they have battled to extend their rule to the northern border.
In principle, such aid was cut off this year in response to U.S. urging and Musharraf's own disenchantment with the Taliban, military sources said. But other sources said some shipments continued right up until Musharraf announced his about-face in the days following the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States -- and perhaps even after that.
Khan reported from Karachi, Pakistan.
By John Lancaster and Dan Eggen
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, October 17, 2001; Page A01
The anthrax that arrived in the office mail of Senate Majority Leader Thomas A. Daschle on Monday is a highly potent, finely milled variety that spreads easily by air and is similar to the spores that killed Florida photo editor Robert Stevens almost two weeks ago, senior government officials said yesterday.
Senior officials also disclosed that the letter sent to Daschle bears striking similarities -- including references to Allah and a warning that the envelope contained anthrax -- to another contaminated envelope sent to NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw.
Although it has yet to be established that the anthrax sent to Brokaw and Daschle is the same high-grade variety, FBI investigators believe that the three cases -- in Florida, New York and now Washington -- are likely connected, officials said.
"Mr. Stevens died of pulmonary anthrax, which is the finely milled anthrax, which is what we believe we see in the Daschle letter," a senior government official said. "We're looking at the NBC case to see if it's the same kind. . . . We think we're going to see a connection between the three."
After tests confirmed the presence of anthrax in the letter sent to Daschle, authorities yesterday sealed the southeast wing of the Hart Senate Office Building, where his office is situated. They closed 12 Senate offices as hundreds of congressional aides and others underwent medical screening and began taking antibiotics as a precautionary measure.
Authorities said the growing web of connections among the bioterrorist episodes has deepened suspicions that they may be linked, and may be connected to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. They did emphasize that there is no firm evidence to tie them to Saudi fugitive Osama bin Laden, the purported mastermind of the Sept. 11 plot. Tom Ridge, the new director of the White House Office of Homeland Security, said yesterday he suspects the anthrax contamination is linked to the Sept. 11 attacks and bin Laden's al Qaeda network.
"To me, it's just beyond coincidence," Ridge, the former Pennsylvania governor, told the Associated Press. "It's more than coincidence, and we don't have the credible evidence. It's somewhere in between."
Ridge said he gets regular intelligence, as well as law enforcement and military briefings. "As the evidence unwinds, there may end up being a formal tie" between the anthrax case and bin Laden, he said.
Authorities declined to comment publicly on whether the anthrax in the three known bioterrorist episodes may have come from the same source, saying they were awaiting conclusive test results. Investigators are still studying the contents of a letter sent to a Microsoft office in Nevada, but officials increasingly have come to believe that incident may have been a false alarm.
Yesterday's most striking disclosure initially came from Daschle. After receiving a briefing on the investigation, he told reporters -- on the basis of tests conducted Monday night in a military lab in Fort Detrick, Md. -- that the letter contained "a very strong form of anthrax, a very potent form of anthrax that was clearly produced by someone who knows what he or she is doing." A federal official said last night the anthrax was of a potency capable of killing thousands of people if dispersed in the air and appeared to have been developed for purposes of biological warfare. Capitol police and Daschle emphasized, however, that there was no evidence the anthrax in the envelope had contaminated Daschle's office, the Hart building or anyone in it. Senators came away from yesterday's briefing with the strong impression that the anthrax was, as Daschle suggested, of a potent and concentrated nature. One senator, asking not to be named, said it was characterized as "weapon-grade." Another, also requesting anonymity, said it was described as "high-quality."
Authorities had indicated a connection between the letters to Brokaw and Daschle, both of which were postmarked in Trenton, N.J.
The letter to Brokaw was opened by an assistant, Erin O'Connor, 38, who has fallen ill with a skin-transmitted form of the disease that is less serious than the pulmonary, or inhaled, variety that killed Robert Stevens on Oct. 2 and has afflicted one of his co-workers, Ernesto Blanco, 73.
The infant son of an ABC producer in New York has also been diagnosed with cutaneous anthrax, though the source of that infection remains unknown. Nine other people may have been exposed to the bacterium in Florida and New York.
Copies of the envelopes to those letters released yesterday -- to alert the public to similar mailings -- showed they featured block-like, childish script sloping down and to the right. The letter to Daschle was postmarked Oct. 8. Both letters were about six lines long, stated that their envelopes contained anthrax and made reference to Allah. FBI officials noted that one came with a fake return address.
There were conflicting reports last night about whether the anthrax in the two letters may have came from the same source. While a senior government official suggested that such would turn out to be the case, following completion of tests, U.S. Postal Inspector Dan Mihalko said his office has been told that the New York and Washington anthrax strains are not the same, that the anthrax received by Daschle's office is stronger. The two strains are being compared now, he said.
FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III said the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is evaluating the samples, and it is "premature" to discuss similarities or differences because the tests have not been completed.
Caree Vander Linden, spokeswoman for the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick, said "There is no evidence that this is engineered to be more potent than the naturally occurring form of anthrax. The question of whether it was genetically modified -- there is no evidence of that."
On Capitol Hill, police closed off the southeast wing of the eight-story Hart building, where the letter was opened in Daschle's office by a junior member of his staff at 10:15 a.m. Monday. Police said they had no evidence that anyone in Daschle's office -- or elsewhere in the building -- had been exposed to anthrax, and emphasized they had sealed the area as a precaution so the ventilation system could be checked.
Also as a precaution, Capitol physician John Eisold advised anyone who had been in the Hart building on Monday to undergo medical screening for anthrax exposure and start treatment with Cipro.
Yesterday, hundreds of congressional staff and others lined up outside a hearing room on the second floor of the Hart building, where medical staff took a swab from each nostril of those tested and distributed three-day supplies of the antibiotic. Those who took the test were advised to return on Thursday for the results and further medical advice.
Many of those waiting in line yesterday wondered why they had not been told to leave the building on Monday. "They should have just evacuated the building when they found out," said Rebecca Kessler, 23, a staff assistant in the Republican conference office on the fourth floor of the Hart building.
Speaking to reporters yesterday, Daschle said the overall risk to people who may have been in the building in Monday is "negligible . . . almost nonexistent" because of the effectiveness of the antibiotics against anthrax. Daschle said his staff tested negative in preliminary tests for infection and "I'm quite confident that will remain the case."
The office of Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), which is next door to Daschle's, was closed yesterday. Baucus said he planned to get tested later in the day. He said he wasn't criticizing anyone, but that too many questions remain unanswered involving the origin of the letter, health risks and other issues. "We're in a whole different world and we've lost our innocence," he said.
Sens. Paul Sarbanes (D-Md.) and Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) also were tested. In Florida yesterday, Secretary of Health John O. Agwunobi said yesterday that more than 1,100 people in the state have been tested for anthrax. He said that all but about 50 of the nasal swab test results have come back.
So far, three people have been confirmed as infected: Stevens, 63; Blanco, the mail room employee who has been hospitalized and is being treated with antibiotics; and Stephanie Dailey, 36, an administrative clerk who had anthrax in her nasal passages but has shown no symptoms and is being treated with antibiotics preventatively.
Officials at American Media Inc., the tabloid newspaper company, have said blood tests on five other employees indicated they had been exposed to anthrax. But Agwunobi and other health officials said no conclusions can be drawn about those employees until a second set of blood tests is completed.
Agwunobi said health officials were looking into whether a former AMI intern is ill as a result of anthrax. Jordan Arizmendi, who has been hospitalized with a fever, initially was suspected by some employees as having been involved in the anthrax contamination of AMI because he had written a seemingly suspicious e-mail before leaving his job. Subsequently, law enforcement officials said the former intern was not a suspect. Agwunobi said Arizmendi had been tested but that results were not yet available.
Also yesterday, Judy Orihuela, a spokeswoman for the FBI's Miami office, said investigators believe the anthrax inside the AMI building was received by letter. She said investigators have not drawn that conclusion because of a specific letter that has been discovered, but rather because of the anthrax spores found in the building's mail room, in the nasal cavities of two AMI mail handlers and in a post office that sorts mail for the building.
AMI employees said they have been told by the newspaper company that they will never have to go back to work in the contaminated building. They said the tabloids, including the National Enquirer, Globe and Sun, will find new editorial offices.
Mueller also acknowledged that there were "missteps" in the FBI's initial delay in testing a suspicious letter received by NBC News. He said the delay did not affect the outcome of the investigation, but that FBI offices around the country have been given instructions about prompt testing.
Staff writers Bob Woodward, Susan Schmidt, Helen Dewar, Justin Blum, Peter Slevin, Michael Powell, Ellen Nakashima, David Brown, Ceci Connolly and Christine Haughney contributed to this report.
By Howard Schneider
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, October 17, 2001; Page A16
ABHA, Saudi Arabia -- After tracing the backgrounds and travel patterns of as many as nine Saudis suspected in the Sept. 11 airliner hijackings, U.S. investigators have concluded that some of the recruiting and planning for the attacks took place in Saudi Arabia, according to a U.S. official familiar with the case.
Investigators have found evidence of an active branch of Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network operating mainly in southwestern areas of the kingdom, where people have also been linked to the October 2000 bombing of the Navy destroyer USS Cole in a Yemeni port. The bin Laden operatives are thought to have assembled a core of young men who in most cases acted not as pilots but as "muscle" to seize control of the airplanes, according the official, who declined to elaborate.
Beginning in the spring of 2000 and continuing through December, the men departed the kingdom in a trickle, never more than a pair at a time. Some first transited through Germany and Russia's breakaway province of Chechnya, and some traveled directly to the United States. They left behind only vague travel plans with their families.
The first to depart from Saudi Arabia was apparently Hamza Alghamdi, who local papers reported had left his home of Baljurshi a year and a half ago, saying he was bound for Chechnya, where foreign volunteers help Muslim rebels battle Russian forces.
Three of the suspected hijackers were last seen by their families as they departed for a trip to the Muslim holy cities of Mecca and Medina, with talk of hoping to participate in unspecified Islamic relief work abroad, according to local press accounts.
Ahmed Alnami, a mosque prayer leader in Abha and former student at the King Khaled University Islamic law school, was reported in the local al-Watan newspaper to have left home in the summer of 2000. Brothers Wail M. and Waleed M. Alshehri left on a similar route in December from the nearby village of Khamis Mushayt, according to local press accounts. That is the same month that another Saudi hijacker, Hani Hanjour, arrived in the United States, according to the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service.
It is not certain, U.S. officials say, whether the recruits knew the exact nature of the operation being planned. It likely they left knowing only that they were to take part in a terrorist operation "in a certain time, at a certain place."
Only one, Hanjour, is suspected of piloting a plane, with the others providing the physical support needed to subdue or kill crew members and gain control. Like they have in Germany, investigators are discovering that Saudi Arabia -- the world's largest oil producer and a close diplomatic, financial and military partner of the United States -- was a center of gravity in the planning for the operation.
U.S. investigators suggest there was a more active bin Laden network here than previously thought. It was able to recruit young men and provide enough coordination and support to get them, undetected, into the United States with money and contacts to support them over several months as the final details of the assault were arranged.
Coming from mostly middle-class families with no obvious connections to radical or dissident groups, the men would have blended easily into the stream of thousands of Saudi visa applicants who pass through the U.S. Embassy in Riyadh or the Jiddah consulate each year. After the Sept. 11 attacks, U.S. authorities identified as many as nine Saudis among the 19 suspected hijackers. But Saudi officials publicly questioned whether their citizens were involved, while complaining that the United States had been slow in providing investigative leads. "There were 400 people aboard the four planes and we find it strange that the focus is on Arabs, and Saudis in particular," the interior minister, Prince Nayef, told the Saudi Press Agency on Sunday.
Early confusion over names and identifications added to public and official doubts about the depth of Saudi involvement: Hundreds of Saudis in a provincial city such as Abha might share the same first and last names, and local papers made a sport in the early days of finding suspected hijackers alive and well at their homes.
Another leading Saudi military official this week played down the significance of the hijackers' Saudi roots, arguing that because none of them came from the central Najd region, the base of the Saudi monarchy, they were simply "derailed" individuals outside the "fabric" of the kingdom. However, top Saudi officials acknowledge that Saudi citizens were in all probability on the plane.
Foreign diplomats here say that the government is also concerned that the presence of a large bin Laden network within the kingdom's borders represents a serious internal security issue. One of bin Laden's chief goals is toppling the Saudi monarchy, which he regards as corrupt and un-Islamic because it is allied militarily with the United States and has allowed U.S. troops to remain here since the Persian Gulf War a decade ago.
Though it is impossible to gauge the depth of support for bin Laden's views, even Western-oriented Saudis say his rhetoric strikes a chord in Saudi society.
In recent fatwas, or religious edicts, some prominent religious figures have come close to saying that King Fahd and other Saudi rulers are infidels for not joining a holy war against the United States. Such statements challenged the monarchy's legitimacy as leaders of a state based on Islamic law and home of the faith's holy sites in Mecca and Medina.
"Whoever supports the infidel against Muslims is considered an infidel," Sheik Hamoud Oqla Shuaibi said in an opinion issued after the Sept. 11 attacks. "It is a duty to wage jihad on anyone who attacks Afghanistan."
In this environment, Saudi investigators "are well on the road to developing leads" from the areas where the suspects grew up and were drawn into al Qaeda, a U.S. official said. "On the official level they recognize that they have a serious problem -- that Osama bin Laden is able to operate" in Saudi Arabia, even though the country has officially ostracized him, stripped him of citizenship and tried to suppress the voices of those who share his views. The sensitivity of the issue is evident in Abha, capital of a region suspected to have produced four of the hijackers.
The Saudis have been trying to promote the town and the province for tourism, opening a five-star hotel and a hospitality college, in hopes of persuading Saudis to spend their summers in the cool mountain forests of Asir province instead of in Beirut, Cairo or the West.
But one local military officer, stationed here for more than a decade, spoke of the province as a tribal and suspicious place. One longtime resident said the entire southwest of Saudi Arabia has become more religiously conservative in the last 20 years.
Signs of that are clear: Abha is home to a college of Sharia, or Islamic law, attended by one of the suspected hijackers. At a local hotel, the owner recently pulled the plug on his satellite television connection because he was disturbed by the content; he would allow only the two local Saudi channels.
And the province is sensitive about the implications of its role in the hijackings. Foreign journalists arriving here have been refused permission to conduct interviews and have been told to leave.
While Abha appears outwardly like any almost other Saudi town, the province was the last to be brought under the rule of the Saud family, about 70 years ago. Like other southwestern provinces, it still maintains a sense of distance from Riyadh. Until a year ago, there was not even agreement on the border between that area of Saudi Arabia and northern Yemen, where an ultra-conservative Islamic university is located and tribal leaders have given bin Laden an open offer of sanctuary.
Investigators probing the Cole bombing found direct links to people in the Saudi southwest. The boat that carried explosives and suicide bombers across Aden harbor to the destroyer, for example, was purchased in Jizan, just north of the Yemen border, a U.S. official said. In addition, investigative leads followed by those examining the Cole bombing "disappeared" into southwestern Saudi Arabia, said a U.S. official familiar with the investigation.
Rory McCarthy in Islamabad
Wednesday October 17, 2001
The Guardian
A senior Taliban minister has offered a last-minute deal to hand over Osama bin Laden during a secret visit to Islamabad, senior sources in Pakistan told the Guardian last night. For the first time, the Taliban offered to hand over Bin Laden for trial in a country other than the US without asking to see evidence first in return for a halt to the bombing, a source close to Pakistan's military leadership said.
But US officials appear to have dismissed the proposal and are instead hoping to engineer a split within the Taliban leadership.
The offer was brought by Mullah Wakil Ahmed Muttawakil, the Taliban foreign minister and a man who is often regarded as a more moderate figure in the regime.
He met officials from the CIA and Pakistan's ISI intelligence directorate in Islamabad on Monday. US officials pressed the minister for a sweeping change in the regime. "They are trying to persuade him to get the moderate elements together," another source said. Mr Muttawakil's visit coincided with the arrival in Islamabad of Colin Powell, the US secretary of state. After several hours of talks with Pakistan's military ruler General Pervez Musharraf yesterday, Mr Powell admitted that moderate Taliban would play a role in talks on a future Afghan government. "We would have to listen to them or at least take them into account," he said.
Mr Powell also met envoys sent by Zahir Shah, the former Afghan king who lives in exile in Rome, and a representative of the opposition Northern Alliance, sources said.
The Taliban foreign minister had asked for face-to-face talks with the US secretary of state but no direct meeting was held. Mr Muttawakil returned to Kabul last night and the Taliban have publicly denied he was ever in Islamabad.
His visit came as Taliban forces in Afghanistan came under renewed pressure from the bombing campaign and opposition advances.
Troops from the Northern Alliance were yesterday closing in on the key northern town of Mazar-i-Sharif. More alliance soldiers were locked in heavy fighting with the Taliban in the west hoping to cut a key supply line to the town.
Some reports suggested the Taliban foreign minister had in fact defected in the face of mounting pressure and was now in the Gulf. But sources in Pakistan confirmed he had returned to Kabul and said there was still no clear rift in the ultra-Islamic regime.
Instead, the offer appears to indicate that Pakistan is applying pressure on moderate Taliban elements to negotiate their way out of the crisis.
Pakistan has made clear that it wants the bombing campaign to be brief and that it does not want the Northern Alliance, backed by its arch-enemy India, to sweep to power in Kabul. Gen Musharraf said publicly yesterday that he wanted to see "moderate Taliban" in the next Afghan government.
Pakistan was intricately linked to the emergence of the Taliban as a military force and has closely backed the movement financially and diplomatically. Pakistan is now the only country to maintain diplomatic links with the ostracised regime.
The Taliban have offered to hand over Bin Laden before but only if sufficient evidence was presented. Bin Laden is wanted both for the September 11 attacks and for masterminding the bombings of two US embassies in East Africa in 1998 in which 224 people were killed. He is also suspected of involvement in other terrorist attacks, including the suicide bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen last year.
But until now the Taliban regime has consistently said it has not seen any convincing evidence to implicate the Saudi dissident in any crime.
"Now they have agreed to hand him over to a third country without the evidence being presented in advance," the source close to the military said. However, it is unclear whether the Taliban would have the ability to seize Bin Laden and hand him over.
The US administration has not publicly supported the idea of a trial for Bin Laden outside America and appears intent on removing from power the Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar and the hardliners in the regime.
Some in Pakistan have suggested Saudi Arabia as a loca tion for any trial for Bin Laden. "The Pakistan army would be supportive of anything with a Saudi link," said the source. The Saudi royal family has long seen Bin Laden as a threat because he has accused the government of corruption and mismanagement and continually demanded the withdrawal of US troops from Saudi soil.
Mr Muttawakil's clandestine visit to Pakistan was planned several days in advance. The Taliban ambassador in Islam abad, Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef, left the embassy on Friday and travelled to Kandahar, home of the Taliban headquarters in southern Afghanistan, for talks with Mullah Omar to prepare for the visit.
It is not clear how the Taliban foreign minister travelled from Kabul to Pakistan without approval from the US. One report in the US yesterday suggested that Pakistani intelligence flew him out of the country in a small aircraft. (guardian) Iran in secret pact to aid Americans
Brian Whitaker
Wednesday October 17, 2001
The Guardian Iran has secretly agreed to help any members of the American forces who stray into its territory as a result of the conflict with neighbouring Afghanistan, in a sign of its growing cooperation with the US.
American and Iranian officials have confirmed the existence of an agreement, which was made in an exchange of messages delivered by the Swiss government, according to a report in the New York Times.
Although Iran has strongly criticised the US for bombing Afghanistan, it is also a fierce opponent of the Taliban regime.
The Bush administration asked Iran to help any American who might be shot down or forced to land in Iranian territory, or who escaped into Iran, the paper said. Iran agreed after receiving assurances that the US would respect its territorial integrity, including its airspace.
Switzerland became involved because Iran and the US do not have diplomatic relations. The state department still regards Iran as a sponsor of terrorism, mainly because of its support for Hizbullah and Hamas, but US officials have been encouraged by its condemnation of the September 11 attacks.
Iran is understood to be providing the US with intelligence, and it recently told Imad Mughniyeh, a Lebanese who is on the FBI's "most wanted" list, to leave the country.
The Bush administration, meanwhile, has been trying to prevent a group of Americans from giving evidence against Iran in a $10bn (£6.8bn) court case. The group are claiming compensation from Tehran for the 444 days they were held captive in 1979-80 after Iranians overran the US embassy.
The judge in the case blocked as "outrageous" a last-minute move by the state department to stop the evidence being heard. One of the claimants, Barry Rosen, accused the Bush administration of playing a surrogate role for Iran. "I believe the US government is doing this only because of the events of September 11," he said.
The state department denies that it intervened in the hope of gaining diplomatic favour in Tehran. A spokesman for the justice department said: "We had a very specific agreement with the Iranians about the release of those hostages, signed by the president, that bars any lawsuits." Washington's softer line has brought complaints from Israel. On Monday the defence minister, Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, accused the US of ignoring the "threat" posed by Iran. By 2005 it would have nuclear weapons capabilities, he said.
David Ward
Wednesday October 17, 2001
The Guardian
Ministers and health officials urged people not to panic yesterday as police dealt with anthrax scares after suspect packets were discovered in Liverpool, London, and Scotland. Buildings were evacuated, staff decontaminated and substances removed for analysis. No traces of anthrax had been found last night and the scares are likely to be confirmed as false alarms or hoaxes.
Scotland Yard urged the public to be alert. A spokeswoman said there was no intelligence of a "specific threat" to Britain of a biological or chemical attack. The health secretary, Alan Milburn, told the Commons: "It is important that people remain calm and go about their normal lives."
Meanwhile the public health laboratory service confirmed that precautionary anthrax testing on three people in the UK has been completed. All three have tested negative.
In Liverpool, 400 post workers were evacuated from a sorting office in the city centre after a packet leaking white powder was discovered on the third floor.
More than 200 staff who could have come in contact with the parcel were isolated in a car park for seven hours as police and fire and ambulance crews investigated. Six postal workers were eventually escorted from the car park in protective suits to an ambulance service decontamination unit.
They were later taken to hospital for tests and given antibiotics. Test results on the powder should be available today.
Mark Rock, who was in the sorting office when the packet was found, said it had come from abroad, was destined for an address in the Toxteth area, and was at first treated as a joke. "The bloke who was sorting it noticed the white powder leaking from it and started waving it in the air saying it was anthrax," he said. "But as he was waving it the powder came out." In London, police investigated a suspect package sent to the offices of the Local Government Association in Smith Square, where government minister Nick Raynsford was meeting local government leaders.
A Scotland Yard spokeswoman said part of the building was evacuated and the package was removed and examined as a precautionary measure.
"We have no knowledge of anyone exhibiting ill effects," she added. At the London stock exchange 12 workers were taken to hospital as a precautionary measure after a suspect package arrived in the mail room. "They were not suffering any ill effects and police are now investigating the matter," said a spokesman.
In Fife, police said that a number of packages "purporting to contain anthrax" had been delivered to various addresses, including St Andrews University, where Prince William is a student, and police headquarters in Glenrothes.
Fife's assistant chief constable, David Mellor, said: "There is every likelihood that these fall more into the hoax category that we have previously experienced here in Fife than any direct connection with other events currently ongoing elsewhere in the world."
By Asim Yasin
ISLAMBAD: The European Commission (EU) Tuesday removed all tariffs on clothing and increased quotas for Pakistani textiles and clothing by 15 per cent. However, tariffs on the export of cotton yarn, grey cloth and printed cloth will remain as usual - only the value-added sector of the textile and non-textile products will benefit from the European Commission's decision.
Explaining the EC decision, Commerce Minister Abdul Razak Dawood told a press conference here that it will remove the existing preferential 7 per cent duty from January 1, 2002 and Pakistan will have now zero-rated duties on its value-added exports to the EU countries.
"This will benefit 60 per cent of exports to the European Union; and overall, an increase of 20 per cent of Pakistani exports is expected during the year 2002," he added. He hoped that by January 1st next year, Pakistan will have 24 per cent increase in its textile quota from the European Union. He estimated that Pakistan will get benefit of around $500 million in its exports during the calendar year of 2002 and further in the coming years.
The concessions, the minister said, would give Pakistan best possible access to the EU markets short of a free trade; and it has been specifically decided to target clothing and textiles accounting for three-quarters of Pakistan's exports to the European Union.
The minister said duties on the export of carpets, leather goods, cotton yarn, grey cloth and printed cloth are not included in the package. Dawood said this decision was taken after a series of talks which began in March this year and regular meetings with Trade Commissioner of European Commission, Pascal Lamy and senior officials of the Commerce Ministry.
According to European Commission office in Islamabad, this concession would eliminate 150 million euros of duties a year with the resultant increase in the competitiveness of Pakistani exports in the EU market.
Pakistani exports in all fields would see their level of preferential duty reduced doubly from the proposed 3.5 per cent to 7 per cent, subject to the conformity with eligibility criteria. As part of the agreement, Pakistan would in turn reduce its duties on textiles and clothing sector to the rates of 5 per cent, 15 per cent and 25 per cent from 2002 (a 5 per cent reduction across the board compared with 2001), and bind these rates to a maximum amount for the future in the World Trade Organisation not later than 1st July 2002.
Until now, many rates in the sector were fixed at far higher rates (up to 40 per cent). As a result, EU industry would see Pakistani tariffs, which had reached 70 per cent, return to much more realistic levels; thereby increasing the potential for greater EU exports.
The EU maintains 14 quotas for Pakistan on cotton yarn, cotton fabrics, synthetic fabrics, T-shirts, pullovers, blouses, shirts, towelling, singlets and vests, bed linen, trousers (categories 6 & 28) and table linen. Pakistan is the EU's biggest supplier of synthetic fabrics and bed linen.
Dawood said Pakistan's total export to European Union is about $2.4 billion; out of it $1.2 billion are in the textile sector and remaining $1.2 billion in the non-textile sector. "The exports from cotton yarn, grey cloth and printed cloth fetched around $662 million while the value-added products fetched around $1.78 billion."
The EU is Pakistan's main trading partner accounting for 30 per cent of Pakistan's exports (the US accounts for 23 per cent). Pakistani exports to the EU were worth some 2.3 billion euros a year in 2000. Cotton, textiles, garments and leather goods account for 75 per cent of this total. Pakistan is the EU's the 13th largest supplier of textiles and clothing.
By Nadeem Malik
ISLAMABAD: Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz called IMF Managing Director Horst Kohler on Tuesday soon after finishing deliberations with the US Secretary of State, Colin Powell, and would meet Clare Short, British Secretary of State for International Development on Wednesday to seek augmented bailout package.
Aziz was called back from Washington halfway through to participate in the meetings with the US Secretary of State and the UK Secretary of State for International Development who is arriving here today (Wednesday).
The primary focus of the authorities was to request major shareholders of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to give extra funds to the Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility (PRGF), which the IMF can offer to Pakistan. Recently, IMF has ruled out $2.5 concessional loan for Islamabad, saying PRGF does not have enough funds for such a package. Anne Krueger, First Deputy Managing Director of the IMF, said $2.5 billion loan was way off.
The IMF was more inclined to offer Pakistan a mixture of soft-term PRGF and its commercial loan under Extended Fund Facility (EFF), which carries 6.5 per cent rate of interest. Pakistani team visiting Washington raised this issue with US Treasury Secretary Paul OíNeil and US under secretary of State Allen Larson, to get things moving in their favour.
On Tuesday, Aziz also discussed this issue with Powell, who promised to help Pakistan out in stabilizing its debt situation. He said he would talk to his colleagues in Washington in this regard. However, at the press conference he promised support on debt rescheduling, but made no hints of bilateral debt write-off.
Senior officials of the Ministry of Finance claimed that Powell hinted at the possibility of augmented PRGF facility for Islamabad, which can be made possible by additional funds from the G-7 countries. "We have approached several bilateral creditors in this regard and some high profile visits may take place in the next few days," said the officials.
These sources said that Clare Short would arrive on Wednesday, followed by other visits on Thursday. After getting some assurances from the United States and the UK, Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz is said to have held discussions with Horst Kohler, IMF Managing Director on Tuesday evening.
Sources claimed that Aziz told him about the progress in clinching bilateral assurances for more funds under PRGF. Regarding Clare Short's visit, officials claimed that it could lead to resumption of bilateral economic and development assistance for Pakistan, which was frozen after the military takeover in October 1999.
Before this new turn of events unfolded by September 11 attacks in the United States, Clare Short had officially stated: "We have advised the new administration that if they make clear commitment to action on poverty reduction--requiring better economic management, action against corruption and an early transition to democracy, we will reinstate our support". However, officials said that the UK was likely to offer bilateral economic support to Islamabad now and hoped that new commitments for the pro-poor development programmes in the field of basic education and health were possible.
