A report released by a commission investigating the September 11 attacks on the US has said Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf met Taliban chief Mullah Mohammed Omar in April 2000 to convince him to expel Al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden, reports the Press Trust of India. The report said the meeting took place at the request of former US president Bill Clinton after he raised the issue during his visit to Pakistan on March 25, 2000, PTI added. The report stated, âThe Pakistanis asked for evidence that Bin Laden had really ordered the US embassy bombings (in East Africa) a year and a half earlier. In a follow-up meeting the next day with Under Secretary of State Thomas Pickering, President Musharraf argued that Pakistan had only limited influence over the Taliban.â
Despite these reservations, President Musharraf âdid meet Mullah Omar and did urge him to get rid of Bin Ladenâ, it said. In early June 2000, according to the report, Pakistanâs interior minister went to Kandahar with Mr Pickering and delivered a joint message to Taliban officials. âBut the Taliban seemed immune to such pleas, especially from Pakistani civilians like the interior minister,â it observed. âPakistan did not threaten to cut off its help to the Taliban regime.â
The report also provided so far classified information about joint US-Saudi efforts to influence the Taliban regime on this issue. Their first joint effort to evict the Al Qaeda chief from Afghanistan began in May 1998 when President Clinton designated Central Intelligence Agency Director George Tenet as his representative to work with the Saudis on terrorism. Mr Tenet met Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah twice and convinced him to make an all-out secret effort to persuade the Taliban to expel Bin Laden for eventual delivery to the US or another country, the report said. Riyadh decided to send Saudi Intelligence chief Prince Turki bin Faisal as Prince Abdullahâs special emissary to Kandahar. He also took with him a sealed indictment against Bin Laden issued by a New York grand jury. Prince Turki held several meetings with Mullah Omar and other Taliban leaders in the summer of 1998. Employing a mixture of possible bribes and threats, he received a commitment that Bin Laden would be handed over, the report said.
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