From the Washington Post....big US Newspaper...
NATO: U.S. Evidence on Bin Laden 'Compelling'
Allies Give Unconditional Support for Retaliatory Strikes
Taliban Official Asks to See Proof
[FINAL Edition]
The Washington Post - Washington, D.C.
Author:
William Drozdiak and Rajiv Chandrasekaran
Date:
Oct 3, 2001
Start Page:
A.11
Section:
A SECTION
Document Types:
News
Text Word Count:
1073
Copyright The Washington Post Company Oct 3, 2001
The United States gave NATO "clear and compelling" evidence today that Osama bin Laden orchestrated last month's suicide airliner attacks in New York and Washington, gaining the unqualified support of its allies for retaliatory military strikes.
NATO Secretary General George Robertson said the alliance's 19 members are now convinced that the attacks were planned abroad by bin Laden's al Qaeda organization. As a result, NATO lifted all conditions from its unprecedented decision to invoke Article 5 of the alliance's founding treaty, which considers an assault against one member as an attack against them all.
"It is clear that all roads lead to al Qaeda and pinpoint Osama bin Laden as having been involved" in the attacks, Robertson said after the ruling council of NATO ambassadors received a classified briefing by Francis X. Taylor, the U.S. government's top counterterrorism expert.
"The facts are clear and compelling," Robertson said.
In Afghanistan, leaders of the ruling Taliban militia, which has been harboring bin Laden, urged the United States to share its evidence with them, saying they hoped for a negotiated settlement instead of a military conflict. The Taliban ambassador to Pakistan, Abdul Salam Zaeef, said his government would be willing to talk to the United States about bin Laden, but "we don't want to surrender without any proof, any evidence."
European diplomats who listened to Taylor's briefing here at NATO headquarters said his presentation offered no "smoking gun" but provided an array of evidence that would be enough to indict bin Laden, his al Qaeda network and the Taliban on complicity to commit terrorism.
Besides satellite reconnaissance photos and wireless intercepts gleaned by U.S. security agencies that were described as "circumstantial at best," these diplomats said much of the classified evidence was already in the public domain, such as bin Laden's personal background, his organization's role in such previous terrorist bombings as the 1998 attacks on U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, and the status of the current investigation. These elements, the sources said, included a catalogue of financial transactions involving intercontinental bank transfers and credit card dealings by suspected hijackers, as well as accounts of such personal ties as the recent marriage of one of bin Laden's daughters to Mohammad Omar, the Taliban's leader.
Robertson said the United States could count on the full support of its allies in the conduct of military operations. But he stressed that it was still unclear what assistance the United States might ask its allies to provide beyond the sharing of intelligence and more vigilant pursuit of money laundering by suspected terrorist networks.
"It will be up to the United States to determine what help it requires," Robertson said. "We don't intend at the moment to discuss how NATO will translate this decision into operational action. The United States is still developing its thinking and they will come back to the alliance in due course when that thinking is crystalized."
NATO military officials said it has been clear since the attacks three weeks ago that while Washington appreciates NATO's political support, there is little doubt that any military retaliation will be conducted with only minor contributions from the alliance.
U.S. officials said Taylor will share some of the classified evidence Wednesday with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who arrived in Brussels to meet Robertson and top European Union officials. But Putin said his country was already convinced of the need to launch military operations against bin Laden, whom Moscow accuses of supporting the insurgency in the southern Russian region of Chechnya.
"Russia's special services do not need any additional proof to participate in the struggle against terrorist acts," Putin told reporters after meeting with Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt. He compared international terrorism to a bacteria "which adapts to the organism bearing it" and exploits Western ideas of freedom to achieve its aims.
Putin criticized Saudi Arabia for its vacillation over whether to allow U.S. forces to launch strikes against terrorist bases from its territory. "I think this is a cardinal error," he said. "It's not a question of soldiers preparing strikes against Muslims but rather of soldiers preparing strikes against terrorists."
Zaeef, the Taliban ambassador in Islamabad, stressed today that such strikes could be avoided if Washington agreed to negotiate with the Taliban over bin Laden's fate. "We are ready for negotiations," Zaeef said. "It is up to the other side to agree or not. Only the way of negotiation will solve our problems. We should discuss this issue and decide."
But President Bush ruled out any discussions with the Taliban and reiterated his demand that bin Laden and members of al Qaeda be surrendered unconditionally.
"I have said that the Taliban must turn over the al Qaeda organization living in Afghanistan and must destroy the terrorist camps," Bush said in Washington. "They must do so, otherwise there will be a consequence. There are no negotiations. There is no calendar."
Taliban leaders appeared to be moving to shore up support and dispel reports of growing splits among their ranks. Several Taliban ministers, including Defense Minister Obaidullah Akhund, began traveling around Afghanistan, the Reuters news agency reported. The Taliban's second in command, Mohammed Hassan, who is regarded as more flexible than Omar, took part in a pro-government rally in the southern Afghanistan city of Gardez, Taliban officials told the Associated Press.
In the southern Afghan city of Kandahar, where the Taliban was formed, 10,000 marchers burned American flags and shouted that Afghanistan would not give up bin Laden, according to the Afghan Islamic Press, an Islamabad-based private news agency close to the Taliban. The protesters also denounced Afghanistan's former king, who in exile in Italy has supported groups seeking to topple the Taliban.
In Pakistan, U.S. Ambassador Wendy Chamberlin briefed Gen. Pervez Musharraf, the country's military ruler, about the status of the investigation into the terrorist attacks. But a senior Pakistani official familiar with the meeting said the 90-minute session this morning did not convey any U.S. evidence of bin Laden's alleged involvement.
"It was nothing more than what you gather from watching CNN and reading The Washington Post," said the official. "There was nothing that added to the information than we already had."
A spokesman for the U.S. Embassy, Mark Wentworth, refused to comment on the meeting other than to say that it included "an oral briefing about the status of the investigation."
Chandrasekaran reported from Islamabad, Pakistan. Special correspondent Kamran Khan in Karachi, Pakistan, contributed to this report.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction or distribution is prohibited without permission.
No comments:
Post a Comment