------- Index of Articles

NUCLEAR
Bin Laden cohorts said in arms quest

MILITARY
Retaliation by U.S.will spark holy war
Taliban threatens 'revenge'
Afghans leaving Kabul amid fears of U.S. strike
Nearly 50 Bodies Exhumed in Serbia
Macedonia OKs Small NATO Security Force - Diplomats
Cuba Rallies Against Terrorism
British Marijuana Cafe Owner Arrested
Iran Seals Off Afghanistan Border
Saddam urges Americans to learn from Iraq
Israeli Arabs Fear War on Islam
Israel Raids Palestinian Buildings
U.S. allies torn over level of participation
Pakistan Walks Fine Line In Cooperation With U.S.
THE PAKISTANIS
Russia Rejects Joint Military Action With United States
Pakistan: Will Comply with U.N. on Terror Attacks
Text of Joint Resolution
Military Alerted Before Attacks
District, Nation Move to High Alert
Congress Approves Use of Force
Special Forces May Play Key Role
U.S. Works to Win Support For Anti-Terror Campaign
Three Marines Guilty In Osprey Records Case
U.S. Military in Gulf Stands Ready

OTHER
Robertson: Attack retribution for 'evil'
Nepal Bans Public Meetings
China nears spot on WTO
Anti-Muslim Violence Assailed
A Wide, Aggressive Probe Collides With Civil Rights
U.S. fears attacks by 'sleepers'
Manila Cites Possible Plot to Bomb U.S. Embassy
Europol Questions Bin Laden Role in Attacks

ACTIVISTS
Global Peace Campaign: No more killing of innocents
"Surround the White House" Mobilization
UW mall rally draws 20,000



-------- NUCLEAR

Bin Laden cohorts said in arms quest

September 15, 2001
By Bill Gertz
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
http://www.washtimes.com/national/20010915-470683.htm

Islamic extremists linked to Osama bin Laden are seeking chemical or biological weapons and even nuclear arms that could be used in future attacks, intelligence specialists say.

A U.S. intelligence official said yesterday there are reports that bin Laden's organization has acquired some type of nuclear device.

"Osama bin Laden and his network have shown a strong interest in [chemical weapons]," said former CIA intelligence chief John Gannon.

Mr. Gannon stated at a recent conference on terrorists' use of weapons of mass destruction that the number of extremist groups seeking biological and chemical arms is increasing.

"We know that bin Laden's organization has attempted to develop poisonous gases that could be fired at U.S. troops in Gulf states," said Mr. Gannon, who now works with Intellibridge, a private firm.

Commenting on future dangers, Mr. Gannon stated: "If you don't get hit by a North Korean ICBM (intercontinental ballistic missile) over the next five years, chances are you will suffer a horrible, premature death when Osama bin Laden poisons your hometown water supply."

Vince Cannistraro, a former CIA counterterrorism official, said bin Laden and his networks have gone into hiding since Tuesday's attacks, fearing retaliatory strikes from the United States.

There have been intelligence reports indicating that bin Laden associates training in Afghanistan have been trying to develop chemical weapons, U.S. officials say.

In 1999, bin Laden stated that his followers should "seek to possess the weapons that could counter those of the infidels'" and that doing so was a religious duty.

Other attacks could be in the works, according to U.S. intelligence officials. However, counterterrorism specialists believe it is unlikely that future attacks will be like Tuesday's hijacking-suicide aircraft strikes. Security measures will be increased to make such attacks more difficult, driving terrorists to seek other targets and methods.

Bin Laden's indiscriminate and large-casualty attacks show he is a prime candidate to use weapons of mass destruction, Mr. Cannistraro said. "Is he willing to do that? Obviously, he keeps escalating the terrorist operations he pulls."

Bin Laden-linked terrorists have been blamed for the embassy bombings in Africa in 1998, the attack on the USS Cole in Yemen, and now for three successful attacks and an apparent failed one that involved a total of at least 19 suicide bombers, Mr. Cannistraro said. He added that Bin Laden's method is to never follow exactly the same pattern as the last attack, and that indicates he may move to weapons of mass destruction.

Mr. Cannistraro said there are indications an Islamic front group in Chicago tied to bin Laden has invested in a company that produces chlorine for swimming pools. There are concerns the plant also could be used to produce chemical arms, he said.

Mr. Gannon stated that the threat of terrorist attack using biological or chemical weapons is "grave" because the problem has not been defined well and federal authorities have not "joined forces to deal with it."

"We are, as a result, more open to a serious incident and to surprise in general," Mr. Gannon said.

Deadly biological weapons, such as anthrax, can be developed with minimal laboratory capabilities. It is more difficult to deploy them as weapons.

Chemical weapons also can be produced with relative ease, as shown by the 1995 subway attack with Sarin nerve agent developed by the Japanese group Aum Shinri Kyo.

There is also evidence bin Laden's umbrella organization al-Qaeda, "the Base," is seeking nuclear weapons. A 1998 FBI complaint made public in New York stated that al-Qaeda has tried since 1993 to buy enriched uranium "for the purpose of developing nuclear weapons."

The State Department's latest annual report on international terrorism stated that the possibility of terrorist attacks using chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear or large explosive weapons "remained real."

"Most terrorists continued to rely on conventional tactics, such as bombing, shooting, and kidnapping, but some terrorists -- such as Osama bin Laden and his associates -- continued to seek [chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear] capabilities," the report said. Terrorists willing to inflict large numbers of casualties may be attracted to such weapons, it said.

Former State Department counterterrorism official Larry Johnson said bin Laden may be seeking weapons of mass destruction but that actually getting them and using them in terrorist attacks would be difficult. Still, "if somehow he gets access to a weapon [of mass destruction], there is little to prevent him from using it," he said.


-------- MILITARY

Retaliation by U.S.will spark holy war

September 15, 2001
By Alex Spillius
LONDON DAILY TELEGRAPH
http://www.washtimes.com/world/20010915-37552465.htm

PESHAWAR, Pakistan --As Maulawi Gul Rahman prepared for lunchtime prayers yesterday, he donned his ragged scholar's robe, stroked his tangled beard and pondered the question of what the effect of American military retaliation against Osama bin Laden would be.

"Muslims around the world, from north, south, east and west, would wage war against the United States," said the maulawi, a senior priest, who considers himself a moderate by the region's standards. "It would be holy war, our duty."

They were not empty words. Anyone in any doubt that reprisals against the Saudi exile and his Taliban hosts would do anything other than bolster anti-Western Islamic militancy, need spend no more than a few minutes in the sinuous bazaars and dusty religious schools of Peshawar.

To many here, bin Laden is an icon. He is seen as a pious man defending Islam against combined Israeli and American aggression. As a just and holy warrior, he could not have killed so many innocent people in New York and Washington. The attack is blamed on a conspiracy to defame Islam or attributed to vague notions of natural justice for previous American offenses.

The name Osama has become a popular choice for parents wishing to bestow Islamic virtues upon newly-borns, as was Saddam in the wake of the Gulf War. A man selling posters bearing bin Laden's image on a pavement said he had sold all his stock since Tuesday.

"It's my number one seller," he said.

The capital of Pakistan's North West Frontier Province is the gateway to the formidable Khyber Pass leading to Afghanistan. The majority of Peshawar's population is drawn from the same Pashtun tribe that dominates southern Afghanistan and makes up the Taliban leadership.

A few miles outside Peshawar there are thriving markets in guns and contraband household goods.

Foreigners must negotiate the Khyber Pass in the company of a Pakistani soldier and not stray from the main road into the lawless hills that were the graveyard of thousands of Britons during three Afghan colonial adventures.

The government of Pakistan, like the Moghul emperors before them, knows better than to interfere with the ferociously proud Pashtuns. The tradition of hospitality, allied to Islamic comradeship, lies behind their passionate approval of the Taliban's refusal to consider handing over bin Laden.

"To sacrifice him would bring us shame, would go against all our principles," said Gul Yusuf, 25, a student at Maulawi Rahman's White Mosque. "Osama is our guest and in our history we have never given up a guest."

Temur Shah, one of the million or so Afghan refugees who have settled in Pakistan since the 1979 Soviet invasion and ensuing conflicts, said that if the Americans produced evidence of bin Laden's guilt, then he should be tried by a pashtun jirga, or council of elders, which adjudicates everything from petty theft to murder cases.

"But they have no evidence, and if they attack, it will be an act of terrorism, and once again Afghans will suffer," he said to the fervent approval of a crowd outside the mud-and-brick Kamwal mosque at an Afghan refugee camp.

They are keen to remind a Western journalist that American cruise missiles aimed at bin Laden's hideouts across the border in August 1998, in retaliation for the bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa, missed their target and killed innocent citizens.

"We think what happened in New York is wrong, but if the Americans attack, we will defeat them like we defeated the Russians," said Mohammed Al Jamal, who was only 14 when the Soviet invasion ended in 1989, unable to break down the Islamic guerrillas.

That resistance was backed by a Cold War America keen to thwart Soviet expansion. It is widely held that among its military trainees in camps in Pakistan was a young Osama bin Laden.

"He is a man of America, they pampered him and now he is against them but he is their creation, their problem," said Maulawi Israr, the camp's religious leader.

-------- afghanistan

Taliban threatens 'revenge'

September 15, 2001
By Ben Barber
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
http://www.washtimes.com/world/20010915-894141.htm

Afghanistan's militant Taliban government warned the United States yesterday that it would retaliate "through different means" to any American attack.

Neighboring Pakistan, the Taliban's main ally, meanwhile, delayed responding to a U.S. request that seeks use of its airspace for such an attack.

"We will take revenge if America attacks through different means," Taliban official Abdul Hai Mutamaen told reporters in the Afghan capital of Kabul.

The Taliban for years has given shelter to Osama bin Laden, leader of a global network of Islamic terror groups whose goals include killing Americans.

With growing evidence pointing to bin Laden as the mastermind behind Tuesday's attacks on New York and Washington, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell warned the Taliban yesterday that it faced the same punishment as any terrorists it shelters.

As Taliban leaders defied the United States, ordinary Afghans fled their cities in fear of an expected U.S. retaliation.

Late yesterday, the Taliban replaced the governors of Afghanistan's border provinces with new men from its inner circle. No reason was given.

Taliban leaders continued to insist that bin Laden, whom they call an "honored guest," lacks the ability to orchestrate terror attacks like those that destroyed New York's World Trade Center and part of the Pentagon in Washington.

"Training of pilots is the work of a running government. Osama has no pilots, and where did he train them? In Afghanistan, there is no such possibility for the training," said Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar in a statement read by his ambassador to Pakistan.

A reporter asked Mr. Powell at the State Department yesterday what message he would like to deliver to the Taliban.

Choosing his words carefully, he replied: "The message is: To the extent that you are providing havens, support, encouragement and other resources to organizations such as the organization headed by Mr. Osama bin Laden, that is attacking civilization, that is killing innocent people you cannot separate your activities from the activity of these perpetrators.

"And in our response we will have to take into account not only the perpetrators, but those who provide haven, support, inspiration, financial and other assets to the perpetrators," Mr. Powell said.

Mr. Powell went further and warned that "I would give this message to any other regime and any other country that might be doing similar things."

He was careful to say that no final proof existed that bin Laden was responsible for Tuesday's attacks.

"We have not yet identified Osama bin Laden as the direct perpetrator, but the evidence -- we have a lot of evidence -- is mounting which will allow us to determine in the near future who it is," he said. "But he certainly is the leader of that kind of organization."

On another front, Pakistan's president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, met for seven hours with his military chiefs yesterday but gave no public response to a list of supportive actions Mr. Powell delivered earlier this week.

Pakistan, caught between two allies -- the Taliban and the United States -- is thinking over a request from Washington for several measures, including

c Closing its border with Afghanistan.

c Providing the United States use of its airspace.

c Sharing any intelligence it has on bin Laden's whereabouts.

Mr. Powell yesterday dismissed the delay in Pakistan's response to the U.S. request, saying:

"We are waiting to hear from President Musharraf of Pakistan, and I'm quite encouraged that the Pakistani government is taking this so seriously and so deliberately."

A senior administration official said, "We are confident that Pakistan will agree to cooperate."

However, analysts and officials in Pakistan and the United States worried that the nuclear-armed country faces tremendous instability if it sides with the United States in attacking bin Laden and his Afghan hosts.

"President Musharraf is between a rock and a hard place," said Nisar A. Chaudhry, president of the Pakistan-American Congress.

"Jamaat and other right-wing Islamic groups have become more powerful than before," Mr. Chaudhry said. "These groups can paralyze commerce and transport as well as threaten the country's stability.

"If the United States and other countries do military actions inside Afghanistan, it can make or break Musharraf," Mr. Chaudhry said.

When the United States attacked bin Laden training camps in Afghanistan after the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, anti-American riots broke out in Pakistan.

Stephen Cohen of the Brookings Institution said that Mr. Musharraf, a former army chief who seized power in a coup in 1999, has solidified his control over the army and that it is "unlikely" he might be overthrown for collaborating with the United States.

However, he warned that the reaction of Pakistan's 140 million people -- fervently Islamic and penetrated by militant fundamentalists who control schools and mosques -- would depend on the kind of U.S. action taken in Afghanistan.

"If it is a quick operation that is not seen as an attempt to destabilize the Taliban" there would be less chance of a backlash, said Mr. Cohen, a former U.S. official responsible for South Asia policy.

Mr. Powell refused to say whether Pakistan was taking sides for or against the terrorists, even though it was named in the State Department's 2000 Global Terrorism Report for allowing terrorist recruiting and training on its soil.

"We're talking with countries that are friendly to us, and we will present requests to them and see what they are able to do within their capacity and within their political circumstances," he said.

"But if we find a particular country, especially those that might be serving as a haven or as a well-known supporter of this kind of activity and they are simply unresponsive and we deem that unresponsiveness to be contributing to additional terrorism or to the fertile ground in which terrorism thrives, then that will certainly affect the kind of relationship we're going to have with them in the future."

Hundreds and possibly thousands of Arabs live in training camps and small villages in Afghanistan, attracted by bin Laden's call for a worldwide holy war against America and the West.

After Tuesday's attack, they have made themselves scarce in market towns where they used to roam freely, reports said.

Some Afghans told reporters they feared an attack on the Arab trainees would mean they too would be hit.

One possible target for attack is a farm 12 miles south of Jalalabad owned by former insurgent leader Maulvi Younus Khalis, where hundreds of Arabs are bivouacked, the Associated Press reported.

Four eastern provinces are believed to have bin Laden bases, a senior Taliban official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told the Associated Press.

Misan-e-Logar, about 60 miles outside Kabul, is another possible target, holding an estimated 400 houses of Arab nationals apparently affiliated with bin Laden.

-------

Afghans leaving Kabul amid fears of U.S. strike

USA TODAY
09/15/2001
The Associated Press
http://usatoday.com/news/world/2001/09/15/afghanexodus.htm

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - Fearing a revenge attack by the United States for the hijackings in New York and Washington, Afghans began leaving their capital Saturday and stocking up on food and other supplies. "There is no pleasure in life anyway, so I don't care if the bombs come and I have to die along with my children," said Leilama, a 38-year-old mother of six in Kabul. "But the United States should know that the Afghan people are not their enemies." The Taliban leadership, which is under fire for harboring suspected terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden, called on the people to "stand proud" and threatened war on nations that aid in a U.S. assault on Afghanistan.

The Central Asian nation of 21 million people has already endured Soviet invasion, civil war, the rise of the radical Taliban regime, widespread hunger and most recently, a punishing drought. Beleaguered Afghans seemed resigned to adding American fury to their long list of woes.

Residents of Kabul were spending their meager savings to stock up on food. Afghans lined up Saturday outside a barbed wire fence on the border at Torkham, trying to cross into Pakistan. Taliban fighters beat people back with sticks.

"I don't want my children to die in a war," said Sabira, who like many Afghans uses only one name. She waited at the fence with her two boys and two girls, ages 4 to 9.

A 9-year-old boy named Abdul escaped into Pakistan, but his mother, father and siblings were still stuck on the Afghan side. "I won't go back," he said. "I'll just wait and hope they will come, too."

Fears of an impending U.S. military attack are rife throughout Afghanistan. Responsibility for Tuesday's terror attacks - the worst in U.S. history - has not been established, but the United States has pointed to bin Laden as the prime suspect.

That makes Afghanistan a likely target of a U.S. assault. The radical Taliban militia, which rules about 95% of Afghanistan, has provided a safe haven to bin Laden since 1996.

The Taliban have said they have no intention of handing over bin Laden to the United States unless Washington provides convincing evidence against him.

"I am not afraid of death or of losing power. I am willing to give up power and my seat, but I'm not willing to give up Islam," Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar said in a radio address Friday. "We shall be victorious."

He urged Afghans to remain steadfast, telling them to "stand proud as Afghans in the defense of Islam."

In Islamabad, the Taliban ambassador to Pakistan said Saturday that his militia would wage war on any country aiding U.S. attacks on Afghanistan.

"If any regional or neighboring country helps the United States attack us, it would spark extraordinary dangers. ... It would draw us into a reprisal war," Abdul Salam Zaeef said.

The comments came as Pakistani sources confirmed that Pakistan had agreed to a full list of U.S. demands in the event of an assault on the Taliban.

Speaking to reporters, Zaeef did not name Pakistan specifically as a target. But he said that war would be declared on any country that allowed either its air or ground to be used for attacks, and Pakistani sources say Islamabad has agreed to allow both.

Zaeef reiterated earlier Taliban statements that bin Laden could not have carried out Tuesday's attacks.

Afghanistan has the world's worst refugee crisis, which has intensified since Tuesday's attacks. It can now expect less aid from the United Nations and foreign relief agencies, most of whose staff have evacuated. Foreigners were ordered to leave Saturday, and the Taliban have stopped issuing new visas.

"These days, every night we sit by the radio and listen to the reports. We are afraid but don't have the money to leave," said Zabiullah, a Kabul doctor and father of five.

Like many residents, he waited in line at a shop to stock up on food, in this case a pound of beans.

"Whatever happens, I leave myself and my children in the hands of God. This is a city of beggars," he said. "We can only hope that the United States will not bomb us. We pray."

Prices for basic foodstuffs have risen by 10% or more since Tuesday, making it even more difficult than usual for people to afford them.

"This morning a man came to me, gave me the watch he was wearing and asked for some rice," said Kabul shopkeeper Mohammed Sarwar. "People have been coming with their belongings and asking for food in return."

-------- balkans

Nearly 50 Bodies Exhumed in Serbia

September 15, 2001
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Yugoslavia-Mass-Grave.html

BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (AP) -- Nearly 50 bodies believed to be ethnic Albanians killed during the war in Kosovo have been exhumed from a mass grave in Serbia, a local court said Saturday.

The district court in the town of Uzice, about 60 miles southwest of Belgrade, said that the mass grave located close to the border with Bosnia contained 48 bodies -- 38 men, nine whose gender could not be determined, and one woman.

Civilian clothes were found in the grave, the court said in a statement carried by the state-run Tanjug news agency.

Three more mass graves, containing more than 300 bodies, have been discovered in Serbia, Yugoslavia's larger republic, since the ouster of former president Slobodan Milosevic from power last October. The new, pro-Western authorities have accused Milosevic of ordering the transfer of ethnic Albanian victims killed during the 1998-99 war in the province to cover up war crimes.

Milosevic's brutal crackdown in Kosovo triggered the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999 and led to an international war crimes indictment against Milosevic, who is now awaiting trial at the U.N. tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands.

--------

Macedonia OKs Small NATO Security Force - Diplomats

September 15, 2001
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-balkans-macedonia.html

SKOPJE (Reuters) - Macedonia, in a significant reversal, has signaled it will accept a small NATO-led security force to solidify a peace accord with ethnic Albanian guerrillas, alliance sources said on Saturday.

But Western sponsors remain concerned about the viability of the accord because Macedonia's parliament has not passed promised constitutional reforms providing more rights to minority Albanians in exchange for the handover of weapons.

Diplomats said NATO Secretary General George Robertson was surprised and gratified when government leaders told him on Friday that NATO could stay on after the 4,500-member force ends a mission to collect guerrilla weapons on September 26.

Skopje had previously ruled out an international security force. Some hard-liners have insisted that the goal of ethnic Albanians, who account for about one third of the population, was a NATO-enforced division of the country along ethnic lines.

Western leaders said NATO did not support a third Balkans peacekeeping mission, but acknowledged that Western troops were necessary to ensure the safety of civilian monitors.

'SMALL, DISCREET FORCE'

A NATO diplomat said Skopje had proposed to Robertson a ``small, discreet force'' of several hundred troops as the security arm of a civilian mission overseeing the return of police and Macedonian refugees to areas held by rebels.

``This idea was very much in accord with what we had wanted, and surprising given the mood music here recently,'' he said.

Robertson was to take the proposal to NATO's policymaking North Atlantic Council and a decision was likely within days, Western diplomats in Skopje told Reuters.

``What's significant is the government has finally agreed in principle that international monitoring will not work without an international security presence,'' one said.

The Macedonian government has not commented publicly on what it proposed to Robertson.

European Union leaders had feared that the departure of NATO's ''Essential Harvest'' disarmament force would leave a security void where violence would easily re-erupt given ethnic antagonism and mistrust still simmering in Macedonia.

Western peace envoys and NATO officials believe the biggest risk to the fragile peace accord is posed by Macedonian security police with a reputation for brutality and unaccountability.

They say the police have ties with radical paramilitaries who, staunchly opposed to Albanian equal rights, harassed Albanians and engaged rebels in almost nightly shootouts.

HARD-LINERS' THREATS

Western envoys were alarmed by threats from Interior Minister Ljube Boskovski to conduct an ``anti-terrorist'' sweep through Albanian districts after disarmament. He has accused rebels of hiding weapons from NATO.

Diplomats said Boskovski, hitherto Skopje's strongest opponent of Western scrutiny in the follow-on phase of the peace accord, was among the cabinet figures who endorsed a foreign security component in Robertson's presence on Friday.

It was not know what prompted the government's about-face. Analysts said EU warnings that an October donors conference for Macedonia might be canceled if it rejected any stabilization force probably moved minds in Skopje.

``The new force is likely to be heavily NATO for the sake of setting it up speedily, as we could get most of the troops from the ranks of those already here collecting weapons,'' another NATO official told Reuters.

``These troops would be low profile -- we want no sovereignty issues raised -- but not just sit in barracks. They would basically be to the rear of the monitors, unobtrusive, but ready to go in if their security is threatened.''

Macedonian wariness about NATO has been colored by perceptions that Western peace brokers ``appeased Albanian expansionism'' and under-estimated the guerrilla arsenal's size.

Under the month-old peace pact, the insurgent National Liberation Army (NLA) has turned in more than two-thirds of rifles, missiles and other weapons, and begun to dissolve.

Parliament has not begun to pass a rebel amnesty or enact 30 constitutional amendments to improve Albanian rights, with just two weeks left before a 45-day deadline set by the treaty.

Robertson said parliament speaker Stojan Andov assured him that the reforms would be ratified ``with only a few days slippage'' past the timetable. But Robertson was not convinced.

``His meetings didn't assuage our concerns about parliamentary procrastination. It could cause a dangerous loss of guerrilla confidence in the process,'' a NATO source said.

-------- cuba

Cuba Rallies Against Terrorism

September 15, 2001
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Attacks-Cuba.html

HAVANA (AP) -- During a weekly rally normally reserved to criticize the United States, the Cuban government condemned terrorism Saturday and expressed its support for the American people following the hijackings.

The rally in Majibacoa, a small town 410 miles east of Havana, bore the theme: ``Our solidarity with the American people during the national tragedy they are living through.''

Defense Minister Raul Castro, President Fidel Castro's brother, presided over the gathering, where speakers condemned Tuesday's attacks on the United States. But speakers also criticized the four-decade U.S. embargo against the island, among other U.S. policies.

The speeches echoed ideas expressed by Fidel Castro on Tuesday, hours after the airborne attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

The Cuban president lamented the ``unbelievable'' acts and called on the United States to stop what he described as ``government-sponsored terrorism,'' which he claimed Cuba had been a victim of for years.

Speaking of the problems of the world, Castro said ``none can be solved with force,'' and cautioned the United States against getting ``caught up in the desire'' for revenge.

The weekly Saturday morning rallies began more than a year ago during the international custody battle over Elian Gonzalez.

The 7-year-old was returned to Cuba last year after a seven-month legal and political battle to keep him with relatives in Miami. He was rescued off the Florida coast in November 1999 after his mother and most of the other passengers traveling illegally from Cuba to the United States died when their boat capsized.

-------- drug war

British Marijuana Cafe Owner Arrested

September 15, 2001
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Britain-Marijuana-Cafe.html

MANCHESTER, England (AP) -- A campaigner for the legalization of marijuana was arrested Saturday after opening Britain's first Dutch-style cafe openly selling the drug.

Colin Davies, a multiple sclerosis sufferer who uses marijuana to ease his symptoms, was involved in a scuffle with police soon after opening the doors of The Dutch Experience in a Manchester suburb 180 miles northwest of London.

As he was put into the back of a police van, one of his supporters shouted, ``He's a healer, not a dealer.''

A spokeswoman for Greater Manchester Police said Davies was arrested for possessing marijuana ``with intent to supply'' it to others.

Davies, founder of the Medical Marijuana Cooperative, which campaigns for the drug to be prescribed for illnesses like multiple sclerosis, made headlines last year when he was photographed handing Queen Elizabeth II a bouquet containing pot plants during a royal visit to the city.

After Davies' arrest Saturday, police searched the cafe and arrested several other people for possessing the drug, which is more commonly called cannabis in Britain.

Kate Bradley, a former policewoman who has smoked marijuana since 1991 to ease the pain of multiple sclerosis, said the police raid was an ``undignified and horrendous experience.''

Bradley, who uses a wheelchair, said for many people marijuana is the only drug that helps with the pain.

``It controls my pain and the spasms I get, and a lot of medical people believe that cannabis should be used to help people like me,'' she said.

In the Netherlands, marijuana is technically illegal, but authorities tolerate its use and it is openly sold in small amounts.

-------- iran

Iran Seals Off Afghanistan Border

September 15, 2001
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Attacks-Iran-Afghanistan.html

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -- Iran has ordered its security forces to seal off the border with Afghanistan to prevent Afghan refugees from entering the country in case of a U.S. retaliation for the terror attacks, the Interior Ministry said Saturday.

In a statement carried by the official Islamic Republic News Agency, the ministry said its military and police forces have been deployed along the 560-mile border to prevent Afghans from crossing over ``in the aftermath of the probable U.S. attacks.''

Iran has condemned Tuesday's attacks in Washington and New York, but did not say if it plans to join an international coalition against terrorism being assembled by the United States.

Afghanistan's ruling Taliban militia is under fire for harboring accused terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden, who is a prime suspect in the airborne strikes on New York and Washington.

Iran has said it cannot accommodate the new arrivals, citing more than 2 million Afghan refugees already in the country.

The Interior Ministry called on authorities in the provinces of Khorassan and Sistan-Baluchestan, which border Afghanistan, to cooperate with relief agencies in providing aid to displaced Afghans close to the Iranian border.

Apart from Iran, Pakistan is home to about 2 million Afghan refugees.

-------- iraq

Saddam urges Americans to learn from Iraq

USA TODAY
09/15/2001
The Associated Press
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2001/09/15/iraq.htm

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Grief-stricken Americans should not wage a "new Crusade" against Muslims, but rather learn from the pain that Iraqis and Palestinians have been suffering at the hands of the United States and Israel, Saddam Hussein said on Saturday. "Just as your beautiful skyscrapers were destroyed and caused your grief, beautiful buildings and precious homes crumbled over their owners in Lebanon, Palestine and Iraq because of American weapons used by the Zionists," Saddam said in an open letter addressed to the American people, citizens of the West and their governments. The Iraqi leader warned of a "new crusade" by the United States and its supporters against "an Islamic country."

He was apparently referring to Afghanistan, ruled by the radical Taliban. The United States accuses the Taliban of harboring the prime suspect in Tuesday's terror attacks, Saudi Arabian exile Osama bin Laden.

"If you rulers (from the United States and the West) respect and cherish the blood of your people, why do you find it easy to shed the blood of others including the blood of Arabs and Muslims?" said Saddam's statement, which was read by a broadcaster on Iraqi television.

It was followed by footage of U.S. warplanes bombing Iraq during the 1991 Gulf War, and Israeli soldiers shooting at Palestinian stone throwers.

"Americans should feel the pain which they have inflicted on other peoples so that when they suffer they will know the best way to treat it (the pain)," Saddam's statement said.

Ten years after the Gulf War, Iraq is still shackled by U.S.-supported U.N. sanctions, which Saddam claims have caused the death of 1.5 million Iraqis.

Saddam questioned those countries that have rushed to condemn the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington, asking if they would respond in the same way if the attacks had been carried out against Arab or Islamic countries by forces from the West.

He said international security could be achieved if the United States "became rational ... and disengages itself from its evil alliance with Zionism," referring to the movement to establish and maintain a Jewish state.

Iraq, like other Arab nations, believes that the United States is biased toward Israel in its conflict against the Palestinians.

In Cairo, Iraqi Trade Minister Mohammed Mehdi Saleh denied any Iraqi involvement in Tuesday's attacks, adding that the "destruction inflicted on Iraq by U.S. and British warplanes far exceeds the destruction in New York and Washington."

U.S. and British planes patrolling no-fly zones in northern and southern Iraq regularly attack Iraqi military and radar installations. Iraq says the strikes often hit civilian facilities.

-------- israel

Israeli Arabs Fear War on Islam
'We Are on the Verge of the Abyss,' Says Physician at Muslim Festival

By Daniel Williams
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, September 15, 2001; Page A08
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A34246-2001Sep14?language=printer

UMM EL-FAHM, Israel, Sept. 14 -- In Washington, the determination to retaliate for Tuesday's attacks on the United States is viewed as a campaign against terrorism. But many residents of Umm el-Fahm read it as a war on Islam.

Umm el-Fahm, an Arab hill town in central Israel with 36,000 residents, offers only a tiny slice of Islamic opinion within the global sea of a billion Muslims. Yet many of the complaints lodged here against the United States, as well as the belief that Islam is under assault, are sentiments that can be heard in countries the United States wants on its side in the anti-terrorism campaign, from Egypt to Jordan to Pakistan.

"The attacks were a reaction to the way the United States has hit the Muslim world in general. Now they want to hit more," said Hamad Jabarin, a prayer leader at an Umm el-Fahm mosque.

"It was a heroic act," a teenager named Ismail Adnan said.

Militant Islamic groups in the Gaza Strip and in Egypt also made statements backing Afghanistan, one of the possible targets of U.S. military action.

The Islamic Resistance Movement, a Palestinian armed group known as Hamas, urged Muslims to come together. "I join the cause for Muslims to be united in order to deter the United States from launching war against Muslims in Afghanistan," said Abdel-Aziz Rantisi, a Hamas leader.

In a Gaza Strip refugee camp, about 1,500 Palestinians, many of them Hamas supporters, marched, burning Israeli flags and carrying a large poster of Osama bin Laden, who has been named as a key suspect in the terror attacks, the Associated Press reported. After the rally, plainclothes Palestinian policemen questioned several journalists and confiscated videotape and film, as well as camera equipment. An AP photographer was warned not to publish pictures of the bin Laden poster.

The Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's biggest fundamentalist group, said the Taliban rulers in Afghanistan are correct to pledge retaliation in case of an American attack. "What else can they say when the United States is threatening to bomb them?" Mamoun Hudaibi, a Brotherhood spokesman, said in a news service dispatch from Cairo.

Here in Umm el-Fahm, where thousands attended a festival to honor efforts to preserve al-Aqsa mosque, negative feelings toward a possible U.S.-led war are accented by the Palestinian independence struggle being waged only a few miles east, in the West Bank, and to the south in the Gaza Strip.

Israeli Arabs, the overwhelming majority of whom are Muslim, are Palestinians who remained in their towns when Israel was created in 1948. Thousands of other Palestinians fled or were driven out, becoming the refugees who populate camps in Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and elsewhere.

Although they are Israeli citizens, the residents of Umm el-Fahm said they resent U.S. support for Israel. In addition to sympathizing with the Palestinian struggle, they said they are fed up with years of second-class status in an officially Jewish state. Last fall, at the beginning of the current Palestinian conflict, Israeli police shot and killed 13 unarmed Israeli Arab protesters, many of them youths supporting Palestinian demands.

But the focus today in Umm el-Fahm was on a global divide. Beneath the green flags that are emblematic of their religion, Muslim spectators and town residents regarded the declarations from Washington as prelude to a titanic struggle.

"We are on the verge of the abyss," said Mustafa Simmi, a physician from the Arab hamlet of Maqreb. "It is unfair to lay the responsibility with Muslims."

Simmi looked at U.S. foreign policy through an Islamic prism, and saw nothing but assaults on the Muslim world: a decade of bombing Iraq, indifference at best to the Palestinians, support for corrupt dictatorships throughout the Middle East.

"The world doesn't know Islam," he said. "Israel puts us up as the enemy. This makes a dangerous situation."

Sheik Raed Salah, the head of Umm el-Fahm's Islamic Movement, was more diplomatic, but the sum of sentiment was the same. "We are against the killing of civilians," he said of the attacks in New York and Washington. "It was a reaction against U.S. policy. In all this, Islam is in danger."

In the past decade, Umm el-Fahm has emerged as a center of Muslim activism in Israel. Its citizens volunteered work and material to refurbish al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem, one of Islam's holiest shrines. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's visit to the esplanade in front of the mosque last September, when he was leader of the Israeli opposition to peace talks, ignited rioting that kicked off the Palestinian uprising.

Today was al-Aqsa Day in Umm el-Fahm. The annual event is dedicated to preservation of the mosque and battling campaigns by Jewish groups to replace it with a temple to replace the Second Temple that was destroyed by the Romans 2,000 years ago.

The tone of the official speeches was conciliatory. But Saladin, the Muslim warrior who expelled the Crusaders from the Holy Land, looked down from a giant poster depicting al-Aqsa.

--------

Israel Raids Palestinian Buildings

September 15, 2001
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Israel-Palestinians.html

JERUSALEM (AP) -- In a spate of violence in the Gaza Strip, Israeli forces fired missiles on Palestinian security buildings, and combined with a pair of shooting incidents, three Palestinians were killed and more than 30 injured Saturday.

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat said the missile strikes were part of an Israeli effort to scuttle truce talks tentatively planned for Sunday in Gaza between him and Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres.

``This escalation is aimed at sabotaging the meeting with Peres,'' Arafat said in Gaza City, not far from the scene of one attack.

Israel's military cited two reasons for the raids: a Palestinian attack Friday that wounded two Israeli border policemen and Israel's belief that the security buildings were being used to train and arm militants.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has been reluctant to sanction truce talks at present, saying Arafat must first crack down on Palestinian militants.

As of Saturday night, it was not clear whether the meeting would take place Sunday.

The United States wants truce talks to calm tensions in the Middle East, and President Bush called Sharon on Friday to press the point.

Further Mideast fighting could hamper U.S. efforts to bring Arab states into the anti-terrorism coalition the Americans seek to build following the attacks in the United States.

The Israeli missile attacks on three separate security targets in Gaza damaged buildings and sent panicked people running into the streets and black plumes of smoke into the sky. Twelve Palestinians were hurt, including five policemen, the Palestinians said.

Israeli helicopters fired missiles into a Palestinian security compound in Gaza City, and also hit a security position in the Nusseirat refugee camp just outside the city, witnesses said.

In the third strike, Israeli forces fired ground-to-ground missiles that slammed into a police station in Rafah, a town at the southern end of Gaza on the border with Egypt.

The southern Gaza town of Khan Younis was scene of two separate shooting incidents.

Before dawn, two Palestinians were killed in a clash between Israeli tanks and Palestinian gunmen, the Palestinian Health Ministry said.

In a second incident, a 14-year-old Palestinian boy was killed and 19 Palestinians wounded by Israeli machine gunfire, Palestinian witnesses and doctors said. The Israeli army said it had no immediate information.

Palestinians have suffered the vast majority of the casualties in the Mideast fighting over the past year. Arab states are upset with U.S. policy in the region, believing the Americans should take a tougher line with Israel in the current Mideast conflict.

If the fighting continues unabated, Arab states may be less inclined to cooperate with the United States and its proposed anti-terrorism coalition.

Israel, meanwhile, believes it will now receive greater international understanding for its hard-hitting responses to bombings and shooting attacks against Israeli civilians.

Gen. Shaul Mofaz, chief of staff of the Israeli military, said he believed there would be ``a new world order in the struggle against terrorism.''

``As far as I can tell there will be an international linking of arms, led by the United States, in the war against terrorism wherever it is to be found,'' he told Israel radio.

However, if Israel seems reluctant to hold truce talks with the Palestinians, that could cause friction between the United States and Israel.

Sharon has compared Arafat to Osama bin Laden, the exiled Saudi who is the prime suspect in the terror attacks in the United States. ``Arafat has not stopped being a bin Laden,'' Sharon spokesman Raanan Gissin said Friday.

The Palestinians say Israel is stepping up military actions at a time when international attention is focused on the terror attacks in United States.

In another development, Abdullah Shami, a leader of the militant Islamic Jihad movement, told Israel television that his group was ``very happy about the incident in the United States, even though we are not responsible.''

Islamic Jihad has carried out numerous suicide bombings in Israel.

However, when Shami was contacted by The Associated Press, he sounded a different note.

``Although we reject the American foreign policy ... we are not glad to see innocent people suffering because we are living through the same problems,'' he said in a telephone interview.

-------- nato

U.S. allies torn over level of participation

September 15, 2001
By Nicholas Kralev
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
http://www.washtimes.com/world/20010915-53737088.htm

As Western allies yesterday joined the United States in mourning the victims of this week's attacks in New York and Washington, leaders from Europe to Canada to Australia struggled to determine if and how they would participate in America's "war" against terrorism.

The Bush administration mounted a large diplomatic campaign yesterday to make sure allied governments would accept Washington's requests for assistance as soon as the perpetrators of Tuesday's terrorist strikes are clearly identified and a retaliation strategy is outlined.

Secretary of State Colin L. Powell vowed to use "all the tools and weapons at our disposal to fight this campaign and to win this war." But he said the administration will take into account the allies' individual capabilities and domestic political environment when it asks for specific support.

"We are talking with countries that are friendly to us, and we will present requests to them and see what they are able to do within their capacity and within their political circumstances," Mr. Powell told a State Department news briefing.

Because the enemy in what President Bush has called "the first war of the 21st century" is very different and operating in the shadows, Mr. Powell said the United States has to "design a campaign plan that goes after" such an enemy and that "isn't always blunt-force military."

In most allied capitals yesterday, debate over participation in a U.S.-led military operation intensified and different views began to emerge.

Britain, Canada, Norway and Australia appeared ready to commit troops and other military aid, while France and Germany were much more cautious about making promises and warned Washington against hurried decisions.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair called for a determined, global campaign against those responsible for the "hideous and foul" suicide attacks, which are believed to have taken at least 100 British lives.

"Once that judgment is made, the appropriate action can be taken," Mr. Blair told the House of Commons in London. He said the action "will be determined, it will take time, it will continue over time until the menace is properly dealt with and its machinery of terror destroyed."

Canada pledged yesterday to meet any U.S. request for troops and equipment to join military action against terrorism.

Norway, another NATO member, also gave its full support for U.S. military action and said it would provide military assistance if asked.

"We are of course prepared to provide the United States with all possible support," Norwegian Defense Minister Bjoern Tore Godal said in a statement. "If we receive a request for further support, including military support, we will of course respond positively, and in accordance with the obligations of Article 5 of the NATO treaty."

In an unprecedented move Wednesday, NATO declared readiness to apply for the first time in its history Article 5 of the 1949 North Atlantic Treaty, which holds that an attack against any member "will be considered as directed against all the parties."

Australia yesterday also backed U.S. military action, invoking the 1951 ANZUS treaty, which binds Australia, New Zealand and the United States to assist each other if one is attacked.

But France and Germany were reluctant to offer outright support and called on Washington to weigh its options carefully before making a decision.

In Paris, French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin said his country will decide alone how it would help in the retaliation for the devastating attacks.

"Our humane, political and functional solidarity doesn't deprive us of our sovereignty and freedom to make up our own minds," Mr. Jospin said during a memorial service for the victims of terrorist acts.

"In France, we must remain very attentive to the safety of our citizens."

German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer said the West's war against terrorism should not be at the expense of civil liberties, particularly those of Muslim citizens.

"This was also an attack on the open society," Mr. Fischer said in a CNN interview. "What we must find is the balance between an efficient fight against terrorism and defending civil liberty, defending our open society."

Russia signaled yesterday that it was willing to back U.S. strikes on suspected terrorist bases in Afghanistan, but it would not take part in a military campaign.

Afghanistan's ruling Taliban is providing a haven for Saudi multimillionaire Osama bin Laden, who has been identified as a leading suspect in the attacks.

Gen. Anatoly Kvashnin, head of the Russian General Staff, said it was unlikely that Moscow would participate in "acts of revenge."

"The United States has powerful enough military forces that it can cope with this task on its own," Gen. Kvashnin was quoted by wire reports as saying.

-------- pakistan

Pakistan Walks Fine Line In Cooperation With U.S.

By Pamela Constable
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, September 15, 2001; Page A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A34020-2001Sep14?language=printer

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Sept. 14 -- Every Friday at 1 p.m., hundreds of Muslim men and boys in white cotton clothing and skullcaps hurry to the Red Mosque to pray and hear their imam, or mosque leader, deliver his weekly message.

Today, the message was about the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, and it was unforgiving.

"This is the wrath of Allah," said the imam, his voice ringing out over a loudspeaker across the silent stone patios. "You Americans commit oppression everywhere, in Kashmir, in Palestine, and you do not see the blood spilled." No Arab country had the means to launch such attacks, the voice declared. "But when Allah catches hold of you, there is no escape."

Afterward, worshipers spilling out of the mosque seemed confused, anxious and angry. Many said they were sorry so many Americans had been killed and felt the attacks were wrong. Yet they also expressed bitter resentment against the United States and said it would be equally wrong to retaliate against Afghanistan, home to Osama bin Laden, the purported terrorist U.S. officials call the prime suspect in Tuesday's suicide hijackings.

"If America attacks Afghanistan, I myself will kill George Bush," vowed Zikria Agha, 18, his eyes and voice cold with conviction. "The Muslims of the world are united. We are the real superpower. If America attacks, it will be the beginning of World War Three."

While not shared by all Pakistanis, the intense, defiant emotions stirred here in the wake of the terrorist attacks half a world away partly explain why the government of Pakistan now finds itself in a dilemma as U.S. officials press its leaders to cooperate in a manhunt for bin Laden and possible military strikes against Afghanistan.

For years, Pakistan has been a society with a split personality. The majority of its 140 million people are poor, devout Muslims with little hope of bettering their lives and little faith in their political rulers. Instead, they have increasingly turned to Islam, and to an identification with suffering Muslims in other countries, whom they view as victimized by Israel and the West.

On the other side is a minority of more educated, religiously moderate Pakistanis who see their country's future as dependent on improved economic and political ties with Western powers. They fear that if Pakistan is tarred with the Islamic extremist label, it will risk economic collapse, international isolation and a bleak future.

Until now, the clash between these two Pakistans has been mostly rhetorical. The government of President Pervez Musharraf, an army general who seized power in October 1999, has tried to placate influential Islamic groups at home while seeking credibility among Western governments and lending institutions abroad.

But the terrorist attacks in the United States, and the enormous pressure now being brought to bear on Musharraf to cooperate with U.S. intelligence gathering and possible military actions, have crystallized these contradictions in the starkest possible terms, and they may well force him to choose between risking domestic upheaval and international isolation.

"This is a defining moment for Pakistan and a critical choice for Musharraf," said Rifaat Hussain, a professor of strategic and defense studies at Quaid-I-Azam University here in Pakistan's capital. "Do we swim with the current of world opinion against terrorism, or do we condemn ourselves to being on the wrong side of history? There is really no choice, but it will be a very difficult one for Musharraf to handle."

The government's dilemma is not a simple confrontation between religious sentiment and pragmatic politics. It is also deeply intertwined with Pakistan's troubled history of shifting international alliances, failed democratic governance, ambivalent relations with Afghanistan and nuclear rivalry with India -- a much larger, Hindu-dominated country from which Muslim Pakistan was split off in 1947.

During the 1980s, Pakistan was squarely aligned with the United States against the Soviet Union, which occupied Afghanistan for a decade. Pakistan's military ruler at the time, Gen. Mohammed Zia ul-Haq, was a ruthless dictator and an ardent supporter of Islamic militancy, but also a clever Cold War strategist who worked closely with Washington to assist and arm the Afghan resistance movement.

From 1979 to 1989, the United States spent $3 billion arming and equipping the Islamic guerrillas who eventually drove the Soviet army from Afghanistan. They fought mostly in the high mountains and isolated valleys that characterize the Afghan landscape, but their support base was in Pakistan, where the CIA funneled weapons and supplies through Pakistan's security services.

Once the Soviets withdrew in 1989, however, the scenario changed abruptly. The U.S. money and involvement evaporated, leaving Afghanistan to slip into violent civil conflict and Pakistan to cope with the growing influence of militant Islamic movements that had been nurtured with U.S. dollars.

Out of this volatile situation emerged the Taliban, the Islamic militia that now controls 95 percent of Afghanistan and harbors bin Laden as a Muslim "guest."

The Taliban, which has imposed a harsh system of governance and justice based on its own interpretation of Islamic laws, has been condemned by the West and sanctioned by the U.N. Security Council for sheltering bin Laden and violating human rights. Only Pakistan and two other countries recognize the regime as a government.

"In an ironic reversal of roles, it is this militancy, born in the crucible of the Cold War and baptized in Afghanistan by the U.S. itself, which the U.S. now proclaims as its principal enemy," columnist Ayaz Amir noted in the Dawn newspaper today. "Osama is not the cause but the consequence" of American arrogance and bias, he wrote, suggesting that Washington needs to reflect on the "fury of despair" that motivates Muslim terrorists to commit extreme acts. "Thus do demons come to haunt their own creators."

Many Pakistanis have little love for the Taliban or bin Laden, viewing both as a threat to Pakistan's stability at home and credibility abroad. Yet even middle-class professionals, while expressing deep concern for the loss of life in Washington and New York, said they understand why some Pakistanis and other Muslims would find grim satisfaction in the assaults on American symbols of power.

"People here do not favor what happened, but there is so much poverty here and in Afghanistan, and any American attack on Osama would hurt so many innocent people too," said a communications company manager named Ardeshir. "Instead of going after one man, the U.S. should try to find out the root causes."

In some conservative mosques and Islamic schools, the Taliban is viewed as a movement of admirable, "pure" Muslims, and bin Laden as a symbol of heroic defiance against the West. In fact, many Taliban members were raised in the refugee camps and Islamic schools, known as madrassas, of Pakistan's northwest frontier province, a rugged region bordering Afghanistan, where much of the population is of Afghan origin and where Muslim traditions are deeply conservative.

Since the end of the Afghan war, many Pakistani Islamic groups that provided fighters against the Soviets have maintained strong ideological ties to the Taliban, but have turned their religious and military attention to a different so-called holy war -- the armed Muslim insurgency in Kashmir.

The insurgency erupted in 1989 in the Indian portion of Kashmir, the disputed Himalayan border region divided between India and Pakistan and claimed by both. It has been publicly championed and covertly aided ever since by Pakistan, which views Kashmir as the vulnerable Achilles' heel of its arch-rival.

For years the Kashmir conflict gained little international attention, in part because both India and Pakistan were under civilian control and there seemed little risk of full-fledged war. But in 1998, India and Pakistan both tested nuclear weapons, sharply raising the stakes. Then in 1999, Pakistan-backed fighters invaded India's Kargil mountains and Pakistan's unpopular prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, was overthrown by the army, raising further international alarm.

Since taking power, Musharraf has tried to establish his regime as friendly to Western governments and investors, whose favor is crucial to reviving Pakistan's ailing economy. Yet he has persisted in twin foreign policies that are popular among many Pakistani Muslims but widely condemned abroad: overt support for the Taliban in Afghanistan and covert support for the Kashmir guerrillas.

Although Musharraf is widely viewed as a moderate Muslim and well-intentioned leader, he has largely been held hostage by the influence of conservative Islamic groups in Pakistan, who have access to weapons, command passionate support from a vocal minority of Muslims, provide crucial support for the Kashmir conflict and have close ties to some segments of the military.

In the aftermath of this week's attacks on the United States, Musharraf has condemned terrorism and said he will cooperate with U.S. authorities, while Pakistani officials have continued to insist that they prefer to "engage" with the Taliban and have little influence over their actions in any case. But day by day, as the American case for targeting bin Laden gains momentum and world support, Pakistan's contradictory policy becomes increasingly untenable.

"If Musharraf handles this right, he has an opportunity to turn a perilous situation into a grand opportunity. The question is how much he can concede to the Americans before he feels the domestic heat," said Najam Sethi, publisher of the Friday Times, an influential weekly newspaper here.

"The public mood is very anti-American right now, but people will probably not be too upset if Pakistan ditches Afghanistan. The army is pragmatic, and they know Pakistan faces economic ruin if it does not stand with the United States on this," Sethi said. "But if the Americans want to go after the larger umbrella of Pakistani groups that are linked to Kashmir, it will create enormous problems."

Musharraf reportedly has met with Islamic leaders here this week and told them not to make provocative statements or threats on the Afghan situation. But if Musharraf does agree to collaborate with a U.S. attack on Afghanistan, today's message from the Red Mosque suggests he could face more than wrathful rhetoric from the disaffected, desperate and devout Muslims of Pakistan.

"America is against Osama because he is a true Muslim and a defender of Islam, not like our Pakistani leaders who are so-called Muslims," said Mohammed Rafiq, 50, shaking with rage as he stood in a crowd outside the mosque. "The Americans bombed Hiroshima, and they can do it to Afghanistan now, but history will never forgive them."

--------

THE PAKISTANIS
A Pledge of Support in a U.S. War Against Terrorists

New York Times
September 15, 2001
By CHRISTOPHER S. WREN
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/09/15/international/15CND-PAK.html

Pakistan has promised to "cooperate fully" with the United States in its effort to forge an international coalition against the terrorists behind the attacks this week on New York and Washington.

The pledge of cooperation, first made by the country's military ruler, Gen. Pervez Musharraf earlier this week, was reportedly reiterated today following an extraordinary high-level meeting of the Pakistani cabinet and National Security Council in the the capital, Islamabad.

But Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar qualified this at a news conference today, saying that "Pakistan does not expect to take part in military operations outside our borders." Pakistan has contributed troops to numerous United Nations peacekeeping operations.

Mr. Sattar said that his country would comply with all resolutions adopted by the United Nations Security Council to fight terrorism. The Security Council previously imposed sanctions against Afghanistan over its refusal to surrender Osama bin Laden, whom the United States identified this week as the "prime suspect" in the latest attacks.

Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, who was attending a national security meeting this weekend called by President Bush at the presidential retreat in Camp David, Md., moved promptly today to "thank the president and people of Pakistan for the support that they have offered and their willingness to assist us."

Mr. Powell told reporters that the Pakistanis had promised to help in "whatever might be required" to isolate and punish the Taliban. The United States has accused the Taliban of giving refuge to Mr. bin Laden, the renegade Saudi financier who has also been accused of complicity in the bombings of United States embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, among other terrorist acts.

There is no reliable information about Mr. bin Laden's whereabouts, but American officials believe he remains somewhere in Afghanistan.

The United States would like Pakistan to close its borders with Afghanistan and let American aircraft overfly Pakistani territory, presumably for strikes on the Taliban.

The secretary of state said that Pakistan had agreed to all of Washington's requests.

"The Pakistani government was very forthcoming and we're appreciative," Mr. Powell said.

The Taliban has refused to surrender Mr. bin Laden, describing him as a "guest," or to close down terrorist training bases reported to be inside Afghanistan. It recently threatened to retaliate against any country that joins in an attack by the United States.

Today, the Taliban warned its neighbors, including Pakistan, that they would face "extraordinary danger," if they helped the United States.

"If a neighboring country or the regional countries - particularly Islamic countries - give a positive response to American demands for military bases, it would spark off extraordinary danger," the Taliban's ambassador to Pakistan, Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef said at a news conference in Islamabad.

He said it was "not impossible" that Taliban fighters would cross borders to attack any neighbor that failed to heed the warning.

Such cooperation with the United States would amount to a significant shift in Pakistani foreign policy. Pakistan is one of only three countries to recognize the Taliban as the government of Afghanistan (the other two are Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.)

Pakistan, a staunchly Muslim country, has its own volatile Muslim militants to contend with and some Pakistanis nourish family and tribal links to Afghans across the rugged border.

Landlocked Afghanistan also depends on Pakistan for trade and commerce, including critical deliveries of food following the country's inability to feed itself because of drought, civil war and government mismanagement.

In Baghdad, the Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, another target of the United States since his invasion of Kuwait in 1990, urged Washington and its Western allies to avoid taking military action.

"American needs wisdom, not force," the Iraqi leader said in an open letter circulated by the official Iraqi News Agency and Iraqi radio and television.

"Will the rulers of America try wisdom just for once so that their people can live in security and stability?" President Hussein said.

-------- russia

Russia Rejects Joint Military Action With United States

By Susan B. Glasser
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, September 15, 2001; Page A06
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A34449-2001Sep14?language=printer

MOSCOW, Sept. 14 -- Russia today rejected participation in any U.S.-led retaliatory strike against terrorists and said the United States should not use countries in Central Asia as a staging ground for an assault against neighboring Afghanistan.

Although Russia has officially pledged cooperation in fighting what President Vladimir Putin called a "common enemy," today's statements by top Russian military officials could have the effect of restricting U.S. options as President Bush considers whether and how to proceed against those responsible for Tuesday's attacks in New York and Washington. Tajikistan and several other countries in former Soviet Central Asia are among the few obvious launching pads for an attack against the Afghanistan-based organization of leading terrorism suspect Osama bin Laden.

Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov told reporters during a summit in Armenia that the United States and its allies should not rely on Central Asia to stage any assault. "I see absolutely no basis for even hypothetical suppositions about the possibility of NATO military operations on the territory of Central Asian nations," Ivanov said.

At the same time, Russian military leaders made clear Russia likely will not take part "in the retaliatory acts" planned by the United States, said Gen. Anatoly Kvashnin, head of the Russian general staff. According to the Interfax news agency, Kvashnin said, "The U.S. armed forces are powerful enough to deal with this task alone."

A day earlier, Ivanov also expressed skepticism about an active role in the U.S. response, telling reporters, "Russia is not planning any kind of military actions or strikes."

But today's statements do not rule out far more extensive cooperation between Russia and the United States than in the past. Both Western and Russian sources here said that high-level bilateral talks are continuing with the aim of "constructive" cooperation that could go well beyond sharing intelligence information. U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage is to arrive in Moscow next week for meetings on joint anti-terrorist operations.

And Russia's allies in Tajikistan today did not reject the possibility that the United States could use its airspace as part of an operation against bin Laden. In a news conference today in the Kazakh city of Almaty, Tajik Prime Minister Akil Akilov said only that he will "definitely" consult with Russia before agreeing to such a step, according to Interfax.

Still, it was clear today that Russia fears U.S. strikes against bin Laden could set off a new wave of violence in the already volatile region on its southern border, where authoritarian-minded leaders in several former Soviet states are already clashing with Islamic militants at least loosely allied with the extremist Taliban leadership of Afghanistan that has given refuge to bin Laden. Inside Russia, too, there are painful memories of the Soviet Union's decade-long war in Afghanistan that ended in retreat in 1989, a national trauma comparable to the American experience in Vietnam.

But perhaps the greatest deterrent for Russians is the war they are already fighting inside their own borders against Muslim rebels in Chechnya, a bloody and inconclusive conflict that has sapped the country's military resources and made it fear terrorism at home. In recent days, Putin and Ivanov have both claimed that bin Laden has given aid to the Chechen rebels.

"Chechnya alone is enough for us," said Novgorod Gov. Mikhail Prusak. "Russia's participation [in U.S. strikes] could lead to more Islamic radicalism inside the country."

Russia's reluctance "is because we understand from our own experience in Chechnya that military operations do not always result in ending terrorist attacks," said Dmitri Rogozin, chairman of the international affairs committee in the Russian parliament.

In an interview, however, Rogozin said he believed that Putin and Bush had already agreed to substantial cooperation between their intelligence operations and special anti-terrorist forces.

And he said that "what happened in New York and Washington this week ended once and for all the Cold War. Just as 60 years ago, Russia and the U.S. have a common enemy again. Now we have the moral and ethical and political conditions for a fundamental rapprochement between the United States and Russia."

Indeed, since the attacks against the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, a wave of pro-American sentiment has appeared here that stands in stark contrast to recent tensions between Washington and Moscow on issues including missile defense and NATO expansion.

Putin was one of the first world leaders to offer his condolences to Bush on Tuesday; Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said that "Russia stands ready to help in any way." By Thursday, Russia had taken the rare step of issuing a joint statement with NATO calling on "the entire international community to unite in the struggle against terrorism."

-------- u.n.

Pakistan: Will Comply with U.N. on Terror Attacks

September 15, 2001
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-attack-pakistan-assistance.html

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan on Saturday said it would comply with all U.N. Security Council resolutions to combat terrorism following the devastating attacks on New York and Washington.

``Consistent with Pakistan's policy of support for the decisions of the (U.N.) Security Council, the government will discharge its responsibilities under international law,'' Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar told a news conference.

Earlier this week Pakistan President Perves Musharraf volunteered ``full cooperation'' to Washington, but had not formally responded to specific U.S. requests to seal its border with Afghanistan, cut off fuel supplies, allow use of its airspace or share intelligence gathering.

On Saturday the Taliban warned Pakistan against cooperating with the U.S., threatening any neighbor with ``extraordinary danger'' if they helped Washington.

The U.S. has threatened retribution against those responsible for the attacks and those who harbor them. Osama bin Laden, ``a prime suspect'' in the attacks, lives in Afghanistan as a guest of the Taliban.

-------- u.s.

Text of Joint Resolution

Associated Press
Saturday, September 15, 2001; Page A04
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A34483-2001Sep14?language=printer

Following is the joint resolution authorizing the use of force against terrorists, adopted yesterday by the Senate and the House of Representatives:

To authorize the use of United States armed forces against those responsible for the recent attacks launched against the United States.

Whereas, on Sept. 11, 2001, acts of despicable violence were committed against the United States and its citizens; and

Whereas, such acts render it both necessary and appropriate that the United States exercise its rights to self-defense and to protect United States citizens both at home and abroad, and

Whereas, in light of the threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States posed by these grave acts of violence, and

Whereas, such acts continue to pose an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States,

Whereas the president has authority under the Constitution to take action to deter and prevent acts of international terrorism against the United States.

Resolved by the Senate and the House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

Section 1. Short Title

This joint resolution may be cited as the "Authorization for Use of Military Force"

Section 2. Authorization for Use of United States Armed Forces

(a) That the president is authorized to use all necessary and appropriate force against those nations, organizations, or persons he determines planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on Sept. 11, 2001, or harbored such organizations or persons, in order to prevent any future acts of international terrorism against the United States by such nations, organizations or persons.

(b) War Powers Resolution Requirements

(1) Specific Statutory Authorization -- Consistent with section 8(a)(1) of the War Powers Resolution, the Congress declares that this section is intended to constitute specific statutory authorization within the meaning of section 5(b) of the War Powers Resolution.

(2) Applicability of Other Requirements -- Nothing in this resolution supersedes any requirement of the War Powers Resolution.

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Military Alerted Before Attacks
Jets Didn't Have Time to Intercept Hijackers, Officers Say

By Bradley Graham
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, September 15, 2001; Page A18
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A34447-2001Sep14?language=printer

U.S. military authorities received notification that commercial airliners had been hijacked minutes before the planes crashed into the World Trade Center towers and the Pentagon on Tuesday, but in each case, the notification came too late for interceptor aircraft to get into position over New York and Washington in time to make a difference, defense officials said yesterday.

Questions about the time it took U.S. military planes to respond to the threat of several hijacked aircraft speeding toward the nation's financial and military centers have dogged the Pentagon since the attacks. Gen. Richard B. Myers, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was pressed by a Senate panel about the reaction times of military interceptors during a hearing Thursday on his nomination to become chairman. And the matter has stood as emblematic of the U.S. government's overall lack of preparedness for the terrorist assault.

Top Pentagon officials have been slow to respond to press inquiries for a time line that would establish the exact times that civil aviation authorities became aware of the hijackings, when U.S. military commanders were notified and when U.S. fighter jets took to the air. At least part of the Pentagon's reluctance to disclose the information has been explained by a spokesman for Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld as resistance to discussing any operational information.

But three senior officers with access to information about the response times filled in details yesterday, saying they showed that military planes never stood a chance of blocking the attacks.

At the time of the terrorist strikes, the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), which has charge of defending the United States against air attack, kept fighter jets on alert at only seven bases around the country. The planes and their pilots were primed to be in the air within 15 minutes of an order to scramble.

NORAD received word at 8:38 a.m. that a United Airlines flight had been hijacked, and six minutes later, two F-15 fighter jets were ordered into the air from Otis Air Force Base on Cape Cod. But two minutes later, the United plane crashed into the first New York tower.

The military jets were airborne at 8:52. When a second United plane hit the other tower at 9:02, they were still 70 miles away from Manhattan, officials said.

Military authorities learned that still another hijacked plane might be headed toward Washington several minutes after the second attack in New York. Two F-16 fighter jets took off from Langley Air Force Base in Virginia at 9:35, but the American Airlines plane that roared into the Pentagon struck two minutes later.

Even if any of the fighter jets had gotten over New York or Washington ahead of the hijacked planes, several senior Air Force officers voiced doubts that the military pilots would have had time to run through standing procedures before shooting down the commercial airliners.

While military air defense crews had practiced intercepts of hijacked planes, the exercises had tended to assume the aircraft would be outside U.S. borders, over the Atlantic or Pacific, with time to consult the White House before any drastic action was taken.

The F-16s were in position over Washington in time to have intercepted the fourth plane hijacked, the one that crashed in a Pennsylvania forest. Asked if rules of engagement would have allowed the Air Force to shoot the plane down, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz said yesterday: "I think it was pretty clear at that point that that airliner was not under the pilot's control and that it was heading to do major damage." He said any military intervention would have ultimately been the decision of President Bush.

"We were already tracking that plane that crashed in Pennsylvania," Wolfowitz said in an interview with public television's "Newshour with Jim Lehrer."

"I think it was the heroism of the passengers on board that brought it down but the Air Force was in a position to do so if we had to," Wolfowitz added.

Accounts from telephone calls to relatives from passengers aboard the plane, which had taken off from Newark, N.J., and was bound for San Francisco, indicated they tried to take back control from the hijackers before the plane crashed.

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District, Nation Move to High Alert
D.C. Region, Nation Move To High Alert

By Neely Tucker and Vernon Loeb
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, September 15, 2001; Page A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A34162-2001Sep14?language=printer

The United States moved the defense of the homeland yesterday to a level not seen since the raid on Pearl Harbor, reflecting the deep civil and military concern that the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were but the opening salvos in a war unlike any the nation has ever faced.

Coast Guard cutters patrolled ports and waterways at unprecedented levels from New York harbor to San Diego. F-15 Eagles and F-16 Fighting Falcons continued to fly combat patrols over Washington, New York and other major cities, supported by AWACS airborne surveillance and tanker aircraft, according to a spokesman for the North American Aerospace Defense Command in Colorado.

President Bush signed an order authorizing Pentagon officials to call up 35,000 reserves, most of whom will be used to keep military jets on alert at bases across the country, check ships in ports, assist in intelligence-gathering activities and perform other missions that defense officials said either had not yet been determined -- or could not be disclosed.

"They are not convinced it is over," Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.), a ranking member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, said after briefings from the CIA and the FBI.

In Washington, helicopters have intermittently circled the White House and the U.S. Capitol, sometimes seen and sometimes lost in cloud cover, the thump-thump of their blades beating the air. Reagan National Airport is closed. The country's most hallowed symbols along the Mall and the Tidal Basin -- the Washington Monument and the Lincoln, Jefferson and FDR memorials -- are shut down.

The city's key waterways, the Potomac and Anacostia rivers, have been closed to all traffic by order of the Coast Guard. Boats are barred on the Potomac from the Woodrow Wilson Bridge to the Key Bridge, about seven nautical miles. The Anacostia River is closed from the Route 50 bridge downriver to where it meets the Potomac.

From New York to San Diego, city ports are closed to all but essential cargo vessels, which maritime officials board and guide into the harbor. Baggage is being inspected before it is loaded onto ships. In Pascagoula, Miss., Coast Guard vessels guard two Navy ships -- the USS Gates and the USS Cole -- under repair in local shipyards.

The defensive measures were by no means limited to federal and military agencies. Maryland Gov. Parris N. Glendening (D) said yesterday that an eight-member, Cabinet-level team will immediately scrutinize the state's civil defense measures.

"This new level of terrorism demands that we review all state emergency plans and ensure they are updated, coordinated and effective," Glendening said in a statement.

In Washington, the White House security perimeter, which had been expanded on Thursday far beyond the gates of the presidential mansion, was contracted last night to its pre-Tuesday dimensions. Also last night, District officials withdrew National Guard troops from postings at downtown intersections.

However, security threats, whether real or perceived, continue to come hard and fast.

A man armed with a pistol in Washington yesterday tried to drive his black Audi onto the lawn of the Embassy of Saudi Arabia about 8 a.m. He was detained by security personnel at the diplomatic compound and then by the Secret Service. Agency spokesman Marc Connolly said officers responded in less than 60 seconds. A bomb squad examined the car and determined that it did not pose a threat, but streets around the Northwest Washington embassy have been closed while the incident is investigated.

The man is in custody and was not publicly identified yesterday.

"The people that were here were told to stay inside, and no one else was allowed into the building," said Ahmed Hassan, an adviser at the embassy. "We're not surprised, given what happened."

Besides the evacuation of the White House complex and the Capitol on Thursday, authorities said yesterday that the Ronald Reagan International Trade Center was emptied twice and that the D.C. government's headquarters at One Judiciary Square was half-abandoned by employees after the rumor of a bomb threat.

During much of the day yesterday, at 17th and I streets, the northern perimeter of the security zone around the White House, military police in green camouflage stood sentry on corners, and yellow police tape blocked access. D.C. police officers asked those who work inside the perimeter to show their identification before they could enter on foot.

Workers from the federal and private sector stood soberly in line in a cold, driving rain, ID cards in hand, and contemplated how life had changed.

"It's absolutely intimidating," said Therese S. Leung, a Dupont Circle resident who works at the New Executive Office Building. "It's recognition that we're not safe."

A block north on K Street, shops and the McCormick & Schmick's restaurant were evacuated because of a bomb threat. The building's occupants filled the sidewalks and nearby Farragut Square.

Within the cordoned-off zone that existed until 8 p.m. workers seemed to have little idea of what was happening from moment to moment. When large numbers of workers poured out of one building after hearing a rumor or a report of a bomb scare, employees across the street would also leave their offices, meeting on the sidewalk to share information.

"Ordinarily, you would complain about all the security and rumors and people coming out of their offices and nobody really knowing what's going on," said Dawn Spriggs, manager of Bethesda Engraving Ltd., minding an empty shop yesterday. "But this is a new day. If they want to check my ID 15 times, it's fine with me."

The confusion hasn't been limited to store employees.

In Washington's tangled federal and city government relationship, city officials often seem left out of the security loop. D.C. City Administrator John A. Koskinen said his office learned of the closure of the streets around the White House earlier in the week by looking out the window and seeing lines of traffic backing up on major streets.

"Those are decisions that have been made solely by the Secret Service," Koskinen said. "We did not get advance notice, which created more gridlock downtown than anyone would have wanted. But this is a unique situation. It's not that anybody meant to overlook us."

One federal law enforcement official said the street closures and other emergency actions are meant to give authorities time to investigate bomb and other possible threats and prevent problems. He said that he wasn't aware of a credible "general threat" against Washington but that some agencies are receiving information about potential problems and taking action.

"I don't think it's an exercise," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "It takes time to evaluate things. I think that any agency that has a protective responsibility leaves nothing to chance. That's the prudent thing to do."

In explaining why the District was removing its Guard members from the streets, D.C. Deputy Mayor Margret Nedelkoff Kellems said last night that the move was not based on any federal recommendation but that city officials were "trying our best to return to as much of normal life as we can."

She also said police would go back to regular shifts today.

Mayor Anthony A. Williams (D) shifted the District from a state of emergency to a heightened state of alert at midnight last night. Although the mayor reduced the scope of special powers invoked Tuesday, he said in a statement last night that there remained "a significant concern that terrorist groups or individuals may engage in violence in the District."

Meanwhile, the speed at which intelligence and military maneuvers are moving into civilian territory has many civil libertarians almost stunned into silence. Johnny Barnes, director of the Washington branch of the American Civil Liberties Union, declined to comment on the Secret Service maneuvers in federal parts of the city, deferring to a national statement that was mainly focused on protecting the rights of Arab Americans.

Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, co-founder of the Partnership for Civil Justice, a D.C.-based civil liberties law firm, was understanding -- but concerned about the days ahead.

"We strongly urge the Bush administration to take action within the Constitution and the Bill of Rights," she said. "In the coming weeks, the traditional public spaces near the executive branch of government, the Ellipse and Lafayette Park, should remain available to the people of the United States to participate in the democratic process about the nation's options in response to this crisis."

Any eventual U.S. military action aimed at retaliating against those responsible for Tuesday's attacks would probably require the call-up of substantially more reserve forces, officials said yesterday. The last time a mobilization of reserves was ordered was in January 1991, when 265,322 National Guard and reserve troops were activated to fight in the Desert Storm campaign that ousted Iraqi forces from Kuwait.

Under the call-up authority, the Pentagon can keep the reservists on duty for up to two years.

Among other units that might be called, defense officials yesterday listed intelligence support, military police, medical teams, logistics specialists, engineers, search-and-rescue squads and civil affairs units.

The military services have identified requirements for 35,500 reservists, but Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld sought approval to activate up to 50,000. Under the order President Bush signed, the Pentagon can call as many as 1 million reservists. But Craig W. Duehring, principal deputy assistant secretary of defense for reserve affairs, told reporters yesterday that Rumsfeld had a "handshake agreement" with Bush to "coordinate" any possible future need to exceed 50,000.

The region's military bases remained on high alert, a status that apparently will continue well into next week.

At the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, access remained restricted to military personnel with photo identification, and all but one gate was closed.

Intercollegiate and club sports as well as all extracurricular activities through tomorrow were canceled. Academy officials said sponsors who had planned to visit with midshipmen today would have to pick them up at Navy-Marine Corps Stadium and return them there at the end of the evening.

Andrews Air Force Base is also on Condition Charlie -- one step below Delta, the highest. Only "mission essential personnel" were allowed on base yesterday, and a recording on the base's telephone system reminded callers to "be alert for unidentified vehicles, abandoned packages, suitcases and any unusual activities. Make sure all buildings and all areas remain secure at all times . . . close windows, blinds and curtains."

At Aberdeen Proving Ground, the largest Army facility in Maryland, the base was operating under Condition Charlie rules, the third of four levels of security alert.

For the more than 20,000 employees, contractors and residents, the security measures caused traffic backups on roads leading into the base as guards inspected vehicles and closely checked military ID cards.

"If you don't have the ID," said Aberdeen spokesman George Mercer, "then don't get in line, because we're not going to let you in."

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Congress Approves Use of Force;
Military Patrols Cities and Ports Bush Rallies Nation, Tours Disaster Area

By David Von Drehle
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, September 15, 2001; Page A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A34146-2001Sep14?language=printer

Showing unity unthinkable when the week began, Congress approved the use of military force yesterday in response to Tuesday's terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, and unanimously set aside $40 billion to clean up the wreckage and go to war.

The resolution on force passed the Senate without a single dissent -- indeed, without debate -- in a solemn roll call of the sort reserved for momentous votes. Last night, the House passed the resolution overwhelmingly as well.

President Bush had sought the resolution as a way of demonstrating the country's resolve, and he hailed the singleness of purpose with which the government is responding to the catastrophic attacks by hijackers on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. "Today," he said, "we feel what Franklin Roosevelt called 'the warm courage of national unity.' "

Three days after the astounding explosions that damaged the Pentagon and wrecked the World Trade Center, the president declared a national state of emergency, authorizing a call-up of reserve troops. With traditional allies firmly supporting U.S. action, the State Department moved to draw sometime enemies, including Syria, into the anti-terrorist coalition.

In public -- standing at a lectern at the Washington National Cathedral yesterday afternoon and speaking through a bullhorn amid countless tons of rubble in New York a few hours later -- Bush rallied the nation to go to battle as one.

Nowhere was the government's unity more symbolically evident than at noon inside the National Cathedral. There, in a service of prayer and remembrance, Bush joined most of his living predecessors, hundreds of members of Congress, the justices of the Supreme Court, commanders of the armed forces, the Cabinet, the heads of the Federal Reserve, the CIA and the FBI, former secretaries of state and of the treasury, former attorneys general and his opponent in the bitter fight for the presidency -- in short, virtually the entire federal leadership.

On Tuesday, many of these same men and women had been swept into bunkers or flown to secure military bases -- dispersed and hidden after four passenger jets were stolen and crashed in the worst day of violence on American soil in the country's history. Even the cathedral itself, a striking landmark on Washington's second-highest hill, was evacuated.

Now they were together, under one conspicuous roof, to mourn -- and to invoke the fateful lightning of God's terrible, swift sword.

Bush had called for prayer services to be held yesterday from coast to coast. This one, minutely planned by the White House, included leaders of many faiths -- Christian, Jewish, Muslim -- and denominations -- Roman Catholic, Epicopalian, United Methodist, Baptist. It began in contemplation, with guitar music and children singing a folk setting of the 23rd Psalm. It ended in fiery resolve, with "The Battle Hymn of the Republic."

"War has been waged against us by stealth and deceit and murder," Bush said from the cathedral lectern. "This nation is peaceful, but fierce when stirred to anger. This conflict was begun on the timing and terms of others. It will end in a way, and at an hour, of our choosing."

He also said: "Our responsibility to history is already clear -- to answer these attacks and rid the world of evil."

After the service, the president traveled to New York, where he inspected the ruins of the collapsed skyscrapers, in which more than 4,500 people are feared dead. Thick, acrid smoke still blanketed Ground Zero. It was a chilly, drizzly -- in every way gloomy -- day. The rain had started Thursday night and by yesterday morning what first was blinding, choking dust turned to heavy, slippery mud. The slow going got slower. Though more than 10,000 tons of rubble have been removed, by far the largest amount of the job is still ahead.

Bush, wearing a beige windbreaker, put his arm over the shoulders of a retired firefighter, Bob Beckwith of Queens, N.Y., and took up a bullhorn for a brief speech to a group of tired and dirty rescue workers.

"Can't hear you!" one of the workers shouted.

"I can't talk any louder," Bush said. A moment later, another called out: "I can't hear you!"

And the president answered with an earthier promise of vengeance. "I can hear you," he shouted into the raspy amplifier. "I can hear you. The rest of the world hears you. And the people who knocked down these buildings will hear all of us soon!"

The central target of this martial buildup was, more and more clearly, the multimillionaire terrorist Osama bin Laden. Yesterday the FBI released the names of 19 men believed to have carried out the hijackings, at least 16 of whom the agents say are linked to bin Laden.

"We know we have a suspect," Bush told reporters in New York, although later White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said the president was "speaking broadly -- that does not mean any one organization or any one person."

However, government officials also spoke of a broader aim: a general war on terrorism, with the United States leading a diverse coalition, perhaps over a number of years. Secretary of State Colin L. Powell warned that countries unwilling to support the cause will forfeit good relations with America, as diplomats accelerated their efforts to draw Middle Eastern and Asian countries into line.

Powell spoke with leaders of at least nine Arab countries -- including Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk Charaa. Syria has long been suspected by American officials of sponsoring terrorism, but Powell spoke with Charaa after the Syrian government proposed an international effort to prevent future attacks in the United States and elsewhere.

He was interested in more details. A State Department official explained: "We've clearly had differences in the past, but the proposition they raise is interesting. . . . If Syria is willing to take steps to help grab the people who committed these terrible crimes, then we're happy to have the support."

Meanwhile, governments around the world expressed emotional solidarity with a suffering United States. An extraordinary crowd -- perhaps 200,000 people -- gathered at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin. "No one knows better than the people here in Berlin what America has done for freedom and democracy in Germany," President Johannes Rau said. "Therefore, we say to all Americans from Berlin: America does not stand alone."

The queen of England joined a prayer service in London, and in Seoul sirens blared and children prayed outside the U.S. Embassy. Even in Iran, 60,000 people observed a minute of silence before a World Cup soccer qualifying match. In various ways, from fishermen in Iceland to the pope at his summer palace, people honored the loss and signaled their grief.

It is often the case that religious services mark some sort of end to a trial or crisis: a funeral, for example, or a service of thanksgiving when a war or drought or plague has passed.

But yesterday's services did not mark the end of anything. The nation's business continued to be severely disrupted. Air traffic increased from what it had been the day before, and only Reagan National and Boston Logan airports remained closed. Still, about one-third of the normal commercial fleet was aloft.

Congressional leaders began to consider extraordinary relief for the airline industry, which is expected to lose billions. The insurance industry will also be hit hard. Claims in New York City could reach $30 billion, nearly twice the amount paid after Hurricane Andrew devastated South Florida in 1992.

The stock markets were closed for the fourth day -- the longest hiatus since the Depression -- with plans to reopen on Monday.

For families of thousands of suspected victims, the wait for certainty also continued. Despite the relentless work on the World Trade Center wreckage, the recovery of bodies was painfully slow.

Threats and fears persisted, too. Ships moved to guard the nation's waterways and traffic in many ports was curtailed. Jet fighters prowled the skies over major cities, supported by AWACS flying radar arrays. In Washington and elsewhere, security was heightened to a level unseen in half a century.

At the cathedral service, the aged pastor of American official life, the Rev. Billy Graham, said: "No matter how hard we try, words simply cannot express the horror, the shock and the revulsion we all feel." He had consoling words to offer the nation, assurances that God is good and merciful and that death need not be the final word.

But capturing a mood that was everywhere yesterday -- and most of all in the halls of American government -- the evangelist first warned unknown persons in unknown places that they have gone too far, that their "twisted, diabolical schemes" will be avenged. And soon enough, he joined the thunderous singing:

"I have read a fiery gospel writ in burnish'd rows of steel / 'As ye deal with my contemners, so with you My grace shall deal.' / Let the Hero born of woman, crush the serpent with His heel / Since God is marching on!

"Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!"

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Special Forces May Play Key Role
Anti-Terror Campaign Expected to Use Unconventional Military Units

By Dana Priest
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, September 15, 2001; Page A05
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A34056-2001Sep14?language=printer

Three years ago, when the Pentagon decided to get closer to the nearly lawless country of Yemen to monitor extremists who had set up shop there, officials knew whom to send: a tiny group of hard-boiled, adventurous special forces soldiers who would show Yemenite troops how to clear land mines as a first step toward coaxing them into a deeper relationship.

When top generals realized that the newly independent, autocratic regimes in Central Asia might become as important as those in the Persian Gulf because of their oil and natural gas and proximity to Afghanistan, they sent special forces troops to bond in a way only the elite brotherhood can: by scaling ice-covered mountains, jumping out of rickety Soviet cargo planes and conducting make-believe counterterrorist raids in the mud and rain.

And just a week ago, a small team of special forces soldiers became the first American troops in nearly 30 years to resume relations with the Vietnamese army by helping its forces locate and disarm land mines from the Vietnam War.

As Washington prepares its campaign against Islamic militants, the military's unconventional warfare units -- formally known as Special Operations Forces -- are certain to be at the center of the action.

While conventional warfare units have seen their budgets decline or remain stagnant, funding for the special forces has grown steadily since the end of the Cold War, as has the military's dependence on them. Last year, Congress gave them $3.3 billion. This year, they will receive $4 billion, plus an as-yet undetermined portion of the $40 billion supplemental Congress passed yesterday.

Some of the increased funding, officials said yesterday, will likely go toward expanding the clandestine units -- which have fewer than 5,000 members -- and the commando strike force units such as the Army Rangers, Navy SEALs and Air Force Special Units.

Created in 1962 as counterinsurgents in President John F. Kennedy's war against Latin American revolutionaries, special forces are made up of only 40,000 men (women are not permitted in most of their units) out of an armed forces of 1.1 million. The units include the military's only clandestine fighters -- the Special Mission Units such as the counterterrorist Delta Force and a separate group charged with countering the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. These groups would likely execute the secret ground strikes under consideration in the current planning of the military.

The special forces would also be at the heart of any sustained effort to dispatch American military forces or cement military alliances in countries that are reluctant to have broad, visible contacts with the United States. This type of mission, known as an "engagement," has been the most in demand since the end of the Cold War, and has provided many opportunities for the U.S. military to enlarge and deepen its contacts around the world.

For example, when Congress suspended most economic and military assistance to Pakistan in 1985 because of the country's nuclear program, only the special forces continued to hold small-scale exercises with the Pakistani armed forces. When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1989, small special forces teams were the first to be dispatched to Russia, Poland, Hungary and East Germany to develop new military relationships there.

While most infantry troops on peacekeeping missions in Bosnia and Kosovo have stayed in well-guarded fortresses and patrol in full battle gear, the Green Berets -- the Army's Special Forces -- live in houses in the villages and are allowed to leave their body armor at home. Their mission is to insinuate themselves into the local, underground political power structure to collect information about threats to U.S. soldiers and other potential violence. Special forces are especially active in the Persian Gulf, where the United States tries to keep a low profile. Special Navy and Army units are responsible for the U.N.-sanctioned maritime interdiction program that aims to stop unauthorized supplies from reaching Iraq and unrefined oil from coming out. Each year, special forces troops conduct infantry and coastal craft training with the special forces units of nearly all of the Persian Gulf states, including Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Oman and Qatar.

There is a standing proposal to move the U.S. Central Command's Special Operations Command from MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa to somewhere in the Gulf because it is so active in the region.

In the other big unconventional war -- the so-called drug war in Colombia, Peru and Bolivia -- Army special forces troops and Navy small-boat units have trained foreign military units in tracking and fighting drug traffickers. They also constitute the biggest American presence in the U.S.-funded peacekeeping and infantry training in Africa.

Although the special forces are likely to be in even higher demand now, they will have to scramble to increase their numbers. More than 50 percent of the new recruits who seek to join the nonsecret side of the units fail the excruciatingly difficult qualifying courses. As a result, the Special Operations Forces have faced a serious recruiting shortfall in each of the past three years.

They will also need to move up in Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld's list of priorities. He has yet to name a civilian to the post that overseas the Special Operations Command.

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U.S. Works to Win Support For Anti-Terror Campaign
Powell Reaches Out to Leaders of Mideast, Asian Nations

By Alan Sipress
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, September 15, 2001; Page A06
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A34451-2001Sep14?language=printer

With the Bush administration confident of backing from its traditional European allies, U.S. officials redoubled their efforts yesterday to rally a range of Middle Eastern and Asian countries behind a possible American campaign against Osama bin Laden and other suspected terrorists.

Secretary of State Colin L. Powell at the same time warned that the administration is setting a "new benchmark" for relations with other countries: The price for close ties with the United States will be a willingness to tackle terrorism.

"If we find a particular country, especially those that might be serving as a haven or as a well-known supporter of this kind of activity, simply unresponsive and we deem that unresponsiveness to be contributing to additional terrorism or to the fertile ground in which terrorism thrives, then that will certainly affect the kind of relationship we're going to have with them," Powell said.

During the day, Powell spoke with the leaders of at least nine Arab countries, whose governments have expressed sympathy for the United States over the Tuesday attacks but where some members of the public have cheered them as a deserved comeuppance.

Among those he contacted was Foreign Minister Farouk Charaa of Syria, a country long deemed to be a sponsor of terrorism for harboring militant Palestinian groups and for aiding the Lebanese Hezbollah movement. Powell held the telephone conversation after Charaa and Syrian President Bashar Assad sent separate letters a day earlier vigorously condemning the attacks and calling for an international effort to avert similar incidents in the United States and elsewhere.

"We've clearly had differences in the past, but the proposition they raise is interesting," a State Department official said. "We're intrigued by what they proposed, and we're willing to explore it." The United States will look for specific signs that Syria has changed its conduct, he said.

In his conversation with Charaa, Powell spoke in general terms about forming a common front against terrorism, the official said. Powell also discussed the role Syria could play in backing an American effort targeting bin Laden, who is thought to be hunkered down in Afghanistan, and others involved in the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

"If Syria is willing to take steps to help grab the people who committed these terrible crimes, then we're happy to have the support," a senior State Department official said.

This would not be the first time that the United States would be willing to make common cause with Damascus despite an often-strained relationship. Syria contributed to the American-led coalition that defeated Iraq in 1991.

Powell also lined up Arab support for a possible attack against bin Laden during telephone conversations with leaders from Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia -- the latter being the most important U.S. ally in the Persian Gulf. The American interest in gaining Arab backing stems in part from a desire for Muslim support in a confrontation with the Islamic militant bin Laden.

Another significant country in Afghanistan's neighborhood, India, offered "an exceptionally strong statement of support," according to Powell, who spoke with Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh.

Their conversation followed a national address by Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who said that India stands with the American people "in their hour of grief." He said he had assured President Bush "that we stand ready to cooperate with you in the investigations into this crime and to strengthen our partnership in leading international efforts to ensure that terrorism never succeeds again."

During the day, Powell also spoke with leaders from Japan, South Korea, Canada and Israel. He made a point at a news briefing to thank Australia, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan for their support.

The national security adviser of Kazakhstan, a large Central Asian country not far from Afghanistan, met yesterday with officials from Bush's National Security Council. Altynbeck Sarsenbayev said he told the White House that the security services of the two countries should increase their cooperation in the fight against terrorism. But he added that the challenge posed by bin Laden and Afghanistan cannot be solved by military means.

"World pressure is needed to force the Taliban to give up Osama bin Laden, and pressure is needed for a cease-fire and end of shipments of arms," Sarsenbayev said. If the Taliban refuses, "then I think the Taliban would be responsible for what happens."

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Three Marines Guilty In Osprey Records Case

By Mary Pat Flaherty
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, September 15, 2001; Page A22
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A34518-2001Sep14?language=printer

A Marine lieutenant colonel, who was secretly taped telling his squadron to lie on maintenance records to burnish the image of the troubled V-22 Osprey aircraft, and his immediate boss have been found guilty of misconduct, the Marine Corps said yesterday.

Five other Marines -- including Maj. Gen. Dennis Krupp, who had been charged with dereliction of duty -- were cleared of charges during administrative hearings that ended Thursday afternoon. Another Marine was found guilty of dereliction of duty but was not given any punishment.

Lt. Col. Odin "Fred" Leberman was found guilty of dereliction of duty and conduct unbecoming an officer but was cleared of making false statements. Col. James Schleining was found guilty of dereliction of duty for failing to ensure the records were kept accurately but was cleared of violating a lawful order to report falsifications. Each will receive a letter of reprimand in his personnel file.

The administrative hearings conclude cases brought in the records scandal but leave the Corps free to conduct further review of any of the eight officers' assignments and command positions and some retirement requests, Marine sources said.

The Marines' Ospreys, which can fly like a helicopter or an airplane, have been grounded since December after two fatal accidents last year that killed 23 Marines and ongoing redesigns to make the innovative aircraft more reliable day-to-day.

The cases brought against the eight Marines were the culmination of an investigation launched in January after someone who claimed to be a mechanic in the Osprey squadron at New River, N.C., secretly taped Leberman telling the squadron to lie to improve maintenance records. At the time, the projected $40 billion Osprey program faced a crucial funding decision on whether to proceed to full production, but the Osprey had been proving hard to maintain and repair.

The tape was sent to Marine Corps command, which launched an investigation. The Marines, and investigators in the two fatal accidents last year, said they found no connection between the records manipulation and the crashes.

In the past five years, only Krupp and one other Marine officer above the rank of one star have faced an administrative hearing. Krupp has been a Marine for 33 years and commands the aircraft wing that includes the Osprey squadron.

Lt. Gen. Raymond P. Ayres Jr. conducted the administrative hearings in Norfolk and at Camp Lejeune, N.C.

The outcomes of the other cases, according to the Marines:

• Col. Laurin Eck, former assistant program manager for the V-22 with Naval Air Systems Command in Patuxent, was cleared of violating a lawful order for failing to report falsification of records.

• Col. Phillip Newman, assistant chief of staff for the aviation logistics division at Cherry Point, N.C., and Lt. Col. Demetrice Babb, an aviation maintenance officer at Cherry Point, were cleared of dereliction of duty and violating a lawful order.

• Capt. Christopher Ramsey, assistant aviation maintenance officer with the Osprey squadron at New River, was pronounced guilty of dereliction of duty but was not given any punishment by Ayres, a result that effectively will leave no record of the administrative finding in Ramsey's record. Ramsey was cleared of conduct unbecoming an officer and making false statements.

• Chief Warrant Officer 2 Matthew Smith, a maintenance material control officer at New River, was cleared of dereliction of duty and making a false statement.

---------

U.S. Military in Gulf Stands Ready

September 15, 2001
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Attacks-Military-Assets.html

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Afghanistan is far on the other side of the world in a rough neighborhood where a superpower has tripped once before, and not long ago.

But the U.S. military believes it has the long arm and firepower to strike inside Afghanistan, if President Bush decides to retaliate for terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon.

Indeed, ever since the Persian Gulf War, the United States has positioned large numbers of military troops, planes and ships on the land, and waters surrounding friendly countries in the region like Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.

Those troops are one of the reasons that Osama bin Laden, a Saudi exile and Islamic fundamentalist who operates out of Afghanistan, hates America.

But now, those 25,000 troops and their aircraft carriers, warplanes and cruise missiles could form the basis of a military force to attack bin Laden's terror base. That is, if American intelligence can find him.

Camps run by terrorists, especially in a mountainous area like Afghanistan, are much harder to find and destroy than a nation and its army, acknowledges Secretary of State Colin Powell.

``The chance of hitting bin Laden is zero,'' Nikolai Kovalyov, the former head of Russia's Federal Security Service, warned last week. The Soviet Union, at the time a superpower, pulled out of Afghanistan after losing a war there.

``He's elusive, he moves, he's got a lot of cover,'' said retired Army Col. Bill Taylor, an analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. ``What we can do depends on the intelligence we have. And the best source of intelligence is Pakistan.''

For that and many reasons, Pakistan is an important component to a U.S. military campaign into Afghanistan.

Afghanistan is 1,000 miles from any ocean, surrounded by nations that are either hostile to the United States, like Iran, or at least unused to U.S. military cooperation, such as Pakistan and Russia.

The Bush administration has received permission from Pakistan to fly over its territory in the event of military action and to base a multinational force within its borders, Pakistani military and diplomatic sources said Saturday. Pakistan also agreed to close its border with Afghanistan and cooperate in intelligence gathering.

Right now, the United States has about 25,000 military personnel on ships or land in the Persian Gulf region, about 5,000 more than usual because two aircraft carrier groups -- each with 75 warplanes and 10 to 12 ships -- are in the region.

The USS Enterprise, which was due to return home after being relieved earlier this month by the USS Carl Vinson, has been ordered to remain in the area indefinitely, said Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Vern Clark.

Those battle groups normally include cruisers and submarines, which could be the launch pads for long-range cruise missile strikes, perhaps occurring before attacks by manned aircraft such as B-2 stealth bombers or B-1 Lancers.

A few thousand of the troops in the region run Operation Southern Watch, which patrols the southern no-fly zone in Iraq.

The United States also has several large caches of heavy military equipment in the region to supply army brigades if troops needed, at least one on the island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean and at least one in Kuwait.

In addition, the United States has fighter jets and personnel in Turkey who monitor the northern no-fly zone in Iraq and also could be used for strikes into Afghanistan.

The United States also could covertly insert elite special forces into Afghanistan, said senior military and administration officials, all speaking on condition of anonymity.

There have been no indications of a buildup of American forces in the Middle East since Tuesday's devastating terror attack. The 50,000 U.S. reservists called to action by Bush last week would help protect the United States, not go overseas.

Regarding the other countries that surround Afghanistan, Russian officials have indicated they would not oppose U.S. military action against Afghanistan. It is not clear, however, whether the administration would seek any logistical support from Moscow.

The prime minister of Tajikistan, which also borders Afghanistan, said his government would be willing to consider a U.S. request to provide air corridors for strikes. But he said the country would have to consult with Moscow first. Russia has about 25,000 troops in Tajikistan.


-------- OTHER

[So quick to blame others]

Robertson: Attack retribution for 'evil'

September 15, 2001
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
http://www.washtimes.com/national/20010915-55969394.htm

Two prominent conservative Christian figures say the worst terrorist attack on U.S. soil was "probably what we deserve" and placed blame for the strikes on civil liberties groups, feminists, homosexuals and abortion providers.

The deadly attacks may just be the prelude to further catastrophe "if in fact God continues to lift the curtain and allow the enemies of America to give us probably what we deserve," Protestant television evangelist the Rev. Jerry Falwell said Thursday on the Christian Broadcasting Network.

"I think we've just seen the antechamber to terror. We haven't even begun to see what they can do to the major population," replied the Rev. Pat Robertson, a failed Republican presidential candidate.

"It happened because people are evil," Mr. Robertson said as both men agreed that groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) were partly to blame for Tuesday's strikes, which are likely to yield a final death toll in the thousands.

"The ACLU's got to take a lot of blame for this," said Mr. Falwell. "Well, yes," concurred Mr. Robertson.

"The abortionists have got to bear some burden for this because God will not be mocked. And when we destroy 40 million little innocent babies, we make God mad," said Mr. Falwell.

"I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People For the American Way -- all of them who have tried to secularize America -- I point the finger in their face and say 'you helped this happen,'" said Mr. Falwell.

"I totally concur," replied Mr. Robertson.

The comments drew an angry reaction from the People for the American Way, with organization President Ralph Neas branding them "absolutely inappropriate and irresponsible."

"I am deeply saddened that in the wake of this week's devastating terrorist attacks, religious-right political leaders Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell have chosen the path of division rather than unity," he added in a statement.

-------- human rights

Nepal Bans Public Meetings

Sat, Sep 15 6:00 PM EDT
By BINAJ GURUBACHARYA,
Associated Press Writer
http://webcrawler-news.excite.com/news/ap/010915/18/int-nepal-peace-talks

KATMANDU, Nepal (AP) - Nepal on Saturday banned public meetings for a month, hoping to block a 200,000-strong rally planned by Maoist rebels next week here in the capital.

Officials acted tough, a day after its second round of talks with the guerrillas ended in a deadlock over the rebels' demand to eliminate the monarchy in Nepal.

"The government refused the demands by the Maoists for abolishing the constitutional monarchy, establishing a republic state and drafting of a new constitution," said Minister for Physical Planning Chiranjivi Wagle, who led the government team.

The government banned all public meetings and rallies for one month in the Katmandu Valley, fearing trouble during the upcoming Maoist rally Friday. The demonstration venue is less than half a mile from the royal palace and the prime minister's office.

In a bid to end the 5 1/2-year insurgency, a team of government ministers and rebel leaders held peace talks Thursday and Friday at a jungle resort, 310 miles west of Katmandu.

However, the talks were deadlocked after the Maoist negotiators refused to cancel their rally and pressed for a new constitution to abolish the monarchy and usher in a socialist government.

The government - elected by the people - supports the existing constitutional monarchy, which relegates the king to a ceremonial role. The system was adopted in 1990 after a democratic movement toppled the absolute monarchy.

"We still believe that we can resolve the issues through the peace talks and even by staying within the limits of the present constitution," Wagle said.

However, both sides agreed to meet again in Nepal's capital, Katmandu. The meeting could come as early as next week.

The rebels, who hope to mobilize nearly 200,000 people in Katmandu on Sept. 21, said the rally would be peaceful. The venue is less than a mile away from the royal palace and the prime minister's office.

The Maoists blame the new king, Gyanendra, for the June 1 massacre at the royal palace that left the previous king and eight other royal family members dead. An official investigation found that Crown Prince Dipendra shot and killed his parents and other relatives.

-------- imf / world bank

China nears spot on WTO

September 15, 2001
By Naomi Campbell
ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.washtimes.com/world/20010915-23401432.htm

GENEVA -- China clinched one of its top economic and political goals yesterday, with an agreement by negotiators on the terms of its membership in the World Trade Organization after 15 years of tough and complex talks.

A compromise was reached over the final remaining obstacle -- a dispute over insurance companies -- clearing the way for weary negotiators to sign off on the draft membership accord.

Clearance by WTO members would open the way for China to be formally approved at the WTO's meeting of trade ministers in Doha, Qatar, in November -- if that goes ahead following the terrorist attacks. China would then become a full member early next year.

A deadline of Thursday had been initially been set for agreement, but meetings were adjourned for two days Wednesday in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington.

After a midevening break, negotiators reconvened shortly before 1 a.m. for what was called an "informal" session, only to re-emerge minutes later with news of the deal.

This is now due to be rubber-stamped by a scheduled formal meeting on Monday.

One of the final stumbling blocks was removed Thursday when Mexico and China reached a bilateral accord. Mexico was the last WTO member to hold out against Beijing.

That left just one remaining hurdle -- a complicated row involving the United States and the European Union over insurance and accounting for just one paragraph in a treaty of more than 1,000 pages.

U.S. insurer American International Group, which has operated in China since 1994, wants guarantees that it can continue to expand without having to find Chinese partners. The draft WTO text states that new companies joining the life insurance market must be 50 percent Chinese owned. European companies, which operate as joint ventures with Chinese partners, insist that AIG must play by the same rules as they do.

China applied to join the WTO and its predecessor, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, 15 years ago. The application process was fraught with political problems over Beijing's crackdown on the democracy movement and economic fears that China would use its vast labor market to undercut competing products.

The share of North American imports coming from China rose from 0.8 percent in 1983 to 7.3 percent by 1999, and in European stores "Made in China" labels are omnipresent. Chinese sales abroad are expected to soar further once it joins the WTO and gains easier access to other markets.

China has already started reducing some import tariffs,.

As a sign of its supreme confidence, China has built a new mission to the WTO, a high-tech building on the shore of Lake Geneva.

-------- police / prisoners

Anti-Muslim Violence Assailed
FBI, Justice Dept. Probing Incidents Across the Nation

By Thomas B. Edsall
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, September 15, 2001; Page A09
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A34452-2001Sep14?language=printer

The FBI and the Justice Department have begun investigating what Arab American leaders describe as a wave of anti-Muslim violence -- from a series of assaults in New York to shots fired at an Irving, Tex., mosque to the attempted burning of the Islamic Idriss Mosque in Seattle.

"Any threats of violence or discrimination against Arab or Muslim Americans, or Americans of South Asian descent, are not just wrong and un-American, but are unlawful and will be treated as such," Ralph F. Boyd Jr., assistant attorney general for civil rights, said yesterday.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations reported 210 incidents of violence or threats of violence since the Tuesday morning attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. James Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute, said that in contrast to past crises -- the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center and the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing -- "this was more muted in the beginning, but in succeeding days, it has unfolded and taken a very disturbing course."

The reports of violence have come from across the country. In Bridgeview, Ill., a Chicago suburb, 300 men and women chanting "USA, USA" tried to march on a mosque and were stopped by 100 police. Firebombings of Islamic centers and mosques have occurred in Chicago, Seattle, Cleveland, Denton, Tex., Smithtown, N.Y., and other places.

In addition, many Arab American and Islamic centers have reported receiving threatening phone calls; schools in Jefferson Parish, La., were shut after students of Middle Eastern origin were taunted by classmates. In New York City, a Sikh man was beaten; and police searched the bags of three Sikh men in Grand Central Terminal, the New York Times reported.

In a poll conducted by The Washington Post after Tuesday's attacks, a high percentage of respondents said they were likely to be more suspicious of Arab Americans. When asked, "Do you think the attacks this week will make you personally more suspicious of people who you think are of Arab descent, or not?" 43 percent said "yes" and 56 percent said "no."

Despite the hostility and the violent incidents, Zogby said the expressions of support from public officials have left him "not just gratified" but "overwhelmed."

He cited strong statements during the week decrying expressions of anti-Arab feelings by President Bush, Attorney General John D. Ashcroft and several senators, including Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Russell Feingold (D-Wis.).

Ashcroft said: "Since Tuesday, the Justice Department has received reports of violence and threats of violence against Arab Americans and other Americans of Middle Eastern and South Asian descents. We must not descend to the level of those who perpetrated Tuesday's violence by targeting individuals based on their race, their religion, or their national origin."

Bush, in a phone call Thursday to New York Gov. George E. Pataki (R) and New York City Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani (R), said: "Our nation must be mindful that there are thousands of Arab Americans who live in New York City who love their flag just as much as the three of us do."

The Senate passed a resolution sponsored by Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) calling for the protection of the "civil rights and civil liberties of all Americans, including Arab Americans and American Muslims."

--------

A Wide, Aggressive Probe Collides With Civil Rights
Innocent People May Face Questioning, Experts Say

By Serge F. Kovaleski
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, September 15, 2001; Page A14
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A34046-2001Sep14?language=printer

NEW YORK, Sept. 14 -- As the FBI pursues thousands of leads around the country and widens its dragnet, agents have detained for questioning dozens of people who, investigators eventually determined, had no role in Tuesday's terrorist attacks.

Terrorism experts said that such measures are a necessary part of following tips about possible accomplices and sympathizers and trying to develop intelligence that might lead to those behind the deadliest act of terrorism in American history. But the experts also cautioned that FBI agents risk running roughshod over people's civil liberties as they face immense pressure and an extremely difficult investigation.

"They have to follow leads, and some people will get sucked up into the investigation who had nothing to do with the attacks. And a lot of them will fit a certain profile of Arabs and Muslims," said Juliette Kayyem, executive director of the program on domestic preparedness at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard.

She added: "The challenge is how do you do all this without intimidating an entire ethnic or religious population. First of all, there is incredible pressure on the FBI, and when law enforcement agencies are under pressure they tend to cut corners and . . . there may be ethnic or racial profiling going on to narrow the pool of suspects."

Most recently, the FBI said today that all 13 people taken into custody on Thursday at Kennedy and La Guardia airports had been released and that none of them had any ties to the hijacking attacks. But Justice Department spokeswoman Mindy Tucker said at least one remained in custody.

Authorities said they suspected that one of the detainees was carrying a fake pilot's license. Today, however, officials said the man was a pilot and that there were suspicions about him because of documents he was carrying, including a visa issued under another name. The man was taking the papers to his brother in Boston, who coincidentally lived in the same building as three of the hijackers, officials said.

Meanwhile, about 60 miles north of Pittsburgh, the home of radiologist Basem M. Hussein was searched and his car was later impounded after his landlord called local authorities Tuesday saying she had not seen him after the attacks. Hussein's apartment was searched and his car was impounded at the Pittsburgh airport, while agents investigated the lead by, among other things, reviewing hospital employment records at two Pennsylvania hospitals where he had worked.

Hussein, whose home is in Neshannock Township, Pa., just outside New Castle, was located Wednesday afternoon at the Indian Health Service in Shiprock, N.M., where he has been working as a contracted medical doctor since early September, the FBI said. Hussein was detained, cooperated with the questioning and was not arrested, the FBI said in a statement.

In Boston, federal authorities detained three people on Sept. 12 for several hours after law enforcement officials received a tip that led them to a hotel in downtown. In the city's Copley Square area, local police and agents from the FBI and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms descended on the Westin Copley Hotel with battering rams and shields, detaining a Saudi businessman, his wife and his sister who were guests, officials said.

Two bomb squads and two SWAT teams were among the first into the building after reports that at least one suspect was hiding in the hotel. About an hour later, police evacuated not only the hotel but the adjacent shopping mall. An FBI source subsequently confirmed that the tip was wrong, and there was no connection between the family and the suspected terrorists.

About 4,000 special FBI agents are involved in the attack investigation, as are the bureau's 56 field offices around the country. The agency has received an estimated 36,000 leads and has served more than 30 search warrants and issued hundreds of subpoenas, but has made at least one arrest. Officials said that teams of agents have also been deployed to airports to assist in case suspicious questions are raised about particular passengers.

"There is a fine line between a thorough investigation and violations of civil liberties. The line gets crossed when agents intimidate, use excessive questioning and rely on racial profiling," said Salam Al-Marayati, director of the Muslim Public Affairs Council in Los Angeles. "The fact that the American Muslim community is under increased scrutiny is unfortunate but something we have to accept."

James K. Kallstrom, the former head of the FBI in New York, said that it is important for agents to pursue leads, as tiresome as it may be, because it can help provide the probe with the critical mass needed to determine the mastermind behind the attacks.

"The small things can lead you to the meat of the investigation, but the meat of the investigation is not dragging a guy off an Amtrak train," said Kallstrom, who oversaw the criminal probe into the crash of TWA Flight 800 off the coast of New York.

"The meat would be finding out the full extent of the conspiracy and who inside and outside the country helped these cowards commit these acts, who harbored them, who encouraged and helped them, who gave them money and who gave them transportation," he said. "It could be that the guy you pull off the train can provide leads."

Ian Lesser, senior analyst specializing in security affairs at the Washington area office of the think tank RAND Corp., said that given the magnitude and intensity of the investigation, individuals will invariably be targeted by agents in error as the FBI tries to unravel the possible conspiracy behind the attacks.

"Mistakes will be made in terms of misidentifications. The heavy level of scrutiny and attention will clearly cause a lot of false alarms," Lesser said. "But that is understandable under the circumstances and it is the natural outcome of heightened security and heightened awareness, as well as the scope and intensity of the investigation."

-------- terrorism

U.S. fears attacks by 'sleepers'

September 15, 2001
By Jerry Seper
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
http://www.washtimes.com/national/default-200191545836.htm

Security measures tightened nationwide yesterday to prevent "sleeper agents" from mounting new terrorist attacks, as the Justice Department identified the 19 hijackers who slammed three jetliners into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on Tuesday in hellish attacks that killed thousands.

With as many as 100 suspected accomplices still on the loose, increased security measures were visible yesterday throughout the country, particularly in the nation's capital. Buildings continue to be searched and evacuated. Suspicious persons have been pulled off planes in New York and ordered out of cars at gunpoint in the District.

Federal authorities noted that several of the hijackers, all with suspected ties to U.S. officials' prime suspect in the attacks -- international fugitive Osama bin Laden -- had been in this country for years, living in relative obscurity before carrying out their mission of devastation. There are concerns that they were part of a network of "sleeper agents" who can be called on at any time.

U.S. intelligence officials believe the 44-year-old bin Laden, who founded and funds the terrorist organization al-Qaeda, has more than 3,000 operatives in 34 countries.

President Bush was heavily escorted yesterday by U.S. Secret Service agents to the National Cathedral for a prayer service, three agents sitting directly behind him in a church full of military and political figures. Military jets later accompanied Air Force One to New York, where the president met with rescue workers at the World Trade Center site.

Several airports have reopened, but Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport remained closed because of security concerns. A number of major cities have beefed up police security patrols, particularly in the wake of information developed by the FBI from interviews that Atlanta -- a major air transportation hub -- also may have been a target of the hijackers.

Last night, federal authorities made the first arrest in the worldwide investigation of the terrorist attacks, a government official said.

The suspect is believed to have information highly relevant to the investigation and is a high flight risk, said the official, speaking on the condition of anonymity. The Justice Department said the warrant identified the suspect as a material witness.

None of the hijackers, who perished after steering the fuel-gorged jetliners into their targets, was identified by his country of origin, but all had Middle Eastern names.

Justice Department officials, in releasing the names of the 19 air pirates, also distributed yesterday to 18,000 law enforcement agencies a list of more than 100 persons whom authorities want to question concerning Tuesday's attacks.

"These are the names of individuals the FBI would like to talk to because we believe they may have information that might be helpful to the investigation," Attorney General John Ashcroft told reporters at a briefing.

More than 4,000 FBI agents have questioned hundreds of people and tracked down more than 36,000 investigative leads as the ongoing probe -- known as "Pentbomb" -- spread throughout the United States. There have been no arrests in connection with Tuesday's attacks.

Seven of the hijackers were licensed pilots, and several received flight training in this country. A dozen of them were listed as having lived in Florida, including six in Delray Beach. Three were said to have lived in California, and two hijackers with the same last name were listed as having lived in Fort Lee, N.J. -- Nawaq Alhamzi and Salem Alhamzi.

The 19 hijackers accused of hijacking the four planes involved in the World Trade Center and the Pentagon attacks were:

* Marwan Al-Shehhi, 23; Fayez Ahmed; Mohald Alshehri; Hamza Alghamdi and Ahmed Alghamdi, who were flying on United Airlines Flight 175, which destroyed the south tower of the World Trade Center.

* Waleed Alshehri, 25; Wail Alshehri, 28; Mohamed Atta, 33; Abdulaziz Alomari, 38; and Satam Al Suqami, 25, who were aboard American Airlines Flight 11, which destroyed the north tower of the World Trade Center.

* Khalid Al-Midhar, Majed Moqed, Nawaq Alhamzi, Salem Alhamzi and Hani Hanjour, who were on American Airlines Flight 77, which hit the Pentagon

* Ahmed Alhaznawi, 20, Ahmed Alnami, Ziad Jarrahi and Saeed Alghamdi, 40, who were on United Airlines Flight 93, which crashed in Pennsylvania.

Mohamed Atta is believed to have been at the controls of American Airlines Flight 11, which took off from Logan International Airport in Boston and crashed into the World Trade Center's north tower at 8:45 a.m. Listing addresses in Hollywood and Coral Springs, Fla., he is believed to have taken flight training at Huffman Aviation in Venice, Fla.

Marwan Al-Shehhi also is believed to have received flight training at Huffman Aviation and at SimCenter Inc. in Opa-Locka, Fla. He was aboard United Airlines Flight 175, which crashed into the World Trade Center's south tower at 9:05 a.m. Authorities believe he may have been at the controls of the huge jetliner when it crashed.

Mohamed Atta and Marwan Al-Shehhi have been named by German authorities as members of an Islamic fundamentalist group that planned attacks on U.S. targets. German police have said the two men were from the United Arab Emirates.

Waleed Alshehri lived in Daytona Beach, Fla., and obtained a Social Security card in 1994. He also had a Florida driver's license, which expired in January, and a commercial pilot's license -- rated for both single and multi-engine aircraft. Authorities suspect he may have been the backup to Mohamed Atta on board American Airlines Flight 11.

Hani Hanjour received his commercial pilot's license in 1999, according to Federal Aviation Administration records, and was aboard American Airlines Flight 77, which crashed into the Pentagon at 9:39 a.m. He is believed to have lived in Phoenix and San Diego, but he listed a post office box in Saudi Arabia as his address.

Abdulaziz Alomari lived in Vero Beach, Fla., with his wife and four children in a $1,400-a-month town house. He was rated as a private pilot and flight engineer, listing his address as Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, according to FAA records. He was aboard American Airlines Flight 11 and was employed by Saudi Flight Ops, which handles maintenance for Saudi Airlines at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York.

Wail Alshehri is said to have lived in Hollywood, Fla., and Newton, Mass.

Ziad Jarrahi, who was on board United Airlines Flight 93, which crashed in Stony Creek Township, Pa., at 10:10 a.m. is believed to have had a pilot's license from Hamburg, Germany, according to FAA records.

Previously, Justice Department officials, including Attorney General John Ashcroft, said there were 18 known hijackers on the four planes. A new name was added Thursday after it was learned that there were five -- not four -- hijackers on American Flight 77, which crashed into the Pentagon.

The FBI asked that anyone who has any information about the hijackers call 866/483-5137.

Meanwhile, nine travelers of Middle Eastern descent who were detained Thursday by police and FBI agents at two New York airports were cleared of any connection with the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks. One man remained in custody while authorities checked his credentials, which included what police said was a fake pilot's license.

The FBI's massive manhunt for those who provided logistical support for the hijackers, including credit cards, cash, lodging and transportation, continued yesterday throughout the country. A force of 4,000 agents is conducting numerous interviews, serving more than 30 search warrants and hundreds of subpoenas in several states and checking what Mr. Ashcroft has called "thousands of thousands of leads."

Agents have seized hundreds of pieces of evidence, including computers and what FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III described as "other documentary information that we are following up on."

In Minnesota, the possibility emerged that the FBI knew before Tuesday's attack of at least one Arab man seeking the type of flight training the hijackers received. Authorities confirmed yesterday that the FBI detained an Arab man in Minnesota a few weeks ago after he tried to seek flight simulator training for a large jetliner.

Those who hijacked the four airliners for Tuesday's attacks are believed to have received similar training.

Authorities said FBI officials in Minnesota had no reason to charge the man at the time and instead began deportation proceedings. Those proceedings were ongoing when the attacks took place Tuesday. He is being held but is not cooperating with the FBI.

Elsewhere, U.S. and Philippine authorities searched a Manila hotel in connection with the investigation. Philippine officials also questioned a Saudi Airlines pilot and refused entry to nine Malaysian men suspected of having undergone terrorist training.

--------

Manila Cites Possible Plot to Bomb U.S. Embassy
Men Questioned Saturday Had Names Similar to Hijack Suspects';
Officials Say TNT Residue Found

By Doug Struck
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, September 15, 2001; Page A15
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A34513-2001Sep14?language=printer

TOKYO, Sept. 14 -- Philippine officials said three men with Omani passports may have been making a bomb to be used against the U.S. Embassy in Manila before they left the country in haste Sunday.

Investigators said traces of explosives were found in a Manila hotel room rented by the men, who fled after they were questioned by a policeman for taking video images of the U.S. Embassy.

The surname of the men was "very similar" to a name on the passenger manifest of a hijacked plane used in Tuesday's terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, according to Philippine authorities. "It's not illogical to assume they might have been planning something to coincide with the attacks in America," said Rigoberto Tiglao, a presidential spokesman in Manila.

Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, who was in Tokyo today, told reporters that U.S. and Philippine investigators conducted a "joint operation" at a hotel across from the embassy.

Officials at the U.S. Embassy in Manila issued a statement confirming the suspicions about the men, but concluding that a search of the room found "nothing unusual." Pressed to explain the contradiction with accounts from Philippine authorities, an embassy spokeswoman declined to elaborate. Messages left for top embassy officials were not answered.

But Robert Delfin, director of intelligence for the Philippine police, said tests for residue of the explosive TNT were conducted in the Bayview Park Hotel room Wednesday and "they were positive." Tiglao, the presidential spokesman, said the first test was positive and a second was negative.

Another Philippine official traveling with Arroyo said: "It was a match. They found traces of nitrate. What we assume is they were making a bomb." The official asked not to be identified.

Philippine officials said the three men flew to Manila from Bangkok separately on Sept. 1 and 7. They checked into the hotel with Omani passports giving the following names: Khaled Abdulla Mohammed Al-Sheihhi, Ahmed Darwish Al-Sheihhi, and Bader Darwis Mohammed Al-Sheihhi.

The official FBI list of people identified as hijackers in the Tuesday attacks included Waleed M. Alshehri and Wail Alshehri on American Airlines Flight 11, which crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center, and Marwan Al-Shehhi on United Airlines Flight 175, which crashed into the South Tower.

The 14-story Bayview Park Hotel, built in 1935, is on Manila Bay overlooking the U.S. Embassy. The men rented a $140-a-night triple room, and blended in with the businessmen and tourists who stay there, according to Gerhart Zimmer, general manager of the hotel.

"In the Philippines, we get a lot of people from the Middle East," said Zimmer. The only oddity, investigators later said, was that the three made no telephone calls from their room during their stay. They paid their hotel bill in cash, Zimmer said.

Last Friday, embassy guards noticed the men making videotapes from a sidewalk across from the guarded compound, according to an embassy spokeswoman. The men reappeared Saturday to take more video images. U.S. officials notified the Philippine police, and officers followed the men to a nearby shopping center.

There, officers stopped them for questioning. The men said they were tourists, according to Delfin, the intelligence chief. Officers asked to see their videotape, and the men led the police back to their hotel. They asked the officers to wait outside their room, then gave them a tape that contained only two minutes of tourist shots of a horse-drawn carriage and a brief shot of the embassy, Delfin said.

"They gave us a substitute tape. They switched it," he concluded.

Because this was before the terrorist attacks in Washington and New York, "there was no special alert out for people of Middle East descent. We had no real evidence to hold them or search them further," Tiglao said.

The men checked out on Sunday, a day earlier than their reservation indicated, and flew to Bangkok. On Wednesday, after the attacks in the United States, American officials asked the Philippine authorities to examine the hotel room, which Zimmer said had remained unoccupied since they left.

"Police started to look deeper into the matter when it was learned that one of the names on the flight manifest" of a hijacked plane "looks very similar to the surnames of the Omanis accosted in Manila," another presidential spokesman said. "It has not yet been established, however, whether any of the Omanis in question is the same person whose name appears in the manifest."

"There's just too many suspicious coincidences," Tiglao said. "If they weren't planning anything, why would they get spooked and leave so quickly? Why would there be traces of TNT in their room? Why would the names be the same? With all these suspicions, we have to conclude they were planning something."

The Philippine government is battling the Islamic fundamentalist Abu Sayyaf guerrillas, who have a record of kidnapping foreigners. Authorities have long known of a connection between Abu Sayyaf and Osama bin Laden, who is being fingered by U.S. authorities as the source of Tuesday's attack. Arroyo, in her visit here, told a Japanese newspaper there are "some traces of relationship" between the two groups, although another Philippine official said that connection is old and there is no known link between the groups now.

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Paper: Europol Questions Bin Laden Role in Attacks

September 15, 2001
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-attack-europe-europol.html

LONDON (Reuters) - The head of the European Union's law enforcement arm warned on Saturday against rushing to blame the Saudi-born militant Osama bin Laden for masterminding Tuesday's attacks on New York and Washington.

Juergen Storbeck, the director of pan-European police force Europol, told the Daily Telegraph newspaper that a wide ranging investigation was required to avoid bringing the wrong people to account.

``It's possible that he (bin Laden) was informed about the operation, it's even possible that he influenced it, but he's probably not the man who steered every action or controlled the detailed plan,'' Storbeck said.

``As for the idea that, sitting in Afghanistan, he could have controlled the last phase of the operation is something we should not accept without a lot of doubt,'' he said.

``Bin Laden is not the automatic leader of every terrorist act carried out in the name of Islam.''

U.S. president George W. Bush on Saturday singled out bin Laden, based in Afghanistan under the protection of its radical Islamic government, as a prime suspect behind the attacks which may have killed over 5,000 people.

The Daily Telegraph said Europol was giving serious consideration to claims that some sort of state-sponsored terrorism was involved but had no hard evidence.

``There are a lot of people with the same philosophy who may have been to bin Laden's training camps, but are not necessarily under his orders,'' Storbeck said.

Europol, established by the EU's 15 member states to tackle such issues as terrorism, money laundering and illegal immigration, set up an anti-terrorism task force crisis center immediately after the attacks.


-------- activists

Global Peace Campaign: No more killing of innocents

Date: Sat, 15 Sep 2001
From: Yumi Kikuchi <yumik@awa.or.jp>

Dear friends in the USA and around the world,

I am a Japanese mother of four small children, who works as an environmental writer and organizer. I would like to share the following letters with you at this difficult time. I am sure many of you have already started some action to prevent possible war against Afganistan. Military retaliation will provoke even more crazy terrorist attack, I am afraid.

I pray no more killing of innocent anywhere in the world. We all share this planet earth. Let's keep it peaceful and beautiful for generations to come.

Love and respect, Yumi Kikuchi

p.s. Please write me back if you would like to start a Global Peace Campaign, something simple, maybe writing letters to media and political leaders, together. Thank you!

--

President George W. Bush The White House Washington, DC September 13, 2001

Dear Mr. President,

I am a former Marine Corps sergeant who served his country well and was honorably discharged in 1970. I have never written such a letter before and I pray that it will somehow get through the bureaucratic filters to reach you.

Like so many Americans, I was appalled and shocked by the death and destruction we witnessed two days ago. I am now coming out of my shock and am very concerned about the grievous state in which our country and the world find themselves. We have suffered a horrible attack and far too many of us have suffered and died. I am greatly saddened and sickened by the carnage and suffering of the victims and their families. I know you too are suffering and I can feel your anger and frustration as well as your desire for active retaliation and I understand it well. It is a natural and justifiable reaction to such a heinous criminal act.

And yet I would counsel you to proceed carefully. I fear we are in a perilous situation and a mistake on our part could easily widen the already huge spiral of violence in which the world finds itself. Mr. President, you now have the great opportunity to prove to the world that the United States is more than just a great economic and military power to be feared. It is up to you to show all of the world that the United States is also a law abiding and civilized country which can be trusted to follow the laws of the world as well as let itself be guided by the wisdom of human understanding and compassion.

I urge you to use all legal means at your disposal to determine who perpetrated this horrible crime and to bring them to trial before the appropriate court. Let them indeed find the justice the world awaits and needs. But I beg you, let not one more innocent life - be it American, Israeli, Palestinian or any other - be lost because of this horrible crime.

Too often our bombs and weapons have taken the lives of innocent victims. I believe the military euphemism is "collateral damage" but in reality it is manslaughter if not outright murder. What right can we claim that allows us to take more innocent lives? Is that not also a form of terrorism?

Should we lower ourselves to the level of those who attacked the World Trade Center or should we stand tall and take the legal and moral high ground?

You have chosen to describe this as an act of evil. I fear using such inflammatory language will only worsen the situation. Such language will all too easily incite a lynch mob mentality, when what we need is the compassion which Jesus taught as well as the cool reason which will help us reach our true goals of global peace, prosperity and democracy for all people of the world. Lead us, Mr. President, with dignity and wisdom and do not pander to the primitive parts of our beings that are all too powerfully calling out at this moment. Show the world that you too are a leader with the greatness, strength and courage to seek true understanding and restorative justice, just as Nelson Mandela did in South Africa.

Rather than characterizing the attack as an act of evil, I see it as a terrible last act of desperation by people who believed they had no other way to make themselves heard than to resort to violence and mayhem. It is absolutely critical that we see not only their willingness to use horrible illegal means, but that we also hear their desperation which makes them view such means as the highest form of heroism including the sacrifice of their very lives. As a former Marine, I know what it means to be willing to sacrifice one's life for a cause one truly believes in. While I see these people as horribly misguided, hate-filled and desperate, I do not believe they are cowardly or evil.

If we are to truly resolve the hatred and violence, we need to understand that in their eyes, they see themselves as a tiny, heroic David fighting against a huge, monstrous Goliath who seeks to kill them and their way of life. We certainly need not agree with their views, but we must understand them if we ever hope to achieve a lasting peace and not a world that is locked down and bereft of all the civil rights and freedoms we cherish so highly.

Months ago we saw magazine pictures of a young Palestinian child being cradled for hours in the arms of his father. Innocently caught in a gun battle the child died from bullet wounds and the father could not move to save him. Can you begin to imagine the anguish, pain and sense of injustice this father must have felt? As a father yourself, how would you have felt in such a situation as the life oozed out of your child and you were pinned down and absolutely helpless? It is such intensely unbearable images and feelings that drive people to such desperate measures as we witnessed on Wednesday in New York and Washington.

In this moment of deep crisis, is also a moment of immense opportunity.

I urge you to take this opportunity to move our world away from violence and suffering and towards peace, freedom and abundance for all. Let these voices of desperation be heard and let the perpetrators have their day in court.

Show them that we truly do believe in law and justice for all. Let us not make the mistake we did recently at Durban, but rather let us bring all voices to the table, even if they are screaming and telling the stories we would like not to hear. We are truly a superpower and we are too used to talking and expecting others to listen. Show the world that we are also strong enough to learn to listen. I know you are a Christian and I pray that you will indeed do what Jesus Christ counseled and not rashly lash out in violence. May God give you the wisdom to find the great opportunity for peace that lies in this horrible tragedy. I hope that later in this century historians will look back and applaud your greatness of spirit and cool sense of reason that moved our globalizing world closer to justice and democracy for all.

Respectfully, Greg Nees

--

Dear Friends,

The following was sent to me by my friend Tamim Ansary. Tamim is an Afghani-American writer. He is also one of the most brilliant people I know in this life. When he writes, I read. When he talks, I listen. Here is his take on Afghanistan and the whole mess we are in. -Gary T.

Dear Gary and whoever else is on this email thread:

I've been hearing a lot of talk about "bombing Afghanistan back to the Stone Age." Ronn Owens, on KGO Talk Radio today, allowed that this would mean killing innocent people, people who had nothing to do with this atrocity, but "we're at war, we have to accept collateral damage. What else can we do?" Minutes later I heard some TV pundit discussing whether we "have the belly to do what must be done."

And I thought about the issues being raised especially hard because I am from Afghanistan, and even though I've lived here for 35 years I've never lost track of what's going on there. So I want to tell anyone who will listen how it all looks from where I'm standing.

I speak as one who hates the Taliban and Osama Bin Laden. There is no doubt in my mind that these people were responsible for the atrocity in New York. I agree that something must be done about those monsters. But the Taliban and Ben Laden are not Afghanistan. They're not even the government of Afghanistan. The Taliban are a cult of ignorant psychotics who took over Afghanistan in 1997. Bin Laden is a political criminal with a plan. When you think Taliban, think Nazis. When you think Bin Laden, think Hitler. And when you think "the people of Afghanistan" think "the Jews in the concentration camps." It's not only that the Afghan people had nothing to do with this atrocity. They were the first victims of the perpetrators.

They would exult if someone would come in there, take out the Taliban and clear out the rats nest of international thugs holed up in their country. Some say, why don't the Afghans rise up and overthrow the Taliban? The answer is, they're starved, exhausted, hurt, incapacitated, suffering. A few years ago, the United Nations estimated that there are 500,000 disabled orphans in Afghanistan--a country with no economy, no food. There are millions of widows. And the Taliban has been burying these widows alive in mass graves. The soil is littered with land mines, the farms were all destroyed by the Soviets. These are a few of the reasons why the Afghan people have not overthrown the Taliban.

We come now to the question of bombing Afghanistan back to the Stone Age. Trouble is, that's been done. The Soviets took care of it already. Make the Afghans suffer? They're already suffering. Level their houses? Done. Turn their schools into piles of rubble? Done. Eradicate their hospitals? Done. Destroy their infrastructure? Cut them off from medicine and health care? Too late. Someone already did all that.

New bombs would only stir the rubble of earlier bombs. Would they at least get the Taliban? Not likely. In today's Afghanistan, only the Taliban eat, only they have the means to move around. They'd slip away and hide. Maybe the bombs would get some of those disabled orphans, they don't move too fast, they don't even have wheelchairs. But flying over Kabul and dropping bombs wouldn't really be a strike against the criminals who did this horrific thing.

Actually it would only be making common cause with the Taliban--by raping once again the people they've been raping all this time. So what else is there? What can be done, then? Let me now speak with true fear and trembling. The only way to get Bin Laden is to go in there with ground troops. When people speak of "having the belly to do what needs to be done" they're thinking in terms of having the belly to kill as many as needed. Having the belly to overcome any moral qualms about killing innocent people.

Let's pull our heads out of the sand. What's actually on the table is Americans dying. And not just because some Americans would die fighting their way through Afghanistan to Bin Laden's hideout. It's much bigger than that folks. Because to get any troops to Afghanistan, we'd have to go through Pakistan. Would they let us? Not likely. The conquest of Pakistan would have to be first. Will other Muslim nations just stand by?

You see where I'm going. We're flirting with a world war between Islam and the West.

And guess what: that's Bin Laden's program. That's exactly what he wants. That's why he did this. Read his speeches and statements. It's all right there. He really believes Islam would beat the west. It might seem ridiculous, but he figures if he can polarize the world into Islam and the West, he's got a billion soldiers. If the west wreaks a holocaust in those lands, that's a billion people with nothing left to lose, that's even better from Bin Laden's point of view. He's probably wrong, in the end the west would win, whatever that would mean, but the war would last for years and millions would die, not just theirs but ours.

Who has the belly for that?

Bin Laden does. Anyone else?

Tamim Ansary

--------

September 29th "Surround the White House" Mobilization

From: "Action Center"
Date: Sat, 15 Sep 2001

Let's really help the September 11 victims: War & racism are not the answer

Dear Friends,

Our most heartfelt sympathies and condolences are with all those whose loved ones were lost or injured on September 11, 2001. At this moment, we would all like to take time to reflect, to grieve, to extend sympathy and condolences to all. But we believe that we must do more. We must act.

Unless we stop President Bush from carrying out a new, wider war in the Middle East and beyond, the number of innocent victims will grow from the thousands to the tens of thousands and possibly more. A new, wider U.S. war in the Middle East can only lead to an escalating cycle of violence. War is not the answer.

After the horrific killings of thousands of innocent civilians on Sept. 11, the Bush administration is moving in a very ominous direction. In a chilling statement, Bush administration spokespersons have called for "ending states," an unprecedented threat.

At the same time, Arab American and Muslim people in the United States -- as well as other communities of color -- are facing racist attacks and harassment in their communities, on their jobs and at mosques. Anti-Arab and anti-Muslim racism is a poison that should be repudiated.

The government is attempting to curb civil liberties and to create a climate in which it is impossible for progressive people to speak their mind. The Bush administration is attempting to take advantage of this crisis to militarize U.S. society with a vast expansion of police powers that is intended to severely restrict basic democratic rights.

On September 29 we had planned to demonstrate against the Bush administration's reactionary foreign and domestic policy and the IMF and World Bank. In light of the current crisis, with its tragic consequences for so many thousands of people, we have refocused the call for our demonstration to address the immediate danger posed by increased racism and the grave threat of a new war.

Now is the time for all people of conscience, all people who oppose racism and war to come together. If you believe in civil liberties and oppose racism and war, join us on September 29 in front of the White House. We urge all organizations to join together at this critical time.

National March in Washington DC Saturday, September 29 Rally 11 am at the White House

SIGNERS: Ramsey Clark, former U.S. Attorney General Bishop Thomas Gumbleton, Auxiliary Bishop, Catholic Archdiocese of Detroit Samia Halaby, Al-Awda Palestine Right of Return Coalition Barbara Lubin, Executive Director, Middle East Children's Alliance Nania Kaur Dhingra, Sikh Student Organization, George Washington University Chuck Kaufman, National Co-Coordinator, Nicaragua Network Njeri Shakur, Texas Death Penalty Abolition Movement National Lawyers Guild (LIST IN FORMATION)

Tens of thousands will march on the White House on September 29. I want to add my name or organization to the list of endorsing organizations and individuals for this protest, or sign up to help mobilize in my area!

Name: Email: Street Address: City: State/Province: Zip/Postal Code: Country: Home Telephone: Work Telephone: Fax: Occupation: Title/Position as it should appear: Organization/Union:

[check all that apply]

[ ] List me as an endorser!

[ ] My organization/union has officially endorsed.

[ ] I can help with outreach (leafletting, posting, call-ups, drop-offs, mailings).

[ ] I would like someone to speak to my group (explain in comments).

[ ] I can help with fundraising.

[ ] I would like to hear about upcoming activities.

[ ] Other - let me know how I can help! (tell us how you can help in comments below).

Message to September 29th Surround the White House Mobilization: (enter your comments here)

Send replies to iacenter@action-mail.org

--------

UW mall rally draws 20,000

By Aaron Nathans
September 15, 2001
http://www.captimes.com/news/local/5585.php

The massing of students on the UW Library Mall brought to mind the Vietnam War-era protests on campus. But few in this crowd got wild, chanted slogans, or even knew the words to "We Shall Overcome."

There was the sea of red, white and blue, but the gathering didn't have the jingoism of a Persian Gulf War rally.

In a mass moment of release and a sober display of grief, an estimated 20,000 students and others packed the central square of the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus Friday to take part in the national day of remembrance after Tuesday's terrorist attacks on New York and Washington.

The event was full of calls for restraint; despite national polls urging retaliatory strikes, no one made similar suggestions from the podium.

"I've taught on this campus for quite a few years, and I've never seen a gathering like this," said Joe Elder, a UW sociologist who was a member of UW Faculty Against the War during the Vietnam era, addressing the noon-hour crowd. "We can understand why some of us are calling for war. At times like this we must remember that nothing kills innocent civilians like war."

Disrupting Elder's speech were three Christian fundamentalists from Eugene, Ore., sisters who described themselves as from the "Kingdom of God." One shouted: "What happened in New York is nothing compared to what is coming on the day of judgment."

They taunted the puzzled crowd with claims that they were going to hell. Outraged students pulled down their banners, which read "Jesus soon to judge" and "All that matters - you are headed for hell." A man hauled away one of the protesters in a firm bear hug, as the crowd clapped, until campus police got there to arrest the demonstrators. The man disappeared into the crowd.

University Police charged Sarah Woroniecki, 20, Ruth Woroniecki, 19, and their unidentified 16-year-old sister with disorderly conduct, said Capt. Dale Burke. They were booked and released from the Dane County Jail, Burke said.

Elder never stopped talking.

"Perhaps from this tragedy we can develop effective means of discovering the root causes of terrorism," he continued.

Burke said university officers needed Friday's event as much as everyone else to mourn and be part of the community.

"Unfortunately, we were denied that opportunity halfway through the ceremony. I'm sorry that had to happen. But we don't get to take off," Burke said in an interview. He added later: "We need a weekend. We need a weekend of not doing anything, to go home, relax. We need to recover. We've been so busy this week that we haven't had time to decompress."

Interim Provost Gary Sandefur spoke at the vigil for Chancellor John Wiley, who was stranded in California on a fund-raising trip when the airlines shut down. Sandefur urged students to do whatever they needed to do to deal with the tragedy, but to be respectful of others.

Jessica Miller quoted Martin Luther King Jr. saying: "An eye for an eye leaves everyone blind." Miller, chairwoman of Associated Students of Madison, gave an impassioned address, urging that students treat each other fairly despite ethnicity. "I have seen what we can do when we come together," she said.

Soloist Jackie Colbert brought many in the crowd to tears as she sang "Amazing Grace."

After the event, students exchanged hugs and comforted each other.

Katey Salm of Appleton said the World Trade Center tragedy was an event that everyone can relate to.

"It puts a little fear into everyone. I have not stopped watching the news. Yesterday was just the killer. It was just about stories. I think I cried every 10 minutes," Salm said. "Trying to find live people in there is like trying to find needles in a pile of shredded glass that you can't touch."

Students are gathering in small groups all over campus, said Dean of Students Alicia Chavez. Some are starting a relief fund for the victims and their families. Others are volunteering to drive students home to New York.

"People want to do something. They're feeling helpless," Chavez said.


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