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Taliban finds bin Laden, tells him to leave country
09/28/2001
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – Leaders of Afghanistan's ruling Taliban said Thursday that they have found Osama bin Laden and delivered the decision of Islamic clerics asking him to voluntarily leave the country.
Taliban officials didn't provide further details, such as where Mr. bin Laden is hiding, how the message was delivered or how he responded.
The Taliban regime had said for the last week that it had lost contact with the man described by U.S. officials as the mastermind behind the Sept. 11 terror attacks in the United States. U.S. officials have scoffed at the contention, which came after the Bush administration threatened military strikes against Afghanistan for the Taliban's refusal to surrender the Saudi-born Islamic militant.
"Osama has now received the ulema council's recommendations and their endorsement by [Taliban supreme leader Mullah Mohammed] Omar," said Abdul Salam Zaeef, Taliban ambassador to Pakistan. "We have not lost Osama, but he is out of sight of the people."
As the confrontation over bin Laden has hardened, fears have grown over the safety of eight foreign aid workers, including two Americans, accused last month of preaching Christianity in Afghanistan. On Thursday, diplomats were notified that their trial, halted in the wake of the terror strikes, would resume Saturday.
John Mercer, the father of American defendant Heather Mercer, said the planned resumption was an ``encouraging'' development. The aid workers' Pakistani lawyer Asif Ali, who is schooled in sharia, or Islamic law, said he would ``do my best to defend the accused.''
The eight — two Americans, four Germans, and two Australians — are employed by German-based Shelter Now International, a Christian aid organization. They were arrested along with 16 Afghan workers on charges of proselytizing, a serious offense in a country under Islamic rule.
There were rumors late Thursday that the Taliban's grip on power was beginning to loosen. CNN reported that some low-level and midlevel Taliban soldiers were deserting their posts, but the reports couldn't be confirmed.
A prominent Pakistani politician, based near the Afghan border and sympathetic to the Taliban, dismissed the reports.
"I don't think that's the case," said Sen. Nasar Mohammad Khan, in a telephone interview from his home in Peshawar. "Nobody would defect from the Taliban."
Two Pakistani delegations – one consisting of senior clerics and another consisting of government officials – were scheduled to fly to the Taliban spiritual capital of Kandahar early Friday. Their mission was described in Islamabad as a last-ditch attempt to head off a military confrontation between the United States and the Taliban. The delegations were supposed to meet Mr. Omar, the Afghan Islamic Press reported.
In Pakistan, a key member of the U.S.-led coalition against terrorism, police said they have made several arrests as part of a nationwide manhunt for possible associates of Mr. bin Laden's. Pakistan's military ruler, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, has pledged full support for the U.S. campaign, a decision that has sparked protests by conservative Islamic groups.
Three days of meetings between Pakistani officials and a delegation of U.S. military and intelligence experts earlier this week produced "complete unanimity of views on both sides" but no "operational plans" for military strikes against Afghanistan, said Gen. Rashid Quereshi, spokesman for Gen. Musharraf.
Pakistan assisted the Taliban's rise to power in Afghanistan in 1996 and is the last nation that has diplomatic ties with the radical Islamic regime. Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have broken relations with the Taliban in the last week.
There is substantial support in Pakistan for the Taliban and Mr. bin Laden, both admired for challenging the United States. The Taliban and bin Laden sympathizers – thus far a minority of Pakistan's 140 million people – have vowed to hold more demonstrations Friday.
In response to the last week of anti-U.S. and anti-Musharraf protests, tens of thousands of Pakistanis took part in a government-organized "National Solidarity Day." Many of the protesters were government employees and schoolchildren.
Thursday marked the fifth anniversary of the Taliban's capture of Kabul, the Afghan capital. In a preview of their harsh rule, Taliban soldiers seized the former Soviet-installed president, Najibullah, from a U.N. compound. He was castrated, dragged behind a truck and hanged from a lamppost.
In the latest of a flurry of statements issued in the face of the U.S. military threat, Mr. Omar on Thursday equated the opposition Northern Alliance coalition that is fighting Taliban rule with the Afghans who collaborated with Soviet occupation forces in 1979.
"Those Afghans who want to seize power with the help of America are just like those fools who tried to stay in power with the help of the Russian army," the Taliban leader said. "If America interferes in Afghanistan, then no difference will be made between America and Russia, and those Afghans who are brought in by the Americans will be treated like those who were brought in by the Communists."
At the same time, the offensive against terrorism continued to gain momentum as the United Arab Emirates Central Bank ordered the freezing of assets of 26 groups and individuals alleged to be involved with terrorists. Included on the list were Mr. bin Laden and his al-Qaeda organization, which maintains a network of training camps in Afghanistan.
U.N. officials, meanwhile, announced in Rome that several planes loaded with food would begin flying to Pakistan, Iran and Turkmenistan.
Pakistan and Iran already host about 2 million Afghan refugees apiece. Those numbers are expected to grow considerably as new refugees arrive, driven from their homes by worries of military strikes.