From: "Margaret Trawick" <trawick-AT-clear.net.nz>
Subject: US tells Taliban to give up Bin Laden or face attack 
Date: Mon, 17 Sep 2001 17:37:15 +1200


http://www.guardian.co.uk/wtccrash/story/0,1300,553159,00.html

US tells Taliban to give up Bin Laden or face attack

Luke Harding in Islamabad, Julian Borger in Washington and Ewen MacAskill
Monday September 17, 2001
The Guardian

Afghanistan will be offered a final chance today to escape a devastating US
military onslaught when a delegation from Pakistan delivers an ultimatum to
the Taliban leadership to hand over Osama bin Laden, the prime suspect in
the New York and Washington attacks, within three days.
With thousands of Afghans already fleeing their homes in anticipation of an
assault, the US secretary of state, Colin Powell, said: "They will have to
make their choice - whether they want to get rid of this curse within their
country or face the full wrath of the United States."
The pressure on the US administration to exact revenge was underlined by a
public opinion poll which showed that 84% of Americans supported military
retaliation. Two-thirds of them would support it "even if it means many
thousands of innocent civilians may be killed".
As call-up plans for at least 35,000 reservists were finalised yesterday,
the task of planning the US military response shifted to Tampa, Florida, the
headquarters of the Pentagon's central command (Centcom), which is
responsible for actions in the Middle East, south and central Asia.
The Centcom commander, General Tommy Franks, has at his disposal a range of
special forces and two navy battle groups equipped with 900 Tomahawk cruise
missiles.
Maleeha Lodhi, Pakistan's ambassador to the US, sought permission from the
United Nations to allow the delegation to go to Afghanistan, which is
subject to UN sanctions. The UN will have no hesitation in granting it.
She said: "We will be urging the Taliban leadership to accede to the demand
of the international community...to hand over the person that they are
harbouring, Osama bin Laden, so that he is brought to justice."
General Mehmoud Ahmed, the head of Pakistan's intelligence agency, who has
just returned from Washington, set off last night for the Taliban's
headquarters in Kandahar with the official delegation.
But the US-Pakistan move appears doomed. The Taliban leader, Mohammed Omar,
who convened a meeting of his inner-circle to discuss options, vowed he
would not hand over Bin Laden for trial in the US.
The Taliban foreign minister, Wakil Ahmad Muttawakil, when asked how the
Taliban would react to a US strike, said: "On the issue of Osama bin Laden,
there has been no shift in our stand. We maintain our old position. We are
responsible for the security of all those living in our country."
Bin Laden has fled Kandahar, the Taliban headquarters, along with his large
family and supporters, mainly Arabs, according to Pakistani sources. He
issued a further denial of responsibility yesterday. "I stress that I have
not carried out this act, which appears to have been carried out by
individuals with their own motivation," he said.
The US vice-president, Dick Cheney, expressed his conviction that Bin Laden
was behind it: "I have no doubt that he and his organisation played a
significant role in this. We are quite confident that he is the prime
suspect."
Even if the Taliban was to hand him over, that is unlikely to prevent
military action. The best the Taliban could hope for is the US focusing
solely on Bin Laden's bases and leaving the Taliban forces alone.
The US president, George Bush, speaking in Washington yesterday said the
campaign would not be over soon: "The American people understand that this
crusade is going to take some time".
The prime minster, Tony Blair, speaking in Downing Street last night, echoed
these sentiments. "We are absolutely at war with the people who committed
this terrible atrocity," he said.
He gave the strongest hint yet that Britain would be involved in military
action. Asked whether any military strikes would in effect be an American
operation in which Britain was obliged take part, Mr Blair said: "This has
been an attack on the whole of the civilised world. There are many British
casualties, so we have a direct interest in this."
Whitehall sources did not rule out cruise missile strikes later this week.
Officials insisted that the emphasis, as far as the British government was
concerned, was on the need for any military action to achieve what they
called effective "outcomes", rather than just to demonstrate American power.
Any action would involve what officials described as "close contact" -
indicating the deployment of special forces that could be dropped into
Afghanistan by helicopter.
The US reliance on Pakistan carries the enormous risk of provoking a civil
war that could pit the country's Islamic fundamentalists against the
military regime of General Pervez Musharraf. The danger is that if Pakistan
collapses into instability, it could result in the world's first Islamic
fundamentalist government that is armed with a nuclear weapon.
The Guardian has learned that Gen Musharraf, attempting to maintain a
balance between avoiding US punishment and keeping his own Islamist
population on his side, has ruled out allowing the Americans to station
ground troops inside his country or to use its air bases for a strike
against Afghanistan.
He was given a warning last night when Samiul Haq, a powerful Muslim cleric,
told a meeting "People will come out on the streets if Pakistan is seen as
cooperating with the Americans and the Western powers...it will be
devastating for the country and the government". According to senior
ministerial sources, Pakistan has agreed to open up its air space to
American fighters - a key Washington demand. But the country's senior
generals have so far rejected the possible deployment of US soldiers inside
Pakistan because of fears of an Islamic backlash.
"The risk for Pakistan would be too great," one of Pakistan's most senior
ministers told colleagues.
US officials are now believed to be drawing up plans to replace the Taliban
government with a broad-based civilian administration, possibly headed by
Zahir Shah, Afghanistan's exiled king. Shah, a "recognised patriarch"
according to one diplomatic source, has lived in Rome since his cousin
dethroned him in 1974.
Another potential leader is Burhanuddin Rabbini, the country's ousted
president, who is still recognised by the UN as Afghanistan's legitimate
leader.



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