Washington Post
On the day before the bombing would begin, on Saturday, the enemy of America could be found in a park, his turban on, his sandals off, his face turned to the sun, detailing a trip that he was about to undertake. "Tomorrow, early," said Assmat Ullah, 25, a Taliban soldier. "To Afghanistan."
Into battle. The Taliban are estimated to have 30,000 to 45,000 soldiers. Tonight -- "God willing," said Ullah -- they got one more, a man who'd been secluded in Pakistan for Islamic studies when the Sept. 11 attacks occurred, but was nonetheless familiar with many of the details, including the reactions of some people who smiled at the images out of New York, delighted. One of those people was him.
"I hate America," he explained. "We are crazy against America. When their soldiers come into Afghanistan, we will drink their blood. It is the worst form of hate."
"I hate America," he explained.
His voice, when he said this, wasn't overly emotional, even when he went on to say, "We are crazy against America. When their soldiers come into Afghanistan, we will drink their blood. It is the worst form of hate." Rather, it was matter-of-fact. Just as Afghanistan to some Americans is the single note of men in black turbans and women shrouded to invisibility in burqas, America to Ullah is, above all else, one thing: anti-Islamic. To shoot such an enemy would be justified, he said, to kill such an enemy would be noble, and to be killed by bullet, or rocket, or bomb, or gas, or whatever other weapon America might have, would lead him to paradise.
He was born in a village south of Kabul. He was a refugee in Pakistan during the Soviet occupation. He joined the Taliban in 1994. He learned to use a rifle, draw a bead on a person, run a rocket launcher, target an antiaircraft gun. He was wounded, once, by shrapnel, which cut open his leg and head. Paradise -- almost. Four months ago, he came to Pakistan to study logic and philosophy at a religious school, and his days since then have been rigid in their devotion. Up at 5 a.m. Prayer. Study of the Koran. Four hours of classes. Lunch. More prayer. More study. More prayer. Rest. More study. Asleep at 11:30 p.m. And somewhere in there an hour to take a break, which, since Sept. 11, has usually meant listening to a radio, either the Voice of America or the BBC, making sure that whenever music came on between segments the radio was turned off long enough for the music to have disappeared by the time he turned it back on. Ummm... You might call that bloodthirsty. Yes, I think that's the term.
This article starring:
ASMAT ULLAH
Taliban
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
10/07/2001 ||
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Let the whole world know that we shall never accept that the tragedy of Andalucia would be repeated in Palestine.
Let the whole world know that we shall never accept that the tragedy of Andalucia would be repeated in Palestine. We cannot accept that Palestine will become Jewish. And with regard to you, Muslims, this is the day of question. This is a new (inaudible) against you, all against the Muslims and Medina. So be like the followers of the prophet, peace be upon him, and all countrymen (ph), lovers of God and the prophet within, and a new battle, great battle, similar to the great battles of Islam, like the conqueror of Jerusalem. So, hurry up to the dignity of life and the eternity of death.
Thanks to God, he who God guides will never lose. And I believe that there's only one God. And I declare I believe there's no prophet but Mohammed.
This is America, God has sent one of the attacks by God and has attacked one of its best buildings. And this is America filled with fear from the north, south, east and west, thank God.
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10/07/2001 ||
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Reuters
The U.S. aircraft that attacked Kabul and other Afghan cities Sunday evening dropped at least four bombs or missiles on the capital near the Defense Ministry, witnesses said. ``I could hear the planes and then there were at least four loud explosions,'' said Reuters correspondent in Kabul Sayed Salahuddin. ``A black plume of smoke is rising. It seemed to be very big,'' he said. Witnesses said bombs or rockets appeared to land near the city center just as Kabul residents were preparing to settle down for the night. One big blast struck near the Defense Ministry, south of the Presidential Palace. Electricity was cut almost immediately, although it was not clear if this was a result of a strike or a defensive measure. Witnesses said Taliban anti-aircraft guns across the city began firing into the night sky.
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10/07/2001 ||
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IRNA
Taliban envoy to Pakistan, Abdul Salam Zaeef read out the written statement to the journalists in Islamabad soon after the Americans fired missiles on Kandahar and Kabul: "We condemned the terrorist attack against the Afghan nation. Afghanistan is victim of American arrogance and expansionism. It wants to snatch from the Afghan Muslim people the present Islamic system. The brutal attacks are as horrendous terrorist acts as any where in the world. America will never achieve its political goals by launching a brutal attack on Muslim Afghanistan. The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan has always chosen the path of talks to solve problems. But America has always chosen militaristic approach. However such brutal attitude by America will unify the whole Afghan nation against the aggression. The Afghan nation will rise against the new colonialists. We condemn the terrorist acts against Afghan nation."
This article starring:
ABDUL SALAM ZAIF
Taliban
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10/07/2001 ||
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Times of India
Opposition forces on Sunday claimed to have made significant gains in their fight against the Taliban militia in the north and west of Afghanistan, as US forces stood ready across the border in Uzbekistan. Opposition spokesmen said hundreds of Taliban soldiers had surrendered and 13 villages had been captured in northern Samangan province, bordering Uzbekistan, and western Ghor province during heavy fighting overnight and Sunday. Spokesman Mohammad Habeel told the Afghan Islamic Press that the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance, otherwise known as the United Front, had moved to within 1.5 km of Chaghcharan, the Ghor capital. Some 150 Taliban fighters joined opposition forces, he said, adding that Chaghcharan would fall "soon". The city sits on a road linking the western provinces to the north and centre of the country.
In Samangan, opposition spokesman Mohammad Ashraf Nadeem said the Taliban lost two villages after a failed counter-attack designed to divert pressure from the strategic northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif. He said that eight Taliban commanders and 100 Taliban fighters surrendered to the opposition Sunday morning. "They surrendered because they had heard that America would attack the Taliban tonight (Sunday) and they were afraid," he told AFP by telephone from near the frontlines in northern Afghanistan.
The opposition said they had advanced to within 50 km of Mazar-i-Sharif and could capture the city within two days. Its fall would give US forces in Uzbekistan, including 1,000 crack mountain troops, a base in northern Afghanistan from which to launch their expected attacks.
Taliban Education Minister Mullah Amir Muttaqi denied that opposition troops had scored territorial gains in Samangan and Ghor provinces.
"These are wrong and concocted claims," Muttaqi told Afghan Islamic Press.
"These are wrong and concocted claims," Muttaqi told Afghan Islamic Press. Nadeem said the militia, which seized Kabul in 1996 and now controls most of the country, had sent some 3,000 troops from Kunduz province to reinforce its attack in neighbouring Samangan, bordering Uzbekistan. The Taliban earlier Sunday said they had 8,000 fighters, including fresh reinforcements, deployed near the Uzbek border following the arrival of 1,000 crack US mountain troops in Uzbekistan. Officials in Uzbekistan said they had no information about the Taliban deployments but reported that the situation on the border was normal. Fighting in northern Afghanistan has intensified since the September 11 terrorist attacks on the United States, with opposition forces boosted by the prospect of US military strikes against the ruling Taliban militia.
This article starring:
Mohammad Ashraf Nadeem
Mohammad Habeel
MULLAH AMIR MUTTAQI
Taliban
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10/07/2001 ||
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Times of India RASHMEE Z AHMED TIMES NEWS NETWORK
The man leading his country in a desperate and high-stakes game of chess against the United States suffers fits and brain seizures and often babbles like a child, according to the doctor who treats Mullah Mohammed Omar, the one-eyed Taliban leader. Omar's mental instability is the real reason he is so reclusive, rarely travelling out of Kandahar and virtually unknown even to the Afghan people, said the doctor who works at a hospital in Omar's hometown of Kandahar and spoke to The Sunday Telegraph's Christina Lamb on condition of anonymity. "He locks himself away for two or three days at a time and the official line is that he is having visions, but in fact he is suffering brain seizures," the doctor told Lamb, who has travelled extensively in the region and has written a book, 'Behind the Veil' on Pakistan.
Lamb says that Omar's 'visions', which he passes off as periods of silent communion with God when he receives "instructions for creating a pure Islamic state", are responsible for his edicts, including the ban on flying kites, football and high-heeled shoes for women or indeed any footwear that "clicks" under the burqa. His doctors also describe alarming mood swings, including deep depression, alternating with "bouts of childlike behaviour", which causes him "to sit in the driving seat of one of his cars, turning the wheel while making the noise of an engine".
Analysts pointed out that the portrait of a gibbering idiot, as painted by The Sunday Telegraph, contrasts oddly with the apparent public obedience Omar seems to receive from America's public enemy number one, his good friend and alleged relation by marriage, Osama bin Laden, in his last television interview. The 1998 interview to the Doha-based Al Jazeera Arabic TV station, is being re-run by the British media and bin Laden is quoted to say that he has always respected the restrictions placed on him by the "head of believers", Omar, who became only the third person to acquire the title Amir ul-Momein (ruler of all believers) in 1998.
Lamb adds that Omar's doctors believe the Taliban's supreme spiritual leader brain seizures and mood swings may be on account of shrapnel lodged in his brain when he lost his eye in 1989 during a Russian rocket attack on his village mosque. The doctors lamented that their patient had always refused to undergo a brain scan.
Referring to Omar's prescriptions for beards to be of a minimum length and for homosexuals to be crushed to death under walls, his chief doctor, who told his British interlocutor that his outspoken remarks could result in his death, said Omar's 'visions' were "the product of an unstable and manipulative mind, cynically exploiting the fact that the majority of Afghans are illiterate."
This article starring:
Amir ul-Momein
Christina Lamb
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10/07/2001 ||
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JABAL-US-SARAJ (Reuters)
Dr. Abdullah Abdullah, foreign minister in Afghanistan's opposition Northern Alliance said Sunday that U.S. air strikes on the Taliban were probably just hours away. "We believe that the strike by the United States and (its) alliance will take place soon, very soon," he told a news conference. Asked if a strike could be hours away, he looked at his watch and said :"What time is it now?" It was around 1230 GMT. "Certainly it is not matter of weeks. I'm not saying soon, I'm saying very soon," he said.
This article starring:
Abdullah Abdullah
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10/07/2001 ||
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PakNews
"This gave us solid believe that some enemy forces have already penetrated into our territories and are carrying out spying activities, therefore the government have ordered extensive scanning of the possible areas by special commando units" said a senior Taliban official. Reports had appeared in some section of the press that some US commnandos have entered into Afghanistan from its eastern borders with sophiticated gadgets and high tech communication equipments.
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10/07/2001 ||
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Washington Post U.S. and British intelligence officials have identified Mohammed Atef, a former Egyptian policeman who is one of Osama bin Laden's closest aides, as a key planner of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center, according to senior government sources. British Prime Minister Tony Blair, in arguing the case against bin Laden and his al Qaeda terrorist group, said on Thursday that "one of bin Laden's closest and most senior associates was responsible for the detailed planning of the attacks." U.S. officials have confirmed in the days since that Blair was referring to Atef.
This article starring:
Mohammed Atef
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10/07/2001 ||
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Guardian Unlimited Mark Tran
Osama bin Laden made a rare television appearance to rally Muslims to his cause as America and Britain launched their strikes against the main suspect for the September 11 attacks on the US. In a video that appeared to have been made in a cave and shot in daylight, Bin Laden spoke calmly but emphatically, often pointing his finger to stress his point. With an assault rifle propped up behind him, Bin Laden said: "America was hit by God in one of its softest spots. America is full of fear from its north to its south, from its west to its east. Thank God for that."
America's most wanted terrorist warned that Americans "will never feel safe until we and Palestinians feel safe". The video, released by the Al-Jazeera satellite channel, indicated that Bin Laden was well prepared for the American and British attacks. The carefully staged video showed that while totally outgunned by his opponents, Bin Laden was fully aware of the importance of the propaganda battle that will accompany the coming military conflict.
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10/07/2001 ||
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FoxNews
Five explosions rocked the southwest sector of the capital of Kabul, and blasts were also reported in the Taliban's headquarters, Kandahar, and the eastern city of Jalalabad, followed by the rattle of return anti-aircraft fire, according to news reports. The first explosions in Kabul could be heard about 12:27 p.m. EDT, or about 8:57 p.m. local time. The antt-aircraft firing tapered off for a few minutes but resumed after a jet aircraft could be heard passing over the city. The town of Khost was also hit, media reports said. Both terrorist Usama bin Laden and Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar survived the attacks, the Associated Press reported. A Taliban news service said that missiles had landed in every province, but that there was little property damage.
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10/07/2001 ||
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(AFP)
A top aide to former Afghan monarch Mohammed Zahir Shah said Sunday he was "shocked and saddened" by the US attacks in Afghanistan as he watched them unfold on television. "It's sad. It's of course tragic. You can imagine a person coming from a country, who would feel shocked and saddened by what your country has been led into," the aide, Hedayat Amin Arsala told AFP. "Now my hope is that it stops quickly and that people are not hurt."
"I really didn't think it was inevitable," Amin Arsala said of the attack, which he said he was watching on television in his Rome hotel. "We had hoped that it could be prevented... I really can't talk," he added.
This article starring:
Hedayat Amin Arsala
Mohammed Zahir Shah
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10/07/2001 ||
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Reuters Ahmad Wali Masood told Saudi Arabia's English-language Arab News daily that "A few months ago we had reports of four Osama look-alikes in different locations at the same time,'' said Masood, the brother of the legendary Ahmad Shah Masood who was assassinated last month.
This article starring:
Ahmad Shah Masood
Ahmad Wali Masood
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10/07/2001 ||
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Ananova
The Taliban is claiming to have shot down a US aircraft. The Pentagon is not aware of any damage to the 15 bombers and 25 strike aircraft involved in the first wave of attacks. There is speculation the Taliban could be referring to knocking out a Tomahawk cruise missile. US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld says the initial phase of military operations against Afghanistan is designed to knock out Taliban air defences and aircraft. This would "create conditions for sustained anti-terrorist and humanitarian relief operations in Afghanistan".
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10/07/2001 ||
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(Reuters)
Anti-aircraft fire opened up for a third time over the Afghan capital early on Monday morning as residents heard planes roaring overhead, witnesses said. ``You could hear a plane, or planes and then there was the reply of guns,'' one witness said. ``It was not clear if more bombs were being dropped. It sounded like some outside the city.'' The United States and its allies finally launched anticipated attacks on Afghan Taliban targets on Sunday, shortly after a nightly curfew went into effect. A second raid came less than five hours later followed by the third early on Monday morning. Other cities including the Taliban's stronghold of Kandahar and the eastern city of Jalalabad have also been raided at least twice.
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10/07/2001 ||
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(Reuters)
Afghanistan's Taliban cried ``terrorism'' as the United States and Britain bombed its forces on Sunday, but won only scraps of sympathy from a world which has mostly isolated the Islamist hard-liners since September 11. ``This attack by America is a terrorist act,'' Taliban ambassador to Pakistan Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef said. ``Poor and common Afghans will die, for which America will be responsible. This is an attack on an independent country. We will fight to the last breath.'' State television in Iraq, itself a frequent target for U.S. and British warplanes, described the U.S.-British air strikes on Afghanistan as ``treacherous aggression.''
This article starring:
MULLAH ABDUL SALAM ZAIF
Taliban
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
10/07/2001 ||
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IRNA
Three American fighters have bombed Shindand air base in the western Afghan province of Farah as the United States launched its retaliatory strikes against ruling Taliban regime, a reliable Afghan source told IRNA Sunday.
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10/07/2001 ||
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IRNA
News agencies report that the U.S. started air attacks on Taliban positions in Kabul and Kandahar about 10 pm Afghanistan local time on Sunday. An informed Afghan source said that thousands of Afghan refugees have crowded near Chaman border of Pakistan in the recent days. Norooz Amiri, the informed Afghan source Sunday night told IRNA that these refugees have fled from their homes and shelters for fear of the US attacks and are trying to enter Pakistan. The amassing of Afghan refugees in "Chaman" region between Baluchestan and Kandehar provinces has caused much anxiety for the Pakistani authorities, he added. He said that on Sunday (today) new clashes have taken place between the new Afghan homeless and the Pakistani forces at this border. According to this source, while the US attacks have started and are continuing on Afghanistan cities, it is forecast that thousands of Afghan refugees leave their cities to enter Iranian or Pakistani borders.
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10/07/2001 ||
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IRNA
Five U.S. missiles have hit the only airport in the border city of Ziranj, an Afghan source confirmed Sunday. Behrouz Alavi, affiliated to the Afghan Islamic Unity Party, told IRNA that the "Rahdar" Airport located two kilometers north of Ziranj was hit by U.S. missiles as Washinton launched its full-fledged strike to destroy the bases of the ruling Taliban regime.
IRNA
Zahedan, Sistan-Baluchistan Prov
Some 300 forces of the ruling Taliban militia have joined their oppnents, Northern Alliance, over the past two days, a source with the alliance told IRNA Sunday night. Abdollah Daneshvar said the Taliban forces joined the Northern Alliance in the wake of U.S. threats against Afghanistan which led to the current strikes.
This article starring:
Abdollah Daneshvar
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10/07/2001 ||
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IRNA
Fighting broke out on Sunday between Afghanistan's ruling Taliban militia and people in the western Afghan border town of Zaranj in the wake of U.S. strikes, Iran's official IRNA news agency said. It said, quoting Afghan sources, some 150 Afghans had decided to capture the town from the Taliban. Zaranj, in the far southwest corner of Afghanistan lies on the frontier with Iran close to where the two countries' borders meet that of Pakistan. A local Afghan opposition commander based in the nearby Iranian city of Zahedan, Haji Karim Barahouei, was rushing to the area, the agency said. The region is dominated by the Baluchi ethnic group which lives in the remote arid region astride the borders of Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan.
This article starring:
Haji Karim Barahouei
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10/07/2001 ||
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AP
Before the strikes, the Taliban said they had sent thousands of troops to the border with Uzbekistan, whose president has allowed U.S. troops use of an air base for the anti-terrorism campaign. The Taliban claims could not be independently verified. However, Russia's Interfax news agency reported Saturday that Taliban troops had been moving long-range artillery and multiple rocket launchers toward the border. More than 10 guns and rocket launchers had moved within range of the Uzbek border town of Termez, Interfax said, quoting Afghan opposition sources. The Taliban are estimated to have some 40,000 fighters -- around a quarter of them from Osama bin Laden's organization.
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10/07/2001 ||
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AP
The Afghan opposition launched an assault on the ruling Taliban militia from an air force base just north of the capital, in an attack coordinated with Sunday's U.S.-led military action against Afghanistan. Northern alliance forces that control the Bagram air force base fired multiple-rocket launchers at Taliban forces that control the surrounding mountains. The Taliban returned fire using Soviet-made BM-21 rockets. The base is about 25 miles north of the capital, Kabul, and the opposition has suggested it could eventually be used as a base for U.S. forces. The Taliban still dominates the high mountains around the base. The opposition forces attacked Taliban positions at around 10 p.m., about an hour after the U.S. led strikes against Afghanistan began.
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10/07/2001 ||
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LA Times Editorial
Consigned to the extreme margins of the national debate, the flag haters and jingoists resort to caricature. On talk radio, a feeble drumbeat suggests that the "God Bless America" signs in car windows somehow echo the Vietnam-era bumper stickers: "America--Love It or Leave It." Wrong. Polls, dinner conversations and aggressive eavesdropping suggest that while the evolved patriots want greater security, they also know that the freedom to assemble and openly debate policy is precisely what makes America worth defending. When Jerry Falwell spouted fundamentalist blather, patriotic centrists drew apt comparisons with the twisted ideology that inspired the terrorists. When thugs lashed out at people perceived as vaguely "un-American," church leaders, rank-and-file conservatives and the Republican president gave stern lectures on what that term really means. Cynics on the left hint that those whose cars fly flags are of the ignorant masses, in dire need of consciousness-raising. These pontificators need to get out more. With nothing to rivet, today's Rosies turn in frustration to nailing down facts. The evolved patriots are not just buying American flags; they're also overwhelming Amazon.com with orders for books on Islam, Afghanistan and foreign policy.
This article starring:
Jerry Falwell
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10/07/2001 ||
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New York Times
In an unusual display of political unity, the top leaders of both parties in Congress issued a joint statement today endorsing President Bush's decision to begin military strikes in Afghanistan. The statement was issued by the Republican leaders, Speaker J. Dennis Hastert of Illinois and Senator Trent Lott of Mississippi,
"We strongly support the operation President Bush ordered our military forces to carry out today," the congressional leaders said in their one-paragraph statement.
"We strongly support the operation President Bush ordered our military forces to carry out today," the congressional leaders said in their one-paragraph statement. "The administration has properly made it clear that today's actions and any future actions are directed against those who perpetrated the heinous attacks on the United States on Sept. 11, not against Islam or the people of Afghanistan. We stand united with the president and with our troops and will continue to work together to do what is necessary to bring justice to those terrorists and those who harbor them."
This article starring:
Dennis Hastert
Richard A. Gephardt
Tom Daschle
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10/07/2001 ||
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The Hill News
Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-Ga.) will headline a fundraiser for a Muslim political group that terrorism experts say has ties to militant Islamic organizations operating in the United States. The group, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), is dedicated to advancing Muslim causes on Capitol Hill and in the media and has opened a political action committee within the last year.
This article starring:
Cynthia McKinney
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10/07/2001 ||
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The Bahraini daily, Akhbar al-Khalij, published an editorial which stated, "What America wants to do (in Afghanistan) is a type of genocide. Therefore, it will be a dangerous precedent if Arab and Muslim countries agree to participate in a comprehensive war against an Islamic country..." One can fling the "genocide" charge around with just as much abandon as the "race" charge, but the fact remains that Afghanistan is ground into the dust by louse-ridden "holy men" with God on their lips and evil in their hearts. Were they Anglicans or Buddhists, they would still be just as evil, and just as worth extirpating.
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10/07/2001 ||
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IRNA -- Raising deep concerns, the Iranian foreign ministry has immediately reacted to the U.S. military attacks against Afghanistan, saying the "vast U.S. attacks" are "unacceptable."
"These attacks which have been launched regardless of the world public opinion, especially the Muslim nations, and will damage the innocent and oppressed Afghans are unacceptable," the ministry spokesman Hamid-Reza Assefi told IRNA. He noted that the United States should avoid any action which, he said, may encroach on the territorial integrity of the Iranian airspace.
This article starring:
Hamid-Reza Assefi
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10/07/2001 ||
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Ha'aretz
Lebanon's Hezbollah guerrilla group denounced a U.S. blacklist that included it among "terrorist" groups, calling Washington and its Middle East ally Israel "the heads of world terrorism."
"Putting Hezbollah on the list again is a concession to the dictates of the oppressive entity and a response to the Zionist lobby," the group said in a statement faxed to Reuters. "The enemy and its partner, the U.S. administration, are the heads of terrorism in the world, and they seize every chance to squeeze the resistance, sometimes as 'terrorism,' sometimes as threats to American and Zionist interests."
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10/07/2001 ||
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(Reuters)
First international reactions to the air raids were mostly ones of support, from Western allies whom the United States warned in advance that the onslaught was imminent. From the Islamic world, there were mixed reactions or silence. Pakistan, the only state still to recognize the Taliban as a legitimate government, said the Taliban had brought the strikes on themselves. A spokesman said Pakistan hoped the military operation would be brief and spare civilians.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Washington's staunchest ally, said the U.S.-British attack had been planned ``to do all we humanly can to avoid civilian casualties.'' Blair's office said parliament would be recalled for an emergency session on Monday evening.
The Afghan military campaign is not a NATO action and the organization had no official comment on the raids. But President Jacques Chirac of France, ally of the United States and Britain in the alliance, was quick to announce on television that French forces would also be taking part in the Afghan operation soon. ``The military operations will take place over a long period,'' Chirac said. ``Their aim is to punish the guilty and destroy the infrastructure of the terrorist networks in Afghanistan and those that support them.'' French Defense Minister Alain Richard said on Sunday that French participation in U.S. attacks on Afghanistan was ``a question of days.'' France said last week its navy would provide logistical support to United States naval groups in the Indian Ocean.
President Bush said in his public announcement of the attacks that Canada, Australia and Germany had also ``pledged forces as the operation unfolds.''
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10/07/2001 ||
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The Associated Press
CAIRO, Egypt (AP) Egypt has said it will help battle global terrorism, but that campaign is likely to pit it against some of its own, including two Egyptians with strong links to Osama bin Laden and the Sept. 11 terror attacks. One man, Ayman al-Zawahri, has been identified as bin Laden's most trusted deputy. Mohamed Atef is now believed to be the operational mastermind behind the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Both men are Egyptian and former members of Egypt's militant Islamic Jihad. They have been sentenced to death in absentia in Egypt, but have long been out of the government's reach. They are believed to be holed up in Afghanistan along with bin Laden, enjoying the protection of Afghanistan's Taliban government.
Sunday marked the first time in years that the world had heard from al-Zawahri, who appeared beside bin Laden in a pre-recorded video broadcast on the Arabic satellite station Al-Jazeera. "America has committed crimes against Muslims that are unbearable. America is the world's biggest criminal. Your government is killing Iraqi children and sponsoring corrupt regimes. Your government is leading you toward certain defeat." The tape, which showed bin Laden and al-Zawahri kneeling side-by-side in a cave, was apparently made sometime after Sept. 11 but before the U.S. retaliated on Sunday.
This article starring:
AIMAN AL ZAWAHRI
al-Qaeda
MOHAMED ATEF
al-Qaeda
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10/07/2001 ||
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BBC
The Taleban's consul general in Karachi, Pakistan, said the Taleban were now "ready for jihad" - holy war now that the attacks had started. Elsewhere in Pakistan, where a large swathe of public opinion favours the Taleban, several Muslim leaders denounced the strikes and urged support for Afghanistan. "We appeal to all Muslims living anywhere in the world to extend full support to their Afghan brothers at this critical time," said the Markazi Jamiat Ahl-e-Hadith Pakistan group.
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10/07/2001 ||
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Reuters
President Bush phoned his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to inform him about the military attack on Afghanistan shortly before the offensive took place, a top Kremlin aide said Sunday. ``Bush informed the president of the beginning of the operations. He did this before the attack began,'' Sergei Prikhodko, Putin's chief foreign policy adviser, told Reuters. Interfax news agency quoted a spokesman for the air force staff as saying that Russian air defense had not received any orders to heighten their alert.
This article starring:
Sergei Prikhodko
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10/07/2001 ||
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AP
President Bush informed Chirac by telephone an hour ahead of the strikes that a U.S. offensive on Afghanistan was ``imminent,'' French presidential spokeswoman Catherine Colonna said. Chirac said that ``at this stage,'' French vessels are associated with the operation, but he did not give details. France had earlier said it would open its airspace to U.S. military aircraft and provide support at sea. ``We will assume our role in a spirit of solidarity and responsibility,'' Chirac said. Defense Minister Alain Richard said earlier that France ``can enter into action in a few days.'' He added that, ``our level of capacity for intervention is strictly comparable to that of Britain.''
This article starring:
Defense Minister Alain Richard
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
10/07/2001 ||
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Time
Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al Faisal told TIME a few hours before the air strikes that Saudi Arabia, like Pakistan, now believes the evidence demonstrates that Osama Bin Laden orchestrated the September 11 attacks on the U.S. The Kingdom, he said, fully supports U.S. efforts to bring Bin Laden to justice. This public support from a major Arab country will be welcomed in Washington as it provides cover against possible Arab backlash to a war on Afghanistan.
Prince Saud downplayed any Saudi role in allied military planning and warned against any appearance that the war on terror was a war on Afghanistan. He said, however, that the Taliban rulers would have to bear the responsibility if they did not disengage themselves from Bin Laden. "The type of military action that is talked about in the United States is described as a new war, based on technology and information," he said. "Whatever information we have we are providing. But the other methods that are being used, there are perhaps other countries with more capabilities that can contribute to this. Geographically we are not in an area where any support can be given to this new kind of war. We are yet to hear what this new kind oif war entails or means in order to identify what our role will be."
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
10/07/2001 ||
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BILL RAMS, TONY SAAVEDRA and CHRIS KNAP The Orange County Register
An Islamic charity that raised more than $30 million for Middle Eastern widows, orphans and refugees is under investigation for allegedly sending money to Palestinian terrorists. The Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, whose top-paid fund-raiser lives in Buena Park, is being investigated by the New York and California attorneys general to determine if the group is financing suicide bombers and other terrorists, according to officials.
Federal agents have been looking into Holy Land and potential links to Palestinian terrorist group Hamas since at least 1996, according to court documents filed in Washington, D.C. Last month, the FBI retrieved foundation records from its Internet provider. The charity has never been charged with a crime, and its officials deny the accusations, calling the investigations a smear campaign by pro-Israeli interests. Holy Land officials say the group has fed and clothed tens of thousands of poor Middle Eastern children, assisted the victims of the Oklahoma City bombing and provided scholarships to hundreds of Muslim students.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
10/07/2001 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
U.S. and British intelligence officials have identified 
