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Paks fail to persuade Mullah Omar
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Afghanistan
Paks fail to persuade Mullah Omar
  • Reuters, by David Fox
    Senior Pakistani officials have failed to persuade the Taliban's reclusive leader Mullah Mohammad Omar to hand over Saudi-born terror suspect Osama bin Laden to avert U.S. armed retaliation, the AIP news agency said. The Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press quoted Taliban spokesman Abdul Hai Mutamaen saying on Monday that over three hours of talks between the sides had not resolved the key issue of turning over the multi-millionaire Islamic militant accused of involvement in the terror attacks on the United States. "The meeting looked in detail at the aspects of the problem. The talks were positive but I cannot give the details," Mutamaen said. "We are 60 percent hopeful that conditions will be normal."
    This article starring:
    ABDUL HAI MUTAMAENTaliban
  • Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 09/17/2001 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Taliban


    Dad begs to take place of daughter detained by Talibs
  • KATHY GANNON, Associated Press Writer
    Squeezing his eyes tight to stop the tears, John Mercer said he pleaded Monday with the Taliban rulers to let him take the place of his 24-year-old daughter, Heather, jailed in Afghanistan on charges of preaching Christianity. "I offered to go in place of my daughter,'' Mercer told a news conference in the Pakistani capital, stopping briefly to gain his composure. His head bowed, his voice shaking, Mercer said "it was a very serious offer. I would do it.''

    Mercer said he met Taliban authorities at the Afghan embassy in Islamabad and that they did not respond to his request. He was joined at the news conference by Heather's mother, Deborah Oddy; Oddy's husband, Delmer; and Nancy Cassell, the mother of Dayna Curry, 29, the other American woman in jail in Afghanistan.
  • Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 09/17/2001 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Taliban


    Masood buried
  • (AP) — Thousands of people gathered Sunday in a small village in Afghanistan's mighty Hindu Kush mountain range to bury opposition leader Ahmed Shah Massood, who died from wounds in a suicide attack against him. Supporters of Massood shouted slogans against the ruling Taliban militia and also condemned Tuesday's terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, which U.S. officials blame on Osama bin Laden, the fugitive terrorist who has been given sanctuary in Afghanistan by the Taliban.

    The opposition is ready to support American actions against the Taliban, said opposition spokesman Dr. Abdullah — who uses only one name — in an interview broadcast on Russia's state RTR television Sunday. "Definitely, we expect a reaction" to the American attacks — "a military reaction," Abdullah said. "I think the aim — the sole purpose of that military reaction — should be destruction of the terrorists' camps," he added. "The whole people here are against the Taliban."

    Massood was buried in his home village of Basarak in the Panjshir Valley, north of Afghanistan's capital, Kabul.
    This article starring:
    Ahmed Shah Massood
    Dr. Abdullah
  • Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 09/17/2001 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Taliban


    Paks say 25,000 Talibs deployed along border
  • Pakistan's army says that Afghanistan's Taliban rulers have deployed a force of between 20,000 and 25,000 fighters just across the border from the Khyber Pass into Pakistan. A Pakistani army officer said Islamabad had reinforced its own troops fanned out along the 1,400-km (870-mile) long frontier.
    The Islamic fundamentalist Taliban warned at the weekend that it would attack Pakistan if it provided help to the United States against Afghanistan.
    "We are also forming our forces, but there has been no firing," Captain Ahmed Bahtti said at a military base in the Khyber Pass, some 200 km (120 miles) west of Islamabad.

    The Islamic fundamentalist Taliban warned at the weekend that it would attack Pakistan if it provided help to the United States against Afghanistan. The Americans blame Kabul for sheltering Osama bin Laden, the man believed to have masterminded Tuesday's terror attacks on New York and Washington.
  • Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 09/17/2001 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Taliban


    Binny sez he didn't do it
  • By John F. Harris Washington Post Staff Writer
    The elusive bin Laden issued a statement yesterday through the Arabic television network Al Jazeera, in Qatar, denying involvement. "I would like to assure the world that I did not plan the recent attacks, which seems to have been planned by people for personal reasons," said bin Laden, whose current location is unknown to U.S. authorities.

    Administration officials dismissed the denial. Cheney said he had "no doubt that his organization played a significant role in this." But even Cheney cautioned against making bin Laden the sole focus, painting a frightening picture of an enemy with more tentacles, and more hiding places, than many Americans may understand – a notion with grave implications for any military action that lies ahead.
  • Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 09/17/2001 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda


    Fifth Column
    Sikh shot - goober thought he was an Arab
  • WSJ Best of the Web Today
    In Mesa, Ariz., a gas-station owner, Balbir Singh Sodhi, was shot to death Saturday, apparently by a hothead who thought his victim was Muslim. (He was in fact a Sikh.) Shots were fired shortly after at two other locations, including an Arab-owned gas station. Rediff.com reports police have arrested 42-year-old Frank Roque, who reportedly shouted, "I stand for America," as he was arrested.

    Rediff also reports a Pakistani businessman, Waquar Hasan, was shot to death yesterday in Dallas, "the second South Asian to be killed in what appear to be hate crimes in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon."
  • Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 09/17/2001 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


    Jersey City woman arrested for bomb threats
  • Secret Service agents on Monday arrested a Jersey City woman and accused her of calling in two bomb threats to the White House two nights after the terror attacks on New York and the Pentagon. Rosalia Morales appeared "agitated and intoxicated and admitted to having consumed alcohol earlier that evening" when confronted by agents several hours later, according to a criminal complaint filed by the Secret Service. The White House operator who fielded two calls believed to be made by Morales told agents that the woman said that "(Osama) bin Laden should have blown up you Americans and that there is a bomb in the White House," the complaint said. The first call was made at 10:43 p.m. Thursday; the second minutes later.

    When visited by agents about 3:30 a.m. Friday, Morales said another woman was responsible but then admitted making the calls, the complaint said.
  • Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 09/17/2001 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


    High school kiddies don't seem to get it...
  • Paul T. Rosynsky and Jane Rochmes Oakland Tribune
    OAKLAND -- While much of America is uniting to fight the evils of terrorism, many East Bay high school students said Friday a war is not theirs to wage. As hundreds gathered on the steps of City Hall Friday to remember those lost Tuesday during the dev astating terrorist attacks in New York City and the Pentagon, high school students came together in stead to talk of weekend plans and the latest gossip. The wave of patriotism across the country hasn't reached many area teen-agers who questioned Friday the need to retaliate and vowed not to fight if called upon for duty.

    "It didn't happen in Oakland, it could have but it didn't, so I don't feel scared or nothing. Why should I go fight in a war and die for nothing."
    With the terrorist attacks occur ring more than 3,000 miles away, teen-agers had trouble making a connection to the tragedies and a harder time finding a reason to care. "It didn't happen in Oakland, it could have but it didn't, so I don't feel scared or nothing," said Hieu Le, 15, a student at Castlemont High School. "Why should I go fight in a war and die for nothing."

    Similar feelings were echoed throughout the blacktop courtyard of McClymonds High School and corridors of Berkeley High. Although many said they felt sympathy for the victims and those who had lost loved ones, when it came to risking their own lives to fight for America, most said they would try to find a way out.
    "I'm not risking my life for that, I love myself too much. If they came after me I would have to run."
    "I'm not risking my life for that, I love myself too much," said Amir Kellogg, 17, as he sat with friends during lunch. "If they came after me I would have to run."

    "I think the United States deserves it," said Berkeley High senior Patrick Rizzo.
    "I think the United States deserves it," said Berkeley High senior Patrick Rizzo. "It's pretty sad for the poor people, but the United States does the same thing. We're probably going to do the same thing after this. We're not going to send anybody into the country, we're just going to bomb them like they did us."
  • Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 09/17/2001 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


    1200 peace marchers in Portland
  • Andrew Kramer, AP Staff
    Singing Vietnam-era peace songs, about 1,200 people marched through downtown Portland Sunday, demanding that the United States find nonviolent responses to the East Coast terror attacks. While most Americans are clamoring for retaliation, the pacifists said military strikes will not help.

    The crowd observed a moment of silence for the victims, thousands of whom are still buried under rubble. But they also cheered and hooted vociferously to speeches condemning U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East. "The peace movement is alive and well today," said Chris Ferlazzo, a member of the Portland Peaceful Response group that organized the march and a rally that preceded it. "It's a senseless crime, but more violence won't help and we're concerned more innocent people will die," he said.

    One woman held a placard citing Gandhi: "An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind."
    One woman held a placard citing Gandhi: "An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind."

    Scattered bystanders who watched the rally didn't seem disturbed by it. But one man asked what he thought of the rally tersely said "I support the President" and walked off.
  • Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 09/17/2001 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


    Farrakhan warns of Armageddon
  • CNSNews.com
    Minister Louis Farrakhan has warned President Bush that declaring war on terrorism could "trigger the war that would end all wars, the war of Armageddon." In a speech Sunday at a Chicago mosque, Farrakhan implied that U.S. foreign policy is to blame for last weeks terrorist attacks on Washington and New York. He called on American officials to summon "the courage to look at the foreign policy" and asked if the policies have "produced this danger and hatred toward America."

    He described the events of last week as a "dark hour in American and world history." He defended the Palestinians celebrating in the streets after the terrorist attacks because they have "sustained injustice since 1948," which refers to the year Israel became a state. "They dance in the streets not because they have no feeling for American life, they dance because they wanted America to feel what they feel." According to Farrakhan, the terrorists that struck America are the product of "despair and hopelessness."
  • Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 09/17/2001 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


    Home Front
    Bipartisanship to the fore in Congress
  • Roll Call, by Stuart Rothenberg
    Osama bin Laden has done what nobody else has been able to do: bring Republican and Democratic Members of Congress together. Partisans unable to agree on virtually anything up until now promise to give President Bush whatever he needs to eradicate the terrorists who killed thousands of innocent parents, children, siblings, friends and co-workers in New York, Virginia and Pennsylvania. But while there is bipartisan outrage at last week's terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, there is likely to be significant fallout, and that fallout will alter the political equation on Capitol Hill. The main question is whether that change will be merely a brief diversion or provide a significantly new dynamic that will have lasting significance, ultimately impacting the 2002 and the 2004 elections.
  • Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 09/17/2001 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


    Stores selling out of flags
  • By John F. Harris Washington Post Staff Writer
    Elsewhere around the country, many stores reported being sold out of American flags, with none due in for at least a couple weeks, as buyers rushed to put their patriotism on display. And church pews were overflowing, as pastors reported crowds that rivaled those ordinarily seen on Christmas Day. "God Bless America" was sung at many places of worship.
  • Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 09/17/2001 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


    Bush receives positive support from Pak, India, Saudi
  • By John F. Harris Washington Post Staff Writer
    As signs mounted yesterday that Washington is on an imminent war footing, President Bush said he had notified the leaders of Pakistan, India and Saudi Arabia of his intentions and received "positive" support for a sustained campaign against terrorism. Meanwhile, senior administration officials took to the airwaves to warn Americans about the possibility of a new attack in the days ahead.

    Bush is planning to meet with Pentagon officials today to review military plans. On a day when Americans flocked to church pews seeking solace from the horror of the week just passed, Bush plotted strategy with his top advisers at Camp David. "This crusade, this war on terrorism, is going to take a while," he told reporters after his return to the White House. But, he vowed, "we will rid the world of the evil-doers."

    Vice President Cheney, in his first public appearance since Tuesday's attack, went on television with chilling revelations about the first frantic hours of the crisis. He said Bush, at his recommendation, had authorized the Air Force to shoot hijacked airliners out of the sky – and gave dire warnings about the possibility of more terror ahead.
  • Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 09/17/2001 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


    International
    Indonesia urges US not to make Muslim scapegoats
  • Japan Today.com
    Indonesia's vice president, a leading Muslim politician, urged the United States not to make Muslims a scapegoat for last week's terror attacks, which he said could help atone for Washington's past sins. "Hopefully, the tragedy can cleanse the sins by the U.S.," the Kompas newspaper on Sunday quoted Vice President Hamzah Haz as saying. "Therefore, there should not be any revenge against the Islamic community or Islamic countries," said Haz, the head of the Muslim-oriented United Development Party.
    This article starring:
    Hamzah Haz
  • Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 09/17/2001 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


    Middle East
    Gun battles in West Bank, Gaza
  • Fierce gun battles erupted in the West Bank and Gaza Strip on Monday, leaving one Palestinian dead and 15 wounded, including five boys. In one clash, Israeli tank shells hit a mosque, a kindergarten and a rescue vehicle, witnesses said. Four Israeli soldiers were also wounded in the fighting. The violence came as Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon told Secretary of State Colin Powell he would permit high-level truce talks with the Palestinians only after 48 hours of complete calm. Sharon said he doubted Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat was making a serious effort to stop the fighting.

    Arafat said Monday that he has issued "strong and clear instructions for a full commitment to a cease-fire."
  • Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 09/17/2001 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


    Terror Networks
    Al-Akhbar: Statue of Liberty must be destroyed
  • "The Statue of Liberty must be destroyed... The age of the American collapse has begun."
    The Middle East Media Research Institute reports that columnist Mahmoud Abd Al-Munim Murad of the Egyptian government-sponsored daily Al-Akhbar wrote on August 28, "The Statue of Liberty, in New York Harbor, must be destroyed because of following the idiotic American policy that goes from disgrace to disgrace in the swamp of bias and blind fanaticism." He further announced that "the age of the American collapse has begun."
    This article starring:
    Mahmoud Abd Al-Munim Murad
  • Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 09/17/2001 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


    Binny planned to attack Europarliament
  • WSJ Best of the Web Today
    According to another Telegraph report, bin Laden followers planned back in February to attack the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France: "A six-strong terror cell funded by the Saudi fugitive planned to kill all 625 Euro-MPs, and scores of officials, by releasing sarin gas into the parliament building." A series of raids by German police foiled the operation.
  • Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 09/17/2001 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


    Al- Muhajiroun recruiting jihadis
  • By Sandra Laville and Gabriel Rozenberg Telegraph (UK)
    ISLAMIC extremists in Britain are calling on young Muslims to fight to the death against America and her allies. At a meeting of the Al-Muhajiroun organisation in Birmingham at the weekend, a group of 50 young men and women was encouraged to travel to Afghanistan and give their lives in the defence of Islam. "Martyrdom operatives will be rewarded in heaven," one speaker declared.

    Others on the platform at the meeting, in the suburb of Sparkbrook, asked: "Who are the real terrorists?" and called on the audience to oppose any western reprisals against Osama bin Laden.

    Sheikh Omar Bakri Mohamed, the founder of Al-Muhajiroun, has openly courted controversy in Britain. He supported the bombings of the United States' embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998, and said after Tuesday's terror attack: "I am very happy today. As much as I regret the innocent people who passed away, with the USA you must pay."

    Leaflets for the meeting stated: "The final hour will not come until the Muslims conquer the White House." In the background was a picture of the Pentagon in flames.
    Although Al-Muhajiroun is believed to have a membership approaching 1,000, mainstream British Muslims insist that its hardline views are wholly unrepresentative. One speaker at the Sparkbrook meeting accused Americans of widespread butchering of Muslims from Chechnya to Iraq. He warned moderate Muslims who had condemned last Tuesday's attack that they, too, would be the target of "true" Muslims. "I am a Muslim first and foremost," he said. "We will never be accepted by the Kufr [the west] so we should not pander to their whims or support their actions like some so-called Muslims have been doing. If they continue to do so, it is our duty to persuade them not to. But if they do not listen, they are Kufr too and so it is our duty to fight and even kill them."

    Leaflets for the meeting stated: "The final hour will not come until the Muslims conquer the White House." In the background was a picture of the Pentagon in flames.
    This article starring:
    SHEIKH OMAR BAKRI MOHAMEDAl-Muhajiroun
    Al-Muhajiroun
  • Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 09/17/2001 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Al-Muhajiroun


    Chechen rebels launch offensive
  • Chechen rebels say they have launched a large-scale offensive across the breakaway republic of Chechnya, seizing buildings and shooting down a helicopter. A spokesman for rebel Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov told the French AFP news agency that the rebels had gained total control of Gudermes, the republic's second biggest city, and of Nozhai-Yurt, a town in the south-east. Russian officials initially denied that a major attack was in progress, but have now said the situation in Gudermes is complicated and it is not yet clear whether the city has been recaptured.

    At least 10 Russian soldiers, including two generals, are thought to have been killed in the attack on the helicopter near the Chechen capital Grozny.
    This article starring:
    Aslan Maskhadov
  • Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 09/17/2001 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


    The Alliance
    Tadjikistan won't allow attacks from its soil
  • Nando Times, by LIDA ISAMOVA
    Tajikistan will not allow Western countries to launch attacks on neighboring Afghanistan from its soil, its leaders said Sunday. "Reports in some media on the use of the Tajik territory by a third country to inflict strikes on military camps of the Taliban and international terrorists in Afghanistan are groundless," chief Foreign Ministry spokesman Igor Sattarov told reporters. Last week, Tajik Prime Minister Akil Akilov indicated that his government might consider a U.S. request to provide air corridors for strikes on Afghanistan but only with approval from Russia and the international community. But Russia, which has thousands of troops in Tajikistan and wields considerable influence in the former Soviet republics of Central Asia, made it clear last week that it would not approve a Western-led campaign from what Moscow considers its own backyard.
    This article starring:
    Akil Akilov
    Igor Sattarov
  • Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 09/17/2001 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


    Nordlinger: The perfect Euro
  • Jay Nordlinger, NRO
    You wanna know the Perfect European? Here he is, Antonio Martino, representing the Italian government as defense minister. First, he says that under no circumstances will the Italian military join the United States in war. Then he says that the United States must not act without the consent and participation of a broad coalition of allies. There he is, folks: the Perfect European.
  • Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 09/17/2001 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


    The Investigation
    Investigation spreading...
  • By John F. Harris Washington Post Staff Writer
    The investigation spread to more states and more communities as authorities try to penetrate — and define — what they believe could be a large network of accomplices. A "material witness" was arrested yesterday in New York. Investigators confirmed they were holding a suspected "high-ranking" associate of bin Laden, who was arrested nearly a month ago in Elk River, Minn., for illegally entering the country. Two other men, arrested in Texas on Wednesday after a flight and a train ride, are being questioned in New York about the box cutters, hair dye and $5,000 in cash they were carrying.

    Authorities also are trying to figure out how two other alleged bin Laden associates slipped into the country last month through Los Angeles International Airport — despite their presence on a government "watch list."
  • Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 09/17/2001 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:



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    Two weeks of WOT
    Mon 2001-09-17
      Paks fail to persuade Mullah Omar
    Sun 2001-09-16
      Paks will ask Talibs to hand over Binny
    Sat 2001-09-15
      Masood is dead
    Fri 2001-09-14
      Death toll surpasses Pearl Harbor
    Thu 2001-09-13
      Osama bin Laden is prime suspect
    Wed 2001-09-12
      Bush addresses nation
    Tue 2001-09-11
      Terror strikes on US

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