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Allies: 'No doubt' it was bin Laden
10/03/2001
By DAVID JACKSON / The Dallas Morning News
WASHINGTON – After reviewing the evidence, key U.S. allies agreed Tuesday that all roads to last month's carnage lead back to Osama bin Laden. And they joined President Bush in warning that Afghanistan's Taliban rulers must turn him over or face attack.
"Otherwise, there will be a consequence," Mr. Bush said as he received passionate statements of support from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
"Be in no doubt at all: Bin Laden and his people organized this atrocity," Mr. Blair said at a Labor Party conference in England. "The Taliban aid and abet him."
Mr. Blair and NATO officials spoke out after U.S. officials briefed them on their evidence against Mr. bin Laden as part of the administration's effort to convince allies of his guilt. Russian President Vladimir Putin also called the evidence compelling.
Mr. Bush also dispatched Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to the Middle East, to try to shore up support from moderate Arab states. Some of the countries he will visit, such as Saudi Arabia and Uzbekistan, have expressed reservations about U.S. strikes on Afghanistan. Their backing will be crucial to an effort that Taliban leaders have described as a war on Islam.
Mr. Bush and his aides said that they are instead fighting evil, namely those responsible for killing more than 6,000 people in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
"There are no negotiations – there's no calendar," Mr. Bush said after meeting congressional leaders in the Oval Office. "We'll act on our time. And we'll do it in a manner that not only secures the United States as best as possible but makes the freedom in the world more likely to exist in the future."
But Taliban officials, who have sheltered Mr. bin Laden for years, called on the world to pressure the United States into working toward a settlement, saying that they, too, are entitled to review U.S. evidence against Mr. bin Laden.
"We want justice – we want justice," said Abdul Salam Zaeef, the Taliban's ambassador to neighboring Pakistan, the only government that still has diplomatic relations with the regime. "We don't want to surrender that without any proof, any evidence."
U.S. officials accused the Taliban, which has shielded Mr. bin Laden, of seeking only delay. They added that the Taliban should have expelled Mr. bin Laden after an American grand jury indicted him in the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Africa. Officials also linked Mr. bin Laden to last year's attack on the USS Cole in Yemen and said there was evidence linking those crimes and the Sept. 11 attacks.
As U.S. and British troops continued to prepare for a military strike, Mr. Bush and members of Congress tried to address domestic economic problems stemming from the terrorist attacks.
The White House and congressional Democrats cut a budget deal based on defense and education spending, while Mr. Bush formally announced that Reagan National Airport just outside Washington will reopen Thursday. It will be the last major airport to do so, more than three weeks after planes were grounded to prevent further terrorist attacks.
There was no clear indication when and where military action might commence. But officials said it is doubtful anything would happen while Mr. Rumsfeld is in the Middle East. The defense secretary said he will visit Saudi Arabia, Oman, Egypt, and Uzbekistan and hopes to return to Washington by Saturday.
Meanwhile, Bush administration officials emphasized their support for a Palestinian state, something long favored by Arab countries where Americans are seeking support for counter-terrorism.
Officials said while there is no direct link between Arab coalition building and the more outspoken support of a Palestinian state but added that a more peaceful Middle East would help the fight against terrorism.
Secretary of State Colin Powell and aides said that Palestinian statehood has long been a "vision" of American foreign policy, provided Israel's security and right to exist are protected.
Protecting sources
U.S. officials disclosed few details about the evidence against Mr. bin Laden. Officials said doing so would tip off terrorists to the sources and methods of gathering the information, including that supplied by foreign governments.
But NATO members whom U.S. officials briefed said they are more than satisfied with the case against Mr. bin Laden. Lord Robertson, NATO secretary-general, said it justifies invocation of the organization's Article 5, which states that an attack on one NATO member is an attack on all.
"We know that the individuals who carried out these attacks were part of the worldwide terrorist network of al-Qaeda headed by Osama Bin Laden and his key lieutenants and protected by the Taliban," Lord Robertson said.
In his speech to Labor Party members, Mr. Blair said the civilized world faces a stark choice with lethal extremism, "defeat it or be defeated by it. And defeat it we must."
"Any action taken will be against the terrorist network of bin Laden," Mr. Blair said. "As for the Taliban, they can surrender the terrorists or face the consequences."
He said that included losing power, a sentiment that Mr. Bush later echoed.
"They need to rout al-Qaeda out of their country, so we can bring 'em to justice," Mr. Bush said before having dinner with Washington Mayor Anthony Williams at a downtown steakhouse.
"And they need to destroy the terrorist camps," he added. "I haven't changed my opinion. They need to know I'm serious about it. And the Prime Minister was echoing exactly what I said in my speech to Congress."
Bush administration officials said they are not necessarily seeking the overthrow of the Taliban. But a bipartisan group of House members urged such action after meeting with the exiled former king of Afghanistan and field commanders with the rebel Northern Alliance.
House members warned that unless the Taliban is toppled, Mr. Bush will make the same mistake his father did when an American-backed coalition expelled Iraq from Kuwait but did not try to remove Saddam Hussein from power.
"Obviously we cannot afford to take action so far and then move out like we did in Iraq," said Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-El Paso, a member of the House Armed Services Committee. "We saw the miserable consequences of that, and we're still living with them today."
A House Republican, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher of California, said Mr. Bush's "tough rhetoric" all but compels a new government in Afghanistan.
"The Taliban regime is totally implicated in the slaughter of Americans," Mr. Rohrabacher said. "They have to go. Bin Laden has to be killed, or our fight against terrorism will not be taken seriously."
Bipartisan effort
Mr. Bush began his day at bipartisan breakfast with congressional leaders. They resolved a budget fight that, before Sept. 11, had figured to be the major political battle of the fall in the nation's capital. Democrats acceded to mostly Republican requests for new defense spending, while the GOP agreed to Democratic plans for more education spending.
The parties are also working on an economic stimulus package designed to address layoffs and business slowdowns stemming from the attacks.
Mr. Bush will travel to New York on Wednesday to speak with business leaders about economic recovery and have lunch with Mayor Rudolph Giuliani.
Mr. Bush will also speak with New York schoolchildren about the attacks – his first school visit since he learned of the attacks while at a Florida school on the morning of Sept. 11.
Staff writer Alfredo Corchado contributed to this report.